Chapter 11 - A Photograph from Across the Street
Daniel took the threatening photograph straight to Officer Malloy. She studied the angle, the time on the phone, and the grocery-store entrance. "Don't try to chase whoever sent it," she said. "Change the family's routines for now. I'll request the store's exterior footage."
He hated that the instructions made sense.
That afternoon, Cal found a second password-reset request in the company's archive. It had been sent from a device used at Bellweather House, using a recovery address Harper had added months earlier for bookkeeping. She'd told Daniel it was just a backup.
"She opened a door," Cal said. "Someone else might have walked through it."
Nina asked the bank to place a fraud alert on the disputed guarantee. The lender agreed not to enforce the pledge while its review continued. It wasn't an acquittal, and it wasn't money back, but Daniel felt himself breathe for the first time since the wedding.
Harper called from a blocked number that evening. "I didn't send the picture," she said quickly. "Silas told me he was going to make you listen. I told him to leave Lucía alone."
"You told my child I could get sick if she spoke."
Silence.
"I did," Harper said. "I wish I could take that back."
"You can't."
"I know. But the man who signed as Cal wasn't Cal. I saw him borrow a work shirt. There are cameras in the service hallway. Silas said they'd be erased."
Daniel looked at Nina, who was listening on speaker with Harper's permission. "Then tell the investigator."
"I will. But first, ask Cal where he kept the spare company uniforms."
At the shop, Daniel opened the employee closet. One hanger sat empty, and beneath it was a cardboard box whose packing tape had been cut.
May you like
Inside lay a visitor badge with the photograph peeled away.
Someone had been inside the shop long before the wedding.
