“Too busy to get together tonight or any other night this week?”
I sighed. “Daniel, this has nothing to do with you.”
“Right. It’s not you, it’s me. I think I’ve used that line myself before, so I guess I deserve this.”
“It’s not what you think.”
“I think I had a great time with you this weekend. I thought you had a great time with me too. But I guess I was wrong.”
“No, I did have a great time.” I hadn’t realized how much I missed sex until I started having it again.
“Then what’s the problem, Grace?”
“Nothing. I just can’t deal with this right now.”
“Okay, let me know when you can deal with this,” he said before he hung up on me.
Goddamnit!
I buzzed Daniel’s apartment from the call box outside the entrance to his building.
When his voice came through the intercom I said, “It’s me and I brought chicken. I don’t think it’s Peruvian, but it smells good.”
“Did you bring wine?” he asked.
“No, but I can go out and get some if you tell me what you want.”
“I’ll open a bottle,” he said and buzzed me in.
He was waiting for me at the entrance to his apartment wearing sweatpants and a Cal Berkley T-shirt with a hole in it. “Sorry about the attire. I wasn’t expecting company.”
“No problem.” I’d changed into yoga pants and a T-shirt when I’d gotten home from work, and I hadn’t bothered to change back into something nicer before I came over. I figured after we ate dinner, we’d be getting naked so it didn’t really matter what I wore.
Daniel took the white plastic bag from my hand and gave me a peck on the lips. “Thanks for coming tonight.”
“I didn’t want you to think I was blowing you off because I wasn’t. I’m just really mad at my husband right now.”
Daniel froze.
“It’s okay. I brought him up, so you’re allowed to talk about him.”
“Um, okay,” he said cautiously then locked the front door.
“Mad’s not the right word,” I said, setting my purse down on the breakfast bar. “Frustrated is more accurate, and maybe a little angry too.”
“Angry?”
I pulled the flash drive out of the zippered compartment of my purse and held it out to him. “You don’t happen to know how to hack into one of these, do you?”
Unfortunately, Daniel did not know how to hack into a flash drive. But he did spend some time after dinner trying to unlock it on his computer.
“And you have no idea what’s on it?” he asked again, clicking various boxes and dropdown menus.
“None. I can’t even say for certain it was my husband’s.” That was the latest theory I’d come up with while I was waiting in line at the chicken place. Maybe the flash drive actually belonged to Jake, not Jonah, and he’d hidden it in our house. Or Jonah hid it for him. That made more sense and would also explain why Jonah gave him a key. But wouldn’t he have told Jake where he’d hidden it? And it still didn’t explain the life insurance policy.
Daniel stopped clicking and turned to face me. “If it’s not your husband’s and it’s not yours, then whose is it?”
“I have no idea.” There was no way I was telling Daniel my latest theory. He probably already thought I was borderline psycho from my behavior this weekend. I didn’t want him to think I was completely insane. Plus, I had no proof it was Jake’s flash drive. I wouldn’t know whose it was until I could unlock it.
“Well, who else has access to your house?”
“My mom and my aunt,” I said, “but it’s not theirs either.”
“So if it’s not theirs, and it’s not yours, then that just leaves your husband, right?”
“Right,” I said and looked away.
Daniel turned his attention back to his computer. “Did your husband ever work from home?”
“Sometimes,” I said. “Why?”
“Maybe this is a work flash drive. It would explain the password. Didn’t you say he was a money manager?”
“Accountant. But he worked for a money management firm.”
“I’m sure his firm would require all financial files be password protected.”
That was a good point. I was imagining something nefarious when there could be an innocent explanation. Except… “Why hide it in our daughter’s bedroom?”
