Chapter 7
MORE QUESTIONS
Rebel Pierce
He masked his shock quickly. It had to be hard to find out someone you had placed on a pedestal might not be the person you thought they were. I felt awful that I was the one who had to deliver the news to him.
I wasn’t in the position to tell him if his wife had lied to him or her reasons for not being truthful with him. It was my job to present him with the evidence uncovered without any judgment. Dani wasn’t where she was supposed to be. That was a fact. Not only did J.D. want to know the reasons for this, so did I.
“What can you tell me about that day?”
He sat back in his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Umm... we woke up around our normal time. She cooked breakfast then told me she had a doctor’s appointment at nine. We were going to meet for lunch, go pick up Siobhan after, then head home.”
“Did you know about this appointment before she told you that morning? Or was it a reminder?”
His brows pulled together, then he looked up at me. “I didn’t know about it.”
“By the look on your face, that was out of the ordinary.”
“It was, but I didn’t question it at the time. It was almost time for the baby, so I just assumed she was being careful. Most of her appointments I went to but this time I had somewhere to be so I couldn’t go.”
“Did she know your plans?”
“Yes.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Fuck! What the hell were you up to Dani?” he mumbled.
“Could she have been cheating on you?”
It was a question I had to ask. She was keeping something from him. Although by the stories Caesar had told me, they were madly in love with each other to the point of obsession. So, something was missing from the story. We had to look at cheating as a possibility because she was hiding something.
His eyes snapped to mine. I could imagine the fear that one look caused in a lot of people—probably most people. But I wasn’t one of those people he could scare because I didn’t scare easily. And no matter how many angry glares he threw my way, I’d say what needed to be said. I’d ask the questions he didn’t want to ask or hear out loud so we could sort this out.
My eyes dropped to his hand where he was twisting the wedding band around his finger. Then my eyes rose, meeting his angry glare.
“I’m not saying she was J.D., but we have to cover all basis if you want to find out what happened.”
“So, you believe me? You believe it wasn’t an accident?”
A heavy sigh escaped my lips. “There are some strange things that happened with the investigation, but I haven’t decided on what I think happened. With that being said, I can see why you have questions.”
“She lied to me about the doctor’s appointment. There’s no disputing that, but there’s no fucking way my Old Lady cheated on me. And there’s no fucking way, I’d ever cheat on her before you ask.”
Regardless of what he believed about her, I wasn’t ruling it out until I could prove it.
“Are you good with watching surveillance footage of her?” I asked, concerned whether he could handle seeing her. “You might see something that I missed.”
I didn’t want to cause him any discomfort. I can’t imagine what he was going through especially finding out she lied to him the same day she died.
Could all this be because she was cheating on him? Maybe a lover’s quarrel turned into a murder?
His deep sigh pulled me from my thoughts.
“I can handle it. Show me what you got.”
I nodded then turned my attention back to the screen of my computer.
“First, we’ll look at footage from the daycare. I have her inside the daycare and outside.”
He leaned forward, anger marring his face. “The cops said there wasn’t any footage from the daycare. That it had been erased.”
“No, it wasn’t destroyed.” I looked at him. “But I did find out a large sum of money had been paid to the daycare owner, the day after your wife’s death. I don’t know if there’s a connection, but it’s possible.”
“How did you get your hands on it?”
A smile spread across my face. “I have my ways.”
He smirked and nodded. Turning my attention back to the computer, I started the security camera footage from in front of the daycare. It showed Dani pull up in her car, then park in front of the building.
He gasped when she exited the car. I reached out for his hand to give him a little comfort, but I quickly dropped it. That was overstepping the boundaries. He was a client. Nothing more. Nothing less. But I understood it must have been hard to see someone you loved who was no longer alive.
I focused my attention on the computer screen, looking for something I missed. I know it was there. Maybe a second pair of eyes could pick it up.
She rushed around the front of the car to the back door of the passenger side, yanked the door open, then pulled their daughter from her car seat.
“What time...” He paused. “What time was this?”
“Time stamp said, seven forty-five.”
He inhaled a deep breath, then released it, as we both watched her take their daughter inside the school. I paused the footage from outside, then pulled up the one of her walking inside the school.
“This shows her inside the school.”
I didn’t wait for him to respond before I pressed play. It was pretty routine. She stopped at the desk that sat not too far from the front door, signed the paper on the desk, then rushed down the hall, before disappearing in the room at the end.
“She’s in a hurry,” he mumbled. “Where the fuck are you going?”
Dani exited the classroom after only three minutes, pulled her phone from her purse, then exited the building.
“Although there was no sound to the video, I know she received a phone call at this time. Was it you?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I was on a run.”
I didn’t know what a run was, and I wouldn’t ask.
“I was able to get her phone records.”
His eyebrows shot up in surprise as he looked at me.
“Caesar didn’t tell you much about me, I assume.”
“No.”
“I can get information most people can’t. Anyway, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t you. The number came back to a burner phone. I wasn’t able to track down the owner because there was no video or purchase history for it.”
“A burner?”
“Yes. The number was disconnected when I called but it was on your phone records, multiple times within three weeks before her death.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“Did you see a change in her?”
“No. Everything was normal. We were getting ready for the baby.”
I started the video from the outside again, and we watched Dani rush around the car.
“Pause it!” he said when the camera focused on her face.
I paused it. It was like she was staring straight at us. It was very haunting because she would be dead within the hour.
“She looks fucking terrified.”
She did. It wasn’t something I picked up all the times I combed through this footage. What the hell was going on?
I looked at him and the concern on his face was heartbreaking. Even though she was dead, he was still afraid for her. I hit play, and we watched her get in the driver’s seat, still on the phone, then she pulled away from the curb going in the opposite direction from the doctor’s office.
While some of my questions had been answered those answers only led to more questions. Who was she talking to, and why was she so scared?