Chapter 7 - THE CABIN AT LAKE MARROWPolice reached the cabin before sunset.
Everyone told me it was a terrible idea.
That made me want to go more.
The police had cleared the townhouse after collecting the urn and card.
The card contained no fingerprints.
Inside, someone had written:
Debts are always collected.
Detective Monroe called it intimidation.
I called it a promise.
By the following morning, anger had replaced fear.
“I need my things.”
Marcus shook his head.
“Send us a list.”
“I need to see the house.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m done letting men decide where I can go.”
Marcus looked toward Luca.
That irritated me.
“Don’t look at him. I’m asking you.”
Marcus’s mouth twitched.
“Fair.”
Luca entered from the adjoining office.
“What did I do?”
“Apparently you’re about to tell me I can’t visit my own house.”
“Yes.”
“Then you’re about to waste your breath.”
He studied me.
I waited.
Finally he sighed.
“Police escort.”
“Fine.”
“Security outside.”
“Fine.”
“Twenty minutes.”
“Forty-five.”
“Thirty.”
“Deal.”
Marcus stared between us.
“That negotiation happened disturbingly fast.”
My house looked smaller when I returned.
The front doorway had been temporarily boarded.
Police tape still clung to part of the frame.
Neighbors watched through curtains.
I had once cared desperately what they thought.
Now I couldn’t imagine why.
Detective Monroe met us there.
“You have half an hour.”
“Luca said thirty minutes too.”
She glanced at him.
“I dislike agreeing with him.”
“The feeling is mutual,” he replied.
Inside, the destruction remained.
Broken wood.
Blood stain.
A shattered bottle.
The bathroom door splintered near the lock.
I stopped.
My body remembered before my mind did.
My heart raced.
My left arm throbbed under the brace.
Luca remained behind me.
He didn’t touch me.
“Want to leave?”
“No.”
I walked upstairs.
The suitcase Evan had discovered sat open on the bedroom floor.
My clothes had been dumped out.
I knelt carefully.
A blue sweater.
Jeans.
A framed photo of Natalie and me.
I began putting things back.
Then I noticed the smoke detector.
Something was wrong with it.
It hung slightly crooked.
“Detective?”
Monroe entered.
I pointed.
“That’s new.”
“The detector?”
“Evan replaced all of them last year.”
She moved closer.
“Don’t touch it.”
Crime-scene technicians arrived twenty minutes later.
Inside the smoke detector was a camera.
I stared at the tiny lens.
Then another was discovered in the bedroom vent.
Another in my home office.
Another facing the staircase.
Another in the kitchen.
Five cameras.
All hidden.
All wireless.
“How long?” I asked.
The technician examined one.
“Can’t know until we inspect the storage or network.”
I felt physically sick.
“He watched me.”
Monroe’s face was grim.
“Possibly.”
“Why?”
No one answered.
Then the technician called from Evan’s office.
“You’re going to want to see this.”
A small server sat hidden behind a false panel inside a built-in cabinet.
Several drives.
Network equipment.
And labeled folders.
KITCHEN
BEDROOM
STAIRS
CLAIRE OFFICE
Monroe immediately cleared us out.
Back in the hallway, I shook so badly Luca finally put a hand near my shoulder.
“May I?”
I nodded.
He rested it lightly against me.
“He recorded everything.”
“We don’t know what’s on those drives.”
“I changed clothes in that bedroom.”
His face went hard.
“I know.”
“He watched me sleep.”
“I know.”
“I talked to Natalie. I researched apartments.”
That caught everyone’s attention.
I looked at Monroe.
“He knew.”
“What?”
“He knew I was leaving before he found the application.”
She frowned.
“If he had remote access to those cameras, yes.”
“So last night wasn’t spontaneous.”
“That still doesn’t prove premeditation.”
“But he knew.”
“Yes.”
My thoughts raced.
If Evan knew I was leaving…
Why wait?
Why pretend?
Why let me pack?
Then I remembered something.
“August twenty-eighth.”
Monroe looked at me.
“What?”
“That’s tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
“Evan planned a trip.”
“Where?”
“He told me he booked a cabin in the Catskills for our anniversary.”
Luca’s hand dropped from my shoulder.
“When?”
“We were supposed to leave tomorrow morning.”
Monroe was already writing.
“Location?”
“I never saw the reservation. He said it was a surprise.”
“Did he insist you go?”
“Yes.”
“How strongly?”
“He got furious when I said I couldn’t take Friday off.”
My skin prickled.
“He told me he had already arranged everything.”
Monroe stepped aside and made a call.
Luca’s face had become dangerously blank.
“What are you thinking?”
“That a remote cabin four days before a multimillion-dollar debt deadline deserves attention.”
Monroe returned.
“We’re checking financial records for a reservation.”
My phone rang.
This time the number was familiar.
Evan.
My heart stopped.
“He’s prohibited from calling you,” Monroe said.
It kept ringing.
She activated a recording app on her device.
“Answer if you feel comfortable. Speaker.”
I looked at Luca.
He didn’t tell me what to do.
So I answered.
“Hello?”
Evan breathed on the other end.
Then laughed softly.
“Having fun?”
My skin crawled.
“You’re violating the order.”
“So are your gangster friends still sleeping outside your door?”
Monroe motioned for me to keep him talking.
“What do you want?”
“My wife.”
“I’m not your wife anymore.”
“You think a broken arm changes six years?”
“No.”
I looked at the ruined bathroom door.
“You changed six years.”
Silence.
Then his voice softened.
The voice that used to make me forgive him.
“Claire, I was drunk.”
“You knew I was leaving.”
“What?”
“The cameras.”
Silence again.
That was enough.
“Oh, Evan.”
He recovered.
“I put cameras in because you were acting unstable.”
“In our bedroom?”
“For security.”
“You watched me.”
“I protected my house.”
“Did you watch me pack?”
No answer.
“Did you hear me tell Natalie I was leaving?”
His breathing changed.
Detective Monroe wrote something.
Then Evan said, “You shouldn’t have involved DeLuca.”
“Why?”
“Because now people think you’re important.”
My blood ran cold.
“What does that mean?”
“You should have come to the cabin.”
The room went still.
My mouth dried.
“What cabin?”
“You know.”
“No. I don’t.”
He laughed.
“You would’ve liked it.”
“Where is it?”
“Beautiful lake.”
Luca’s eyes sharpened.
Evan continued.
“No neighbors.”
Detective Monroe stepped closer.
“Just trees.”
A pause.
“And very deep water.”
My entire body chilled.
He disconnected.
For several seconds no one spoke.
Then Monroe said, “We have enough to pick him up for violating the order.”
Luca looked at her.
“Find the cabin.”
“We will.”
Marcus appeared at the top of the stairs.
His face told me something else had happened.
“What?”
“We traced a reservation made through one of Mercer’s private cards.”
Monroe stepped toward him.
“Where?”
“Lake Marrow, Catskills.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow through Monday.”
My pulse hammered.
“Anything unusual?”
Marcus looked at me.
May you like
“Yes.”
“The reservation included a boat.”
