He puts down the phone and walks away, not looking back.
The guard comes over. “Follow me.”
He takes me back to my cell. I’m relieved. I didn’t want to go to the rec room and listen to anyone else tell me I can’t keep my baby. I close my eyes and try to nap, wanting Casey to move so I can feel him inside me. I lie here for hours and nothing. Is the stress of this affecting him? What if something’s wrong? What if he died inside me? I’m almost sick with fear at the thought. Then finally, I feel it: a flutter, a soft swipe, a roll.
A few weeks ago, I couldn’t imagine my life with a baby. Now I can’t imagine my life without him.
My cell door opens. “DeMaggio,” the guard says. “You got a visitor.”
It has to be Aaron. It has to be.
When we enter the visitor room, I see him, and my heart lurches. I love him so much. I sit and gaze into his eyes. Neither of us goes for the phone right away; we just look at each other for the longest time.
He picks up the phone at last, then I do.
“How are you holding up?” he asks.
“As good as can be expected.”
“I’m so sorry you’re in here.”
“I can’t imagine what you must be thinking, Aaron. Are you wondering if I really did it?”
He shakes his head. “Not even for a second, Dev. I know you didn’t.”
“How?”
“Because you said you didn’t, and I believe you.”
I look down. “You’re probably the only one who does.”
“I’m not.”
“Even so, you might be raising this baby by yourself after all.”
He swallows. “It won’t come to that.”
“If I tell you something, you can’t call me crazy.”
“I’d never call you crazy.”
“Ed was here earlier.”
“The congressman was here? And you talked to him?”
“It was a publicity stunt. He played the father struggling to cope with the loss of his daughter while at the same time pretending to forgive the child responsible for her death.”
“You’re fucking kidding me.”
“He admitted it, Aaron. Here’s the crazy part. What if he set me up? What if he knew where I was all along? What if he had someone come to the lodge, steal those things, and frame me?”
His eyebrows go up, and he rubs his jaw. “Shit. That makes sense. He knew you were arrested. He convinced the judge not to set bail.”
“He denied it when I asked.”
“He may be a low-life politician, but he’s not stupid.”
“There would be no way to prove it. Like he told me, he’s a powerful man.”
“Maybe fingerprints.”
“You think anyone he hired wouldn’t have worn gloves?”
“Right. But someone must have seen something. A ranch hand. One of the guests. If anyone was there and out of place, someone would have noticed.”
“Like someone noticed me the weeks I was living in the attic? Like you said, I was a ghost.”
His jaw drops. “Say that again.”
“I was a ghost.”
“I would fucking kiss you right now if it weren’t for the two inches of glass between us.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have to go, Dev. I don’t want to cut this short, but there’s something I have to do.”
“You’ll come back, though?”
“No. I’ll see you when you get out of here, free and clear.” He hangs up the phone and walks away. But unlike the congressman, he looks back. He looks back and smiles.
Chapter Forty-one
Aaron
The truck is barely in park when I open the door, jump out, and run to the lodge. At my computer in the office, I pull up the footage on the camera I installed months ago when I was trying to find the ghost. I’d forgotten all about it. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I pray the footage from Thursday is still there. It overwrites itself when the file reaches capacity.
I open the file dated Wednesday night, just before midnight. I breathe a small sigh of relief. It had to have happened after that. The guests arrived Wednesday afternoon but didn’t notice anything missing until Thursday, after their trail ride with Luca.
“What had you running in here like your pants were on fire?” Quinn asks from the doorway.
“Come here. I have video of the lodge.”
His eyebrows scrunch together. “Since when do you have surveillance cameras?”
“It’s just the one. I installed it back when—” I stop. I never told him Devyn was sleeping in the attic and stealing food. “You know what, it doesn’t matter.” I sit back and lace my fingers behind my neck. “If whoever did this went down the back stairway, I’m screwed. And by that, I mean Devyn is screwed.” I tell him about Ed DeMaggio’s visit to the county jail.
“This is seriously fucked up,” he says. “You think he’d go this far to get publicity for his election?”
“He’s done it before. When Kasey died, he milked it like crazy. I’ve seen campaign videos. The guy is pathetic. Now he’s playing the I’m-a-forgiving-father card.”
He pulls up a chair, and we browse the footage.
A guest comes down the stairs after midnight and goes back up a minute later with a bottle of water.
“He had enough time to stash the goods,” he says.
“A laptop was taken. We’d have seen him carrying it. It’s a 4K Ultra HD camera. We could zoom in on a fly on the wall if we wanted to.”
We move forward slowly, watching the shadows of night disappear as daybreak shines through the windows. More guests appear, going in the direction of the kitchen. Most of them are laughing or talking. No one acts the least bit suspicious.
“What about this one?” Quinn says when an angry looking dude comes down the stairs.
I shake my head. “He’s a grumpy old guy. He’s the boss who arranged the stay. Rich fucker. I had a talk with him yesterday. Doesn’t seem like he’d have a reason to steal from anyone.”
People come and go up and down the stairs for another hour, then Luca appears, waiting for the guests to gather in the grand foyer so he can take them out. I count them and watch them leave.
There’s at least forty-five minutes of nothing. I fast forward, then stop the video when I see someone. It’s Lora, and I start forwarding again.
“Stop,” Quinn says. “Go back. Watch closely.”
I do what he says.
“She has a laptop.”
“She owns one, Quinn.”
“Yeah, but is it an Apple? And why was she upstairs when all the guests were gone?”
I zoom in. “What the hell? No, she doesn’t own an iMac, and she sure as hell doesn’t own one with a sticker of a rock band on it. It matches the description of the one they found in Devyn’s room.”
“And see how she’s looking at the front door? Dude, I can practically see the sweat on her brow. She’s the goddamn thief. Holy shit, Aaron, she framed your girlfriend. I knew she was obsessed with you.”
I stand up so forcefully, my chair falls over.