Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Signed for Silence
Detective Kim read the laboratory receipt twice, then sealed it in an evidence sleeve. Dr. Bell sat beside me, twisting the strap of her purse.
"This isn't proof Ms. Haynes falsified anything," Kim said. "It proves she took delivery. That matters. We need the underlying records."
"Then get them," I said.
"We're working on it. Right now I need you to stop making private arrangements with the people involved."
I hadn't noticed Ethan standing in the hallway until he spoke. "That includes me, doesn't it?"
"Especially you," I answered.
He looked hurt. Good. A little hurt wasn't going to break him. Years of unanswered questions had nearly broken me.
Ethan showed Kim a letter from Victoria's attorney claiming I'd invented the piano incident to extort his family. He had refused to sign a supporting statement. Instead, he'd provided his own account and the original security system logs.
"I'm ending the engagement," he told me afterward, in the parking lot. "Arthur's threatening the company."
"You should've ended it when she hurt Lily. Not when her father threatened your shares."
"I did. He found out this morning."
I believed that much. I wasn't ready to believe the rest.
At home, Lily sat on the rug and lined up her toy animals. She kept placing the rabbit behind the others.
"Why is Bunny hiding?" I asked.
"The shiny lady can't see him there."
I sat beside her and promised she would not have to see Victoria again. Promises to children should be things you can keep.
That evening, Kim called. The police had obtained archived visitor records from the university building. The day Malcolm died, someone used a Caldwell security badge to enter the lab after hours.
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The badge was issued to Owen Pike.
But the camera still that accompanied the record showed a woman wearing it.
