Chris adjusted his glasses, eyes on the tabletop. “Emma, I’m afraid you’re going to be arrested,” he said.
She’d expected it, and still she felt as if she’d been struck. Her balance faltered. She gripped the back of a chair for stability. She stepped around the side of the chair and sank into it. “Why? What—what do they have?”
“I don’t know the extent of the evidence they’ve collected,” Chris said. “I will, of course, find out as much as I can as quickly as I can so that we can resolve this, but I need you to stay calm. This isn’t the end of the world, and it isn’t a conviction. There’s still a long way to go, and while this isn’t going to be pleasant, you’re safe, you’re alive, and we’re going to get through this.”
“There must be something. Some reason they think…” Was it the affair? The emails to Addison?
“Emma. The forensics revealed that the gun that killed your husband was the same weapon used to kill your parents,” Chris said.
And so they thought that because Emma had killed her parents, she must have killed Nathan, too. The truth burned like a coal in her chest, but she stayed silent. It wouldn’t help, sacrificing JJ to save herself.
“Emma, remember, don’t panic. We have time, we have resources, and we have the truth on our side. None of them are a guarantee, but right now the important thing is to stay positive and stay calm,” Chris said. He’d given her that exact speech fourteen years ago, she reflected. Had it worked back then? Right now all she could feel was the terror coursing through her.
“Are they coming here?” she asked.
“No. I arranged to have you surrender voluntarily tomorrow morning,” Chris said. “You’re expected at six A.M.; I’ll collect you and drive you. Hopefully, we can get you in front of a judge and get bail set so you don’t have to spend the night in jail.”
“How the hell am I going to get the money for bail? Will they even let me out on bail at all?” Emma asked, words coming fast and frantic.
“I don’t want you to worry about that,” Chris said. “It’s my job to convince the judge, not yours. And don’t sweat the money. If the judge sets bail, I’ll make sure it gets paid.”
“That’s very generous,” Emma said, a bit stiffly. Chris gave her a curious look. She wetted her lips. “Why have you always been so helpful?”
Chris’s brow creased. “Emma, you know I’ve always been fond of your family. Of you. Do you have to ask, after all these years?”
“Yes. I do,” Emma said hoarsely. “You sent threatening letters to Kenneth Mahoney.”
He sat back in his chair. “Kenneth Mahoney? That was years ago.”
“Did you know what my father was doing?” Emma demanded. He was silent. She looked away, blinking sudden tears from her eyes. “You knew. And you didn’t say anything.”
“I knew that your father was up to something. Not when I wrote the letters to Kenneth Mahoney,” Chris said. “That was doing a favor for a friend who said that an angry employee was slandering him. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have agreed to do it. I didn’t know there was anything else going on until later.”
“There were robberies. A series of truck robberies, and someone died,” Emma said. She wasn’t sure she was making sense. She wasn’t sure anything would make sense ever again. “It was Dad. I don’t know if he was part of the actual thefts, but he moved the goods.”
“I remember those robberies,” Chris said. He sat back in his chair, rubbing his chin. “Ellis was part of the task force. There was speculation at the time that there might have been someone feeding the thieves information from the investigation.”
“Kenneth went to Ellis about it. Ellis blew him off.” Emma’s mind churned through the possibilities. If Ellis was the source, if Ellis was involved …
“No one took Kenneth seriously,” Chris said. “And I don’t see what any of this has to do with your husband’s death.”
“Kenneth Mahoney found out what they were doing, and then he disappeared. No one questioned it because it wasn’t the first time he’d taken off, but he always came back.”
“Okay,” Chris said slowly, his tone cautious.
Emma plowed on. “When my mom came to you, she said she had evidence on a flash drive, right? Well, I found it fourteen years ago—but I lost it. I think Nathan found it. I think that’s why he’s dead. He called Ellis that night. He told him he’d found something. What if Ellis was involved? What if—”
Chris held up a hand. “Emma. Slow down. You don’t have this flash drive now, do you?”
“No.”
“And the last time you saw it was fourteen years ago.”
She hesitated, then nodded stiffly. No need to bring Daphne into this—not yet. He folded his hands on the desk, looking down at them.
“This is all wild conjecture,” Chris said. “I can talk to Mehta, and I can look into things on my end. Maybe there’s something to all of this. But there is no benefit to rushing here. Nothing is going to happen in time to stop you from being arrested. Given that, it is far better to do things carefully and be sure of what we have.”
“You’re not the one who’s about to be arrested for her husband’s murder,” Emma snapped. She stood, pulse thudding in her temple and skin flushed. She started to leave.
“Tomorrow morning,” Chris said in a firm, warning tone.
“I’ll be waiting,” Emma pledged, venom in her voice.
“It’s going to be okay, Emma,” Chris said.
“You can’t promise that,” she told him, and left the room without saying goodbye. Outside, JJ sat in a chair in the hallway, chewing her thumbnail. She jerked as the door opened and surged to her feet, all pointless motion.
“What’s going on?” JJ asked. “What did he say?”
“Let’s get home,” Emma said wearily. “I’ll tell you on the way.”
48
EMMA
Now
They left downtown, slithering onto the sun-dappled lanes that separated the busy heart of Arden Hills from its outskirts. Emma had never felt at home here when she was young, but now, driving these roads, it felt like this was where she belonged. It was not a comforting realization.
“We’ll tell them it was me,” JJ said.
Emma made a noncommittal noise. She was still thinking about the gun—about how it had ended up in JJ’s hands. About what it was Daphne had seen, and what she hadn’t, and all the things that looked like facts but were just assumptions. Juliette had the gun. It didn’t mean she’d fired it.
Kenneth Mahoney went to Ellis, and then went missing.
Ellis was on the task force investigating the robberies, and no one ever got caught.
Red and blue light swept over the dashboard, followed by the short whoop of a police car.
“What the fuck?” JJ asked, looking into the rearview. Emma twisted to look behind them. Her heart sank at the sight of the Arden Hills PD SUV. JJ put on her blinker, started to slow down.
“Don’t stop,” Emma told her, suddenly frantic. She grabbed JJ’s shoulder. “Keep going.”
JJ gave her a surprised look. “What? I can’t just keep going,” she said. Quietly, she added, “Emma, come on. If I run away from a cop, what’s that going to look like?”
JJ was slowing. Was stopping at the side of the road.
“It’s okay,” JJ said, giving Emma what was probably supposed to be a reassuring look. Emma sat back hard against her seat, pressing her body into the leather as if she could sink entirely within it. Emma wrapped both hands around the seat belt strap, focusing on the sensation of it biting into her palms.
The SUV pulled in behind them. The door popped open. Rick Hadley stepped out, moving with the unhurried gait of someone who wants you to know they don’t mind keeping you waiting.
Emma’s stomach clenched. JJ rolled down the window as Hadley approached. He leaned over, looking in at them one by one. His sunglasses turned his eyes to voids.
“Juliette. Emma,” he said.
“Why did you pull us over?” JJ asked.
“There’s a warrant out for your sister’s arrest.” He spoke to JJ but was looking at Emma. She stared straight back at him, at her own reflection in his sunglasses.
“Her lawyer arranged her surrender. Tomorrow,” JJ said.