Chapter 43
The instant the back door of the bakery opened, Cara started yelling. “In here! Diane, I’m in the office! Help. ”
Purse slung around her, Diane turned immediately toward Cara’s voice. “What happened?” She raced into the cramped little room. “Are you hurt?”
Her purse hit the floor as she reached Cara’s side. “Who did this?”
"They’re gone. I'm fine." Cara's voice came out steadier than she felt. "There are scissors in the drawer by the sink."
Diane found them, crouched behind the chair, and went to work on the zip ties without asking questions. The plastic gave way and Cara's arms came forward, stiff and aching. She pressed her hands flat against her thighs and waited for the circulation to return.
"Who did this?" Diane's voice was controlled, but her hands weren't quite steady as she set the scissors down.
"It wasn’t a robbery." Cara flexed her fingers. "I'm okay, Diane. Really."
Diane looked at her for a long moment with the expression of a woman who had learned not to push, then straightened and filled a glass of water without being asked.
Cara accepted it. Took one long breath.
Then she reached into her pants pocket, closed her fingers around the USB drive.
She'd deal with it later. Alone.
"I need to call Gabe," she said.
Diane didn't move immediately. She set down her own glass, folded her hands, and looked at Cara with the particular patience of someone who had raised children and outlasted hard things. "Is this going to be a problem for the bakery?" she asked. Not nosily. Just practically.
"No." Cara met her eyes. "It was….” She didn’t want to say, “a murderer.” Not yet. So she simply shook her head. “It had nothing to do with Sugar & Salt, and it's over now. Gabe needs to know what happened, and then it'll be over officially."
Diane studied her for another moment. Whatever she was looking for, she seemed to find enough of it.
"I'll be out front," she said.
Cara rubbed her wrists. "Thank you, Diane."
"Don't thank me. Just drink your water."
The door swung shut behind her.
Cara pulled out her phone and called Gabe.
He picked up on the second ring. "Hey." Background sounds — wind, waves. He was outside somewhere. "Everything okay?"
"Not even close." She kept her voice even. "Jessica Forsythe was here. In the bakery."
A beat of silence. "Are you okay?"
"I am. She just left. She's gone, Gabe. She told me everything and then she tied me up and she left." Cara paused. "I think you need to hear what she said."
"But she didn’t hurt you?"
"No."
“How long ago?”
Cara had to think about that. It felt like seconds. And hours. But Diane hadn’t been gone more than half an hour. “She ran ten or fifteen minutes ago.”
"Is anyone else there with you?"
"Diane. She's up front."
"Okay." His voice had shifted — quieter, focused. The cop voice. "Don't touch anything. I'm on my way."
"It's not — it's not that kind of scene. She didn't hurt me." Cara looked around the kitchen. The chair. The severed zip ties on the floor. The back door still slightly ajar from where Jessica had walked out of her life. "She just talked to me. And then she left."
Another pause, shorter this time. "Seven minutes," he said. "Lock the back door."
The line went quiet.
Cara set her phone on the counter and stood very still for a moment.
She was going to tell him about Jessica. All of it — the confession, the cliffs, the six months of careful planning that had ended with Blaire going over the edge. She owed him that much, and anyway she wasn't sure she could carry it alone.
She was not going to tell him about the USB drive.
The decision settled into place with a clarity that surprised her. No agonizing. No back and forth. Just the quiet, certain knowledge that some things were hers to carry, and this was one of them.
She pressed her hand flat against her pocket.
If she handed the drive to Gabe, it became evidence. Evidence meant a chain of custody. A chain of custody meant eyes on those files — official eyes, procedural eyes, eyes that would have to follow where the information led.
Do what you think is right with it.
She would. Absolutely. The instant she was alone.