Chapter 5 - VANESSA MOVED IN ON DAY FOUR
Vanessa waited four days.
Four.
My disappearance was still national gossip when security cameras recorded her carrying two suitcases into my house.
Carter kissed her in the foyer.
The same foyer where our wedding portrait still hung.
I watched from a safe apartment owned by the trust.
It should have destroyed me.
Instead, I felt strangely calm.
Maybe some heartbreak is too large to feel all at once.
Brenda arrived that evening carrying champagne.
“What are they celebrating?” I asked.
Henderson didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.
The microphones did.
Brenda poured three glasses.
“To new beginnings.”
Vanessa laughed.
“Not too loud. The grieving husband still has appearances.”
Carter said:
“I’ve done enough grieving.”
Four days.
Seven years of marriage reduced to four days.
Then Vanessa asked:
“What about Chloe’s people?”
Carter scoffed.
“Henderson is an employee.”
I glanced at Henderson.
He raised one eyebrow.
Vanessa continued.
“And that old lawyer?”
“Miriam can be bought or replaced.”
Miriam, sitting beside me, actually smiled.
“Can I have that clip?”
“For Christmas,” I said.
Then Brenda asked the question that silenced all of us.
“What if they find her?”
Carter drank.
“They won’t.”
“You’re sure?”
“I left her barely breathing.”
Vanessa sounded irritated.
“You said you checked.”
“I did.”
“And the poison?”
“Gone from her system by now.”
I looked at Dr. Oliver.
He had joined us to review the medical evidence.
“That part isn’t reliable,” he said quietly.
Carter continued:
“By the time anybody finds a body, there’ll be nothing useful.”
There.
A partial confession.
Not enough alone.
Powerful with everything else.
Then Brenda said:
“You should have chosen somewhere easier to reach.”
My eyes went cold.
Carter answered:
“You’re the one who said the forest.”
Silence filled our apartment.
Henderson slowly turned toward me.
Brenda hadn’t merely cleaned the kitchen afterward.
She had helped choose the location.
Vanessa raised her champagne.
“To Chloe finally being useful.”
Carter clinked his glass against hers.
My fingers tightened.
Miriam touched my wrist.
“Five minutes.”
I looked at her.
“Your father’s rule.”
Right.
Anger for five minutes.
Documentation forever.
So I breathed.
Watched.
Saved the recording.
And waited.
Two days later, police found something in Carter’s trunk.
Not because we planted it.
Because Carter had forgotten it was there.
A receipt.
From a specialty botanical supplier.
Purchased eleven days before the housewarming.
Under Vanessa’s corporate account.
Investigators now had a trail leading toward the poison.
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But Carter still believed police were looking for a missing wife.
He had no idea the missing wife was watching him build her case.
