Chapter 16 - The Password Only He Knew
I stared at Daniel until the room felt too small.
"Tell me that's fake."
"It is."
Alvarez held up a hand. "The account is his. The access came from his laptop three nights ago."
I looked at Daniel.
Three nights ago he had told me he was working late downstairs.
"Where was your laptop?"
"Home."
"Were you using it?"
He hesitated.
I felt something inside me crack.
"Daniel."
"I fell asleep on the couch around midnight. When I woke up, the laptop was closed."
Evelyn shook her head. "Who had access to the house?"
Daniel looked at me.
We both knew.
Patricia.
She had come over that night with soup because I had complained about back pain.
She stayed an hour after I went upstairs.
Alvarez checked the device logs.
A fingerprint override had been used.
Daniel's fingerprint.
"That doesn't make sense," he said.
Then I remembered something.
Christmas.
Patricia had given Daniel a leather desk set with a small biometric lock. She spent ten minutes making him test the scanner again and again because it "wasn't reading correctly."
Evelyn looked at me. "She lifted his print."
Maybe.
Or maybe we were all becoming people who could believe anything.
Patricia agreed to a recorded interview that afternoon.
She sat behind glass, pale and furious.
"Richard made me help with the waiver," she admitted. "But I never touched Claire's first pregnancy."
Daniel slammed his palm against the table. "Then why did you take the vitamins?"
"Because I found a capsule open in the sink. I panicked. I threw them away."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
Her eyes filled. "Because Richard said if there was poison, the police would think I put it there."
Alvarez leaned forward. "Did you?"
"No."
She looked straight at me through the glass.
"Claire, the person who wanted that first baby gone wasn't me."
My skin went cold.
"Who was it?"
May you like
Patricia whispered one name.
"Evelyn."
