Chapter 5 - The Guard Who Came Back
Malcolm did not confront Andre in front of Isaiah. He arranged to meet him at Dana's office, where the security chief could respond to the note without a scene.
Andre read Simone's handwriting and sat back.
"She knew," he said.
"Knew what?" Malcolm asked.
"That I was working for her."
Malcolm stared. "You were assigned to me."
"I was. She asked me to look into the housing fund quietly. She thought someone was using your name."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Andre's jaw tightened. "I did. Two days after the crash. You told me not to bring you theories while you were burying your wife."
Malcolm remembered shouting at Andre in the driveway. He had been furious with the world and had aimed it at the one person asking questions.
"I was wrong," he said.
"You were grieving. I still should have followed up."
Andre explained that Simone had given him a duplicate key to a storage unit. He had kept it, believing the unit had been emptied after her death. Recently he discovered someone was still paying for it.
"Who?" Dana asked.
"A company connected to Julian."
Malcolm looked at the key from the tree skirt. It matched the style Andre described.
"Then we go through the proper channels," Dana said. "No private break-ins."
The storage company confirmed the unit was registered to Simone, with disputed access records. Investigators obtained authorization to examine it. Malcolm waited outside while they worked.
Inside were boxes of canceled checks, copies of grant applications, and a child's red mitten. The mitten had belonged to Isaiah when he was four. Simone had tucked it into a folder marked FOR MALCOLM, perhaps as a reminder of whom the housing fund was supposed to serve.
There was also a sealed envelope addressed to Renee.
Renee opened it in Dana's presence. Simone had written about the threats she received after questioning the accounts. She believed Julian had introduced Celeste to the nonprofit board long before Malcolm met her at the fundraiser.
"They knew each other?" Malcolm asked.
"According to Simone, yes," Dana said. "We still need corroboration."
Renee read another paragraph and began to cry.
"What?" Malcolm asked.
"She says she was planning to leave the company. She was afraid the investigation would put Isaiah at risk."
Malcolm had spent four years telling himself Simone died because she took an unnecessary drive in bad weather. Now he wondered whether she had been trying to reach someone who could help.
That afternoon, Celeste gave a television interview from the mansion. She claimed Malcolm was unstable with grief and that Isaiah's injury was being used to force her out of the marriage.
"I have loved that boy as my own," she said, wiping a dry cheek.
Isaiah saw the interview on Renee's tablet before she could turn it off.
"She says I lied," he whispered.
Renee switched off the screen. "Adults can say things on television that aren't true. You told the doctor what happened."
"Will Daddy believe her?"
"Ask him."
Malcolm came over that evening with a bag of oranges and sat beside his son.
"I saw the news," Isaiah said.
"I did too."
"She says I'm bad."
"You're not bad."
"Then why is she saying it?"
Malcolm thought carefully. "She wants people to believe her version. But we're going to stick with what happened and let the people investigating do their jobs."
Isaiah held his father's hand. "Okay."
After the boy fell asleep, Dana called. A review of Simone's old phone records showed that her final call had not been to Julian or Celeste.
It had been to Malcolm's mother, Loretta Brooks.
Loretta had died the following year. Her old home was now Renee's.
"Mom never said Simone called," Malcolm whispered.
May you like
Renee looked toward the attic stairs.
"Maybe she left us something else."
