Chapter 34
Camille
AFTER THE ALIBI
Silas and I pull into the garage at my house and I’m frozen in the passenger seat. We’re in my car since the opener is programmed directly to it. This is our only way inside, since I’ve become a little too dependent on the keypad lock on the door in the garage and don’t carry a house key anymore.
“I don’t know if I can go in.” The police were done days ago, but it took a while to get a cleaning service that specializes in crime scenes here and there’s no way I was coming back until they were done.
Technically, I’m free to move home, but my parents think it’s too dangerous since the police still haven’t made an arrest. But honestly, I’m not sure I could stay here even if Ben’s killer is caught.
Silas puts the car in park but doesn’t cut the engine. “You don’t have to. I can run in and get it.”
He starts to get out but I stop him. “Wait. Just give me a minute.”
“Whatever you need,” he says as he settles back in his seat.
“I just feel like if I don’t go in now, I’ll never be able to.”
A mix of emotions rolls through me. Even though I know Ben isn’t on the floor of his office, that’s all I picture when I think about going inside.
The ache in my chest flares when faced with walking into the house he loved.
The house he spent so much time perfecting.
The house that has always felt more his than mine.
I don’t want to be one of those people who sugarcoats all the bad times with someone just because they’re gone, but grief has a funny way of making the good moments we shared shine brighter in my memory. The misgivings and concerns that drove every single action I made last weekend seem minor now.
I give myself a few minutes to center myself in reality, mentally listing all the reasons I snuck back here and climbed in the attic to spy on Ben exactly a week ago.
Those rose-colored memories can’t hold up against the fact that we’re here to find the key to a dead cop’s gun safe so we can retrieve evidence that Ben was going to use against my brother.
It’s a horrible way to think about it but the only thing that grounds me.
“Not trying to rush you but we only have a small window of opportunity to get into Foster’s house while his wife is out this afternoon.”
Silas created a situation where Mrs. Foster would be away from home. The Corbeau Police Department will be honoring Kevin Foster today by having a small reception and presenting his wife with a plaque. I’m impressed Silas was able to throw that together in a couple of days.
“Okay, I’m…I’m ready.”
He wastes no time getting out of the car while I’m moving at half speed. I follow him to the door and tell him the four-digit code to unlock it. Silas bounds into the kitchen once it’s open, while I’m still stuck in the garage.
He’s back by my side when he realizes I didn’t enter behind him. “You do not have to do this.”
“Yes I do.”
He holds out his arm and I clutch it like my life depends on it. Slowly, he pulls me through the door.
A strong antiseptic smell hits me the second we’re inside. He leads the way to the kitchen, and there’s a stillness in the air as if the house knows it’s been abandoned.
That stupid mum is still sitting on the counter, the same one I felt so smug that I had already bought when Ben questioned why I was at the feed store.
How naive I was to be worried about him catching me in a lie.
The tiny flowers are withered and dead from lack of water, as if this house has sucked the life out of everything inside it.
I move to the small desk where I pay bills and keep my calendar and pick up the glass jar that holds all my pens and markers. I dump the whole thing out and sort through them until I find the key.
“Just where he left it.”
Silas is driving us back to Corbeau. We left the house as soon as we retrieved the key.
He asked me if I wanted to grab any clothes or other items, but I couldn’t bring myself to go any further inside than the kitchen.
I twist the key in my hands and think about how drastically my life has changed in the last week.
“Was Ben killed over this?”
It takes a while for Silas to answer me.
“That’s my guess. When Ben first came to Dad and me to tell us about Hank getting Paul’s file, he was freaking out.
Worried how it would look if the truth came out now.
How it would hurt his practice. Dad lost his shit though and was less worried about Paul and more about how much other evidence Foster had been stockpiling over the years.
Paul Granger’s case would blow back on me and Ben, but everything else would destroy Dad. ”
I can only imagine how pissed Dad was. “So what did Ben do once he realized that?”
“He turned on us immediately. You could see it in his face. Almost hear the thoughts rolling around in his head. How much control he’d have over us if he got to it first.”
The trees pass by in a blur as I stare out the window and process everything Silas is telling me. I’m embarrassed about how naive I’ve been. How my entire family knew more about my husband than I did.
I can’t look at Silas when I admit, “I always felt like Ben and I were better than Mom and Dad. Superior to them. I mean, I knew Ben wasn’t perfect and pushed the line of what was legal, but I had no idea how far on the other side of it he really was. Or that Dad was helping him. I feel so stupid.”
“Don’t feel like that. I’m glad you didn’t know.
I was relieved you were blissfully unaware.
Ben’s problem is he didn’t understand what becoming a member of this family meant.
Dad wanted to control him like he did us.
At first, he was okay with it because Dad made sure he got some big clients and won those cases.
But then Ben realized you couldn’t just take the parts you wanted, you were stuck with all of it.
Ben would have made the most out of having this wealth of information to hold over all our heads. ”
Looking at Silas, I ask, “Did Dad have him killed?”
Silas shakes his head. “He wouldn’t have done that before we had possession of those files. Before he was sure Ben didn’t have a copy stashed somewhere.”
It’s a cold answer, especially since it’s about my husband.
“So who killed him?”
He shrugs. “Honestly, I don’t know. Foster wasn’t just confessing his sins, he was outing anyone who helped him, because he’s definitely had help over the years.
Maybe whoever helped Foster got wind of what Ben was up to that day.
Was worried about how he’d use that information against them.
Or there’s a chance it wasn’t about this at all.
Maybe it was something to do with one of his cases.
Maybe he was messing around with someone else and their husband found out. Hell, Camille, I really don’t know.”
Shivers roll through me as I consider his words. We’re back in Corbeau, headed to Foster’s. The closer we get to his house, the more my thoughts switch from what happened to Ben to what we’re about to do.
“We’re just going to pull into the driveway and walk inside?” I ask.
“I offered to take you back to Dad’s.”
“And I told you I’m seeing this through.”
Silas is trying to act like this isn’t affecting him but from that white-knuckle grip he has on the steering wheel, I know it’s taking a lot to hold himself together.
He nods to the back seat. “That’s what the gift basket is for. We’ll leave it on the doormat so if someone says they saw your car here, Mrs. Foster will think we were just dropping this off.”
I pick at my nails, which are already destroyed. “But she’ll know we were here.”
He nods. “That’s the point. You don’t try to hide it, you embrace it. Answer the question before they can ask it.”
“Something is wrong with you that your mind works like that.”
He chuckles but it sounds sad. “Dad’s had a long time to groom me.”
Silas pulls over at a gas station not far from Foster’s house. “Why are we stopping here?” I ask.
He pulls his phone out. “Just making sure Mrs. Foster is at the ceremony in town.” He sends a text then we wait a few minutes until we get a response. “We’re good to go.”
My heart is racing when we pull into the driveway. The Fosters’ house is just out of the city limits on a small plot of land, so at least the neighbors aren’t on top of one another. It’s a modest house considering how much money he’s had to have made doing all Dad’s dirty work over the years.
Silas parks and says, “Grab the basket.”
I do what he says and follow him to the carport door. “How are we getting in?”
“Foster kept a key on a hook in the storage closet.”
Silas opens the closet door in the carport and a few seconds later he’s got a house key in his hand.
“Not very smart for a cop,” I mutter.
“It’s Corbeau and everyone knew who he was connected to. No one was breaking into his house.”
“Except you.”
He raises one eyebrow. “Yeah, except me.”
I set the gift basket and card down on the mat in front of the door then follow Silas inside.
It feels so wrong walking through the house, knowing his widow will come back and hopefully have no idea we were here.
We only have to look into a few rooms before we find the safe.
It’s huge. So much bigger than I’d thought it would be.
“It’s almost as tall as I am.” The gun safe looms in the corner of a small office next to a recliner that looks at least twenty years old.
“Well, yeah, it’s made to hold half a dozen hunting rifles.”
Dad has a whole room that is reinforced for stuff like this, so I’ve never seen this kind of safe. It feels like I’m walking up to a bomb that needs to be defused.
Knowing there’s a good chance Ben was killed because of what’s behind that door makes me queasy.
And scared.
Silas pulls off the circular mechanism that houses the digital lock and lets it hang by the red and blue wires that power it. A small keyhole is visible underneath.
“This is the backup in case the electronics fail.” Silas takes the replacement key and slips it inside. We both hold our breath when he turns it in the lock. There’s a click and then Silas turns the wheel and we hear the bolts slide back into the door.
He takes a deep breath and then pulls it open.
It’s completely empty.
Not a single thing inside.
Just as I start to say something, we both hear a noise coming from the front of the house. We barely have time to spin around before someone enters the room in a rush. Silas pushes me behind his back, sandwiching me between him and the open safe door.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Silas yells.
My heart is racing as I peek around him and see that guy who always seems to be within a few feet of Aubrey Price. The housemate, Deacon.
“Guessing for the same reason you are,” he says.
And then I notice both of them are holding guns, pointed at each other. I had no idea Silas even had a weapon on him.
They stare at each other a long moment while I grip the back of Silas’s shirt. Finally, Silas says, “I know who you are. You keep a pretty close eye on Aubrey Price. You kill Ben for her too?”
I peek over his shoulder so I can see his reaction to that question.
He gives Silas a smirk I can’t decipher. “I could ask you the same thing since you’re the one who’s been having some trouble keeping your brother-in-law in line.”
Aubrey still believes that Ben was responsible for her parents’ deaths in some way.
She can’t know it was Silas. Ben is already dead.
What would happen to Silas if the real truth came out?
The danger he would face was not only legal; I’m realizing it could also be life-threatening.
No matter what Silas did, he’s still my brother and I don’t want him to get hurt.
It feels like we’re in a standoff that won’t end until someone gets hurt, but then suddenly Deacon lowers his hand, letting the gun hang at his side. “From that empty safe behind you, seems like we’re both too late or it was never here to begin with.”
Silas’s shoulders tense but he doesn’t lower his weapon. “Unless you tell me how you came to be here, this won’t end well for you.”
“I work for Chris Ricci. Know him?”
From the jerk of Silas’s head, it’s clear to both of us that he does.
Smiling, Deacon says, “Good,” then nods toward the front of the house. “Got one of my guys outside. If I don’t walk out of here, it won’t end well for you either. But I’m happy to talk as soon you get your gun out of my face.”
Silas hesitates a few seconds then lowers his arm. “Start talking.”
“Ben trusted the wrong guy. Hired a PI to help him get the key to that safe right there. Same guy that owes Chris a shit ton of money. So who do you think he was loyal to?”
It was clear when I was watching Ben that there was more to his plans that day than we’d anticipated. It shouldn’t be surprising to hear that Aubrey knew more than she had led me to believe, but it still knocks the wind out of me.
“That’s fair. But how in the fuck did you know we’d be here now. Today.”
He shrugs. “Let’s just say we took advantage of the access to Camille’s car when we had it.”
Silas spits out a curse and I lean close, asking him softly, “What does that mean?”
“Means they put a tracker on your car when Aubrey was driving it around.”
Deacon gives us the short version of their plan B, meaning he planned to show up here, like this, last week to surprise Ben, but obviously Ben never made it. He’s been watching my car ever since.
“Ben went to a lot of trouble to get a key for an empty safe,” Silas says.
“So what now?” I ask.
“My plan is to walk out of here and go break the news to Aubrey it wasn’t here.” And then Deacon turns and leaves.
Silas and I stand there staring at the empty doorway.
“What the fuck,” Silas mumbles, relaxing for the first time when he hears the front door shut.
“This means Dad is wrong. If Foster sent it to Aubrey, Deacon wouldn’t have shown up here looking for it.”
Silas leans his back against the safe and closes his eyes. “If it’s not here, where the fuck is it?”