“How long have you been doing this?”
Petra’s eyes hardened.
“I did what nobody else was willing to do.”
“You lied about your mother,” I said.
“No, I didn’t.”
“You told Josephine I was confused when she called to confirm the documents.”
Petra’s breath caught.
I turned to Dex.
“Josephine called me after that. She said Petra had tried to schedule a private meeting with her using my name.”
Dex looked horrified.
“You tried to meet with Mom’s lawyer?”
“I wanted information.”
“You wanted control,” Martin said.
Petra stared at him as if he had betrayed her.
Then the front door opened.
Josephine stepped into the entryway, carrying a leather case and shaking snow from her coat. I had asked her to come at seven. She had agreed to wait outside until I called.
Petra stood so quickly her chair struck the wall.
“You invited her here?”
“I invited the person who could answer questions without guessing.”
Josephine entered the dining room. She was a small woman with white hair cut close to her jaw, but she carried herself with the unhurried certainty of someone who had spent forty years watching people reveal themselves under pressure.
“Good evening,” she said.
No one answered.
She placed a second folder beside mine.
“Mrs. Vale, I have the original documents and the digital records you requested.”
Petra looked at the flash drive.
“What digital records?”
“The recordings from your security camera,” Josephine said.
The color drained from Petra’s face.
I had installed the camera after the summer, when I noticed papers moved in my study and a locked drawer left open. It faced the desk and the hallway, not the bedrooms. I had told no one except Josephine.
Josephine connected the drive to her laptop.
