“I’d rather not say.”
“Well, I’d rather you did say.”
Brian stared at me a moment, probably trying to come up with some believable lie. Apparently, he couldn’t think of one, so he said, “We’re still looking for the flash drive.”
“I told you, I already looked for it and it’s not here.”
“I know, but I promised the client I’d check myself.”
“Which client?” I asked, half hoping and half dreading this client would have a Russian-sounding name.
“I really can’t say. It’s confidential. You’re a lawyer. You understand.”
“I wasn’t aware California had an accountant-client privilege.” I didn’t know that for a fact, but I wasn’t about to google it in front of Brian.
“This particular client requires confidentiality. Please, Grace, I’m asking you as a personal favor. I promise I won’t take long.”
I didn’t trust Brian, or even like him, but I did feel sorry for him. I’d never seen him look so stressed. He wasn’t a young man, and he was out of shape. Since I didn’t want to be responsible for him having a heart attack in my hallway, I led him upstairs to our home office. I pointed to Jonah’s desk, but Brian likely could’ve guessed since his was empty except for a blank computer screen and mine was stacked with manila file folders and yellow legal pads.
Brian sat down in Jonah’s chair. “Would you mind if I look through it?”
I shrugged and he took that as assent. He probably would’ve preferred I left him alone, but I leaned against the doorframe and watched as he opened and closed each of Jonah’s desk drawers. When that yielded nothing, he glanced around the room. “What’s in the closet?” he asked.
“Boxes,” I replied, and Brian’s eyebrows raised. “They’ve been there since we moved in. I doubt you’ll find anything useful in them but you’re welcome to look.”
Brian opened the accordion doors and pulled out three boxes Jonah and I had never bothered to unpack. The top one was filled with old tax returns and financial documents. I made a mental note to go through them after Brian left. Maybe some of those documents were old enough to be shredded. The second box was filled with books we didn’t have room for on the bookshelves downstairs. I knew it was silly to keep saving them since I’d never read them again, but I loved paper books and could never throw them away. I’d go through them later and donate some to the library. The third box was filled with random junk—manuals for appliances we no longer owned, an old landline telephone, a coffee mug I thought had disappeared in the move. I grabbed the mug and set it on my desk.
Brian sifted through the contents of the third box until he triumphantly pulled out an old silver flash drive. I knew it was old because it was physically larger than the flash drives they sell now. Either Brian didn’t notice, or he didn’t care. He looked relieved and smiled for the first time since he’d arrived.
“Do you want to check it?” I asked. “You can use my computer.”
“No, I’ve taken up enough of your time,” he said, slipping the flash drive into his pants pockets. “I’ll make sure you get this back after IT downloads the files.”
If Jonah was hiding something else, an old flash drive in a moving box I never would’ve thought to look in would’ve been a good place to stash it. But it was too late now. I wasn’t going to wrestle Brian to get it back.
As we exited the office, Brian glanced at the closed door at the end of the hall. “What’s in there?” he asked.
“My daughter’s room.”
Brian nodded and stared down, refusing to meet my eye.
The next morning I took Aunt Maddy out for brunch at her favorite beach café. I wanted to apologize to her for my behavior of late and I also wanted to hear what she thought of Maria. She only wanted to know why I spent the night at Jake’s apartment. She thought my story was better than hers, and so did I.
“I still can’t believe he drugged me,” I said, dipping a bite of French toast into the pool of syrup on my plate.
“What choice did he have?” she replied, cutting off a chunk of omelet with her fork.
“What choice did he have?” I said, my voice rising. “How about not drugging me?”
Aunt Maddy glanced at the couple at the table next to ours, who were openly staring at us. We all smiled at each other and looked away.
“I can’t believe you’re defending him,” I hissed.
“I’m not defending him,” she said, her voice low too. “All I’m saying is you got him drunk and pumped him for information and he basically did the same thing to you.”
“The part you seem to be missing here is the lack of consent. He drank voluntarily. I was drugged involuntarily. That’s what makes it a crime.”
She rolled her eyes. “What are you going to do? Have him arrested?”
“Of course not. I just have to assume he now knows everything I know and act accordingly.”
“Meaning?”
“He wants me to give him the flash drive.”
She swallowed a sip of her coffee. “And are you going to?”
“No. The flash drive is my leverage. It’s the only way I’ll ever find out the truth.”
Chapter 37
The marine layer burned off while we were eating breakfast, so by the time we left the restaurant it was sunny and warm outside. Aunt Maddy suggested we take advantage of the beautiful weather and go for a stroll along the beach. We hadn’t walked far when we spotted the police vehicle on the sand and the crowd gathered behind it. We joined the spectators, thinking perhaps it was a shark attack. They were infrequent, but occasionally a surfer got bit.
It wasn’t a shark attack. The gossip spreading through the crowd was that a local man had drowned after falling off his boat. A TV reporter doing a live spot told the camera the police had identified the man, but they weren’t releasing his name because his family hadn’t been notified yet. I said a silent prayer for his loved ones who didn’t yet know that this beautiful Sunday morning was about to become the worst day of their lives.
I was getting ready for bed that night when Aunt Maddy called. “Are you watching the news?” she asked.
I spit my toothpaste into the sink and shut the faucet. “No, I was brushing my teeth. Why?”
