Chapter 4 - The House They Had Already Divided
At 8:00 a.m., Nora returned to her house with Officer Reyes and a search warrant team.
She did not go because she wanted to.
She went because she refused to let Edgar and Kristina turn her home into evidence without her seeing what they had touched.
Edgar was gone.
His car was gone too.
Kristina had apparently spent the remainder of the night at her own apartment after being released while prosecutors reviewed charges.
The house looked exactly as Nora had left it.
That was what made it disturbing.
The broken glass had been cleaned from the floor.
The couch pillows had been straightened.
Someone had even turned off the lamp beside the staircase.
Normalcy had been restored like a costume.
Reyes told Nora not to touch anything in the bedroom.
The forensic team photographed the sheets, pillows, balcony locks, door handles, and nightstand.
Nora remained in the hallway.
She could still hear Kristina whispering under her breath.
Just stay under there.
Reyes came out carrying a clear bag with a folded piece of paper inside.
"Do you recognize this?"
Nora leaned closer.
It was a printed copy of her insurance declaration page.
Twenty-five million dollars was highlighted in yellow.
Edgar's name was circled.
At the top someone had written, Effective Monday.
"That's not my handwriting," Nora said.
"Your husband's?"
She looked more carefully.
"It could be."
Reyes did not react.
"Where did you find it?"
"Inside his nightstand drawer."
Nora's stomach tightened.
The search continued.
Before officers moved deeper into the house, a forensic technician inspected the balcony door Kristina had blamed.
Dust lay undisturbed along the exterior track.
A thin strand of spiderweb connected the lower frame to the screen.
The technician photographed it before touching anything.
If the balcony door had been opened recently, the web should have broken.
It had not.
The lock also showed no tool marks.
Nora watched from the hallway while the explanation sank in.
Kristina had chosen the first desert-sounding excuse that came to mind, but the house itself contradicted her.
The technician also checked the air-conditioning returns, bathroom vents, and plumbing access points.
None could plausibly admit a snake of that size into the second-floor bedroom.
Lawson, the wildlife specialist, later explained that a rattlesnake could certainly enter a home, but getting beneath tightly arranged bedding near the pillows without disturbing the room was another matter entirely.
Nora was grateful for every boring detail.
Boring details were difficult to manipulate.
A broken web did not care who had the more convincing lawyer.
Dust on a door track did not care whether Kristina cried.
For the first time since the night began, Nora understood that the physical world was quietly taking her side.
In Edgar's closet, officers found an overnight bag packed with two shirts, underwear, medication, and twelve thousand dollars in cash.
In his desk they found a second cell phone.
It was powered off.
Reyes bagged it immediately.
"Have you seen this before?"
Nora shook her head.
The phone was cheap and anonymous.
Edgar had once mocked people who used prepaid devices, calling them paranoid.
At 8:44 a.m., Daniel arrived with court papers seeking a temporary order barring Edgar and Kristina from the property.
He found Nora standing in the kitchen looking at a family photograph.
Edgar had his arm around her waist in the picture.
Kristina stood beside him smiling.
It had been taken at Nora's company holiday party eighteen months earlier.
Now Nora noticed something she had never noticed before.
Edgar was not looking at the camera.
He was looking across the ballroom.
Nora remembered who had been there coordinating the silent auction.
Heather.
"You need to eat something," Daniel said.
"I need to understand how many years I have been stupid."
"Trusting your husband is not stupidity."
"Trusting him after the first lie might have been."
Daniel did not argue.
That was one of the reasons Nora trusted him.
He placed a folder on the counter.
"I pulled the property records on Desert Meridian Logistics."
Nora opened it.
The company had been formed in Nevada two years earlier.
Its registered agent was a corporate services firm.
Its mailing address was a commercial mailbox in Scottsdale.
"Nothing."
"Not quite."
Daniel turned the page.
The original formation payment had been made with a credit card ending in 7714.
Nora recognized the number.
It belonged to a card attached to the household account.
The authorized user was Edgar Finch.
Nora laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"He used our money to create the company he used to steal from mine."
"It appears that way."
"How much do we know is missing?"
"Marcus has finance running a quiet audit."
"Quiet?"
"If someone inside your company is helping Edgar, we don't want them cleaning records."
Nora looked toward the hallway.
"Someone is helping him."
"Probably."
"Allison Pierce."
"Maybe."
"Who else?"
Daniel hesitated.
"That's what worries me."
Before Nora could ask why, Reyes entered the kitchen.
She was carrying the prepaid phone in an evidence bag.
"We have authority to preserve it, but extracting content may take time."
"Can you tell if it's his?" Nora asked.
"Not yet."
Reyes looked at Daniel.
"I need to speak with Mrs. Preston alone for a few minutes."
Daniel left.
Reyes waited until they were alone.
"Your husband came to the station at six this morning with an attorney."
Nora was surprised.
"Why?"
"To give a voluntary statement."
"And?"
"He says his mother has been unstable since her sister died last year."
Nora stared.
Kristina's sister was alive and living in Oregon.
Nora had sent her flowers for her birthday three weeks earlier.
"That's a lie."
"I suspected it might be."
"What else?"
"He says Heather has been stalking him and threatening to expose an old affair if he didn't pay her."
Nora felt anger rise.
"She's the mother of his child."
Reyes's eyes narrowed.
"You confirmed that?"
"Heather told me."
"I saw the boy."
Nora immediately regretted saying it.
Reyes caught the change in her face.
"Did you meet Heather this morning?"
Nora looked at her.
She could lie.
She did not.
"Yes."
"Where is she now?"
"I don't know."
Technically true.
Heather had left the diner without saying where she was going.
Reyes sighed.
"Nora, if she has evidence, I need it."
"She is afraid."
"So are you."
"I have resources she doesn't."
"Then use them to convince her to cooperate, not to hide."
Nora nodded.
Reyes's phone rang.
She answered, listened, and turned away.
"When?"
A pause.
"Secure the scene."
She ended the call.
"What happened?" Nora asked.
Reyes looked at her differently now.
"We found the source of the snake."
Nora's breath caught.
The western diamondback had been taken from a licensed educational reptile facility outside Mesa the previous afternoon.
A volunteer reported one animal missing after seeing a police notice about the incident.
The facility's rear camera had captured a woman approaching a service enclosure at 2:11 p.m.
The woman's face was partially covered by a hat and sunglasses.
But her car was visible.
A white Lexus sedan.
Kristina drove a white Lexus sedan.
"Is that enough to arrest her?"
"We're working on it."
Nora almost felt relief.
Then Reyes added something.
"The passenger was a man."
Nora's relief vanished.
"Did you see his face?"
"Not clearly."
"What did you see?"
"Height."
"Build."
"Clothing."
Reyes paused.
"And a watch."
Nora looked at her.
"A watch?"
"Distinctive blue dial."
"Steel bracelet."
Nora knew the watch before Reyes described it further.
She had given Edgar a blue-dial Rolex for their eighth anniversary.
It had cost more than Nora's first delivery truck.
"He was there," Nora whispered.
Reyes did not confirm it.
She did not need to.
Nora's phone rang.
Heather.
Nora answered immediately.
There was no greeting.
Heather was crying.
"Someone went into my townhouse."
Nora straightened.
"Are you safe?"
"I'm at my neighbor's."
"Caleb is with me."
"Call police."
"I did."
"What was taken?"
Heather's breathing became ragged.
"The papers Edgar made me sign."
Nora closed her eyes.
"Anything else?"
"My laptop."
"Heather, listen to me."
"Did you keep copies anywhere else?"
Silence.
Then Heather whispered, "One."
"Where?"
"I mailed it to myself."
Nora frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"A sealed envelope."
"I sent it to a P.O. box I opened when Caleb was born."
"Can you get it?"
"Yes."
A sound came through Heather's phone.
A man's voice in the background.
Heather stopped breathing.
Nora heard it clearly enough to recognize him.
Edgar.
"Heather?" Nora said.
May you like
No answer.
Then the call disconnected.
