“The recovery key isn’t something that would’ve been stored on his hard drive. The IT department keeps a master list of all the recovery keys in a secure file. Or at least that’s how we did it at my old company.”

“Okay, I’ll call tomorrow. Thanks for your help with this.”

“Anytime. And if you need help with anything else, say washing your hair…”

I laughed. “Actually, I do need to wash my hair.” I’d intended to shower after Richard left this morning, but then I’d gotten distracted with the flash drive.

“I can help with that too.”

Chapter 12

I called Jonah’s office the next morning as I drove from Daniel’s house back to my own. It was still so early I wasn’t surprised when no one picked up and my call went directly to a prerecorded message. I followed the phone tree prompts until I reached the voicemail for Jonah’s former assistant. I left her an anodyne message asking her to call me back. Then I waited. And waited. And waited some more. My heart raced every time the phone rang, but it was never Jonah’s assistant. It was a relief to go to my appointment with Dr. Rubenstein that afternoon. It meant I could silence my phone for an hour and not have to think about it.

“How was your vacation?” I asked Dr. Rubenstein as soon as we’d both settled into our usual spots in her office—her on her Eames chair and me on the corner of the green chenille couch. The skin on her chest and arms was tanner than usual and provided an even more striking contrast to her silver hair.

“Very relaxing,” she said. “How are you doing?”

“Good. You missed a lot.”

Then I proceeded to fill her in on meeting Maria, sleeping with Daniel, and giving away Amelia’s furniture. I also told her about Daniel’s suggestion to call Jonah’s office for the recovery key to the flash drive, but she wasn’t interested in that. All she wanted to talk about was Daniel and how giving away Amelia’s furniture made me feel.

I turned my phone on as I walked back to my car and saw I had a voicemail from Jonah’s office. I didn’t even listen to the message. I just hit the call back button and waited until a familiar voice came on the line.

“Hi, Kristie, it’s Grace Hughes.”

“Mrs. Hughes, it was so nice to hear from you again. How are you?”

“Well. And you?”

“Oh, you know me. Just trying to stay out of trouble.”

Kristie did have a knack for saying the wrong thing, to the wrong person, at the wrong time. When I’d called this morning, I wasn’t even sure she’d still be working at the firm. It would not have surprised me to learn she’d been fired.

“Funny you called today,” she continued. “I was just thinking about Jonah.”

“Really? Why?”

“We had a meeting this morning and the partners asked me to start planning this year’s holiday party. I was thinking of going with the movie theme again.”

I remembered the last movie-themed holiday party. Jonah had just joined the firm and felt uncomfortable dressing up as his favorite character—Batman—so we decided he should wear a tuxedo and tell everyone he was James Bond. For the record, Jonah did not look like any of the actors who played 007. I donned a blond wig and a pink suit and went as the lawyer from Legally Blonde. For the record, I don’t look like Reese Witherspoon either.

“And that made you think of Jonah?” I asked.

“Sure. Don’t you remember the belly dancer? I think she was Matt’s date.”

I remembered Matt’s date, even though I’d only met her that one time.

“I still have the video of her giving Jonah a lap dance!” Kristie continued.

I did not have the video, but I didn’t need it. I vividly remembered the lap dance. Or I vividly remembered the huge fight Jonah and I had about it when we’d gotten home that night. Jonah had claimed he was just playing along because he was the new guy. I’d told him his story would be more believable had his tongue not been hanging out of his mouth the entire time.

After a pause Kristie said, “Sorry. I probably shouldn’t have brought it up. But Jonah was never unfaithful, at least that I know about. And I can’t say the same for some of the other guys around here.”

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply then exhaled. “Thanks, Kristie, but that’s not why I called. Can you please give me the contact info for the firm’s IT person?”

“Sure.” I could hear her fingernails tapping on a keyboard. “Why do you want to talk to him? Computer problems? Because I don’t think he freelances.”

“No, I found a flash drive the other day, but I can’t open it because I don’t know the password. I’m hoping he has the recovery key.”

The click-clacking of the keyboard stopped. “You found Jonah’s flash drive?”

“Well, I found a flash drive. I’m not even a hundred percent sure it’s Jonah’s. That’s why I wanted to talk to IT.”

“Is it okay if I put you on hold for a minute?”

The line went silent before I could answer. And the next voice I heard on the phone was not Kristie’s.

Chapter 13

“Grace, Brian Sullivan here.”

I recognized the booming voice of Jonah’s former boss even before he said his name. The last time I’d seen him was at the funeral. I was sure we must’ve spoken that day, but I had no memory of the conversation. “Hi, Brian. How are you?”

“Terrific. Too much time in restaurants though and not enough time on the links. But you gotta keep the clients happy, right? Those tuition bills don’t pay themselves.”

Brian’s job was to keep the clients happy. Jonah’s job had been to reduce their tax burden, or as I called it, legal tax evasion. Jonah insisted he followed all IRS regulations. I knew that was true, but as I used to tell Jonah, just because it’s legal, doesn’t mean it’s right.

“Kristie told me you found Jonah’s flash drive,” Brian continued.

“I told her I found a flash drive. I didn’t realize one was missing.”

“Not missing. We just discovered some irregularities after Jonah passed, that’s all. So we’ve been looking through some of his files.”

I could practically see Brian Sullivan sitting in his corner office, leaning back in his big leather chair with his feet up on his desk, his hands folded across his ample stomach, and his dress shirt straining at the buttons. Jonah often complained about the endless hours he’d had to waste sitting in on calls in Brian’s office when he could’ve been back at his desk getting work done.

“What kind of irregularities?” I asked. As far as I knew, the firm had been happy with Jonah’s work. He’d received a raise and a bonus the month before he died.

“Nothing for you to worry about,” Brian said. “But we do need to see the flash drive. Can you bring it by the office this afternoon? Or if that’s not convenient for you, we can send a messenger to your house to pick it up. Are you still at the same address?”

Alarm bells started going off in my head. Something about this wasn’t right. He was too eager. “Yes, but I’m not home. I’m at work.”

“Do you have the flash drive with you? I can send a messenger to your office right now to pick it up.”

“You don’t need to go to all that trouble. I’ll just bring it by one day next week.”

“No trouble at all, Grace. I insist. What’s your address?”

I didn’t dislike Brian, I just never trusted him. And I trusted him even less now. There was no way I was giving him this flash drive without knowing what was on it. But he wouldn’t take no for an answer, so I told him to send a messenger to my office later in the afternoon. And as soon as we hung up, I drove directly to Best Buy. Luckily, they carried the same brand Jonah used.