Page 59 of The Secrets We Hide
Emmy hadn’t considered the purpose behind the photo. “Did she think the FBI was going to turn on her?”
“Samuel knows that Reggie’s uncle is a US senator. Victor Wilder sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. They oversee the DOJ, which oversees the FBI, which means they set budgets, which means the FBI doesn’t want to rock the boat.”
“Jesus,” Emmy mumbled. “That’s way above my paygrade.”
“Let me worry about that,” Jude said. “Don’t let it shift your focus. Think about the crime scene. What did it tell you?”
“Nothing that made sense,” Emmy admitted. “The easy explanation is that Allison was an abused woman trying to leave her husband. She had an ex-lover with a bad temper. Either of those facts points to domestic violence ending in homicide.”
“But?”
“The house was immaculate. There wasn’t a struggle. So maybe it wasn’t a DV.”
“Run it down.”
Emmy had to swallow first, becauserun it downwas classic Gerald. “Allison was standing in the foyer. A stranger entered by the back door and shot off her thumb and forefinger, which probably means she was reaching for the gun. The killer chased her into the kitchen and shot her in the chest, which points to an execution. He didn’t bring his own murder weapon. But he brought gloves.”
“And?”
“And he was searching for something on Allison’s body or in paperwork on the table, so why not tie her up, beat it out of her? Take Mandy hostage until Allison gives him whatever it is he’s looking for.”
“The three hundred grand in the attic?”
“It didn’t feel like he was looking for money. Whatever he was searching for was on Allison or on the dining-room table. A folded piece of paper, a photograph, something small. He left the laptop on the floor, so maybe we could rule out anything stored digitally. Or maybe not. Could be there was a thumb drive.”
“Did Sherry locate Allison’s camera?”
Emmy shook her head, but more at herself than to answer the question. She hadn’t put it together that Allison would need a nice camera with a telephoto lens to do her PI work. “So, the killer was looking for a memory card and just took the camera?”
“That’s one theory.” Jude didn’t sound persuaded. “Why did the killer shoot Mandy?”
“Maybe she saw his face?” Emmy guessed. “But the big question is, why did he stick around? You, Cole, and I were all still two streets over in the cruiser when we heard the first three gunshots. I was in front of the house reaching for my shotgun when we heard the fourth shot. You ran around the side of the house. I posted at the front. All that time, he could’ve just run out the back door. Why didn’t he?”
“You’re right,” Jude said. “Tap the weak spots.”
Another phrase from their father. Emmy had to swallow again before she could respond.
“Shooting you was reckless. With me right downstairs? And no idea which staircase I’d come up? Or whether there were other cops with me? That’s not a professional killer. Plus, he missed Allison twice before he actually managed to shoot her in the chest. That means he was panicked. Maybe feeling shaky. And the medical director at the trauma center told me Mandy’s head wound is shallow, which isn’t exactly a kill shot. Another few inches and he would’ve missed. And he only managed to graze you.”
“What did you hear when I was shot upstairs in the hallway?” She shook her head and shrugged, because every second had felt like the world was collapsing around her. Emmy usually felt an eerie sense of calm when she was in dangerous situations.
The sound of a gun firing had electrified her with panic.
She told Jude, “I was focused on identifying the perpetrator.”
“Okay.”
Emmy struggled against another unwelcome swell of emotion. Theokaywas all Gerald, too. Sometimes he’d said it in agreement, sometimes he’d said it to acknowledge that words had been spoken and they’d been heard. By the time of her father’s death, Emmy had mastered hisokays, but Jude’sokays were an entirely new language.
Okay—if that’s the lie you want to tell yourself.
Okay—I know there’s more to the story.
She looked at her sister again, but there was no deciphering her meaning. Jude had gone silent. The fine lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth stood out in the low light from the dashboard. She looked less like the teenage girl standing with her brothers at the river basin and more like Myrna. Emmy felt that weird shaking inside of her chest again. It was like sitting beside her mother and listening to her father.
She had to clear her throat before she continued. “A witness was told by Allison that Mandy had bruises on her back like she’d been beaten.”
“Bill?”
