“Does Daniel have your old code?”
Her breathing stopped for a second.
“Why are you asking me about Daniel?”
“Because someone used a household code at 3:41.”
Claire whispered something I couldn’t hear.
Then she said, “Change the subject.”
“What?”
“Not on the phone.”
The call ended.
I stared at the screen.
Detective Ellis had heard enough to notice my expression.
“Problem?”
“She told me not to talk about Daniel on the phone.”
Ellis’s face changed.
She immediately asked the officers to check whether there was any indication that someone had been monitoring the house or its communications.
I wanted to start making calls of my own.
Years of training had taught me exactly what to do when information didn’t fit together. Build the timeline. Identify the access points. Separate what was known from what was assumed.
Most importantly, don’t act on anger.
So I stayed.
For the next hour, Detective Ellis reconstructed the afternoon minute by minute.
