Chapter 46
WHEN I HEAR BEN’S CAR pulling into the driveway, I raise the shade on a living-room window to watch him.
He gets out and looks around. To see if he was being followed? Maybe. He waits a beat before entering. Then he storms through the front door. The alarm beeps. He turns it off.
“Where are they?” he asks. His face is red, angry.
“They’re both upstairs.”
“I mean the pictures!” he yells. “Where are the [expletive] pictures?”
I hand him the envelope. He studies it, then shakes the photos onto the kitchen table and rifles through them. He finds the one of me and Lily. What’s going through his mind? He’s breathing heavily.
“It was taken at the party,” I say.
“I can see that,” he says. “But when? Before I got there?”
“I have no idea.” Anyone with a cell phone could have zoomed in on me and Lily without attracting notice. Especially if the subject (me) was concentrating more on listening than watching.
Amber must have heard Ben’s car in the driveway too.
She walks down the stairs, holding the baby.
Amber’s hair is wild, uncombed. She’s been lying in bed with Lily cradled in her arms this whole time.
And she looks exhausted. Too exhausted for a major battle.
But I guess if you’re married, you can always summon the strength.
“You didn’t call the police, did you?” Ben asks her. Not Are you okay?
“That’s what you’re worried about?” Amber yells. “The cops?”
Bang! And they’re off!
“We can figure this out ourselves, Amber,” he says.
“Our baby daughter has her face carved off with a knife, and you’re worried about whether I called the cops?” she repeats. “I bet you know exactly who did this, don’t you?”
“What? No, I really don’t!”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Amber, you’ve got to trust me.” Ben tries to defend himself.
People are jealous of him, he says. There are lots of artists and dealers who love him.
But several others hate his guts. “You know what this business is like,” he tells her.
“It’s competitive out there. Cutthroat.” He walks over and puts his hands on Amber’s shoulders—to calm her down? To hold her in place?
She shakes them off and turns away. “I am calling the police,” she says.
“You remember last time? They won’t be any help.”
She whirls around to face him. “They need to know about this, Ben. Another threat. Another message. There’s a pattern here.”
Does she think she needs his approval to call? I guess she does. She waits. He says nothing. That’s when she really goes ballistic.
“This is about our baby!” she screams. “This time, someone wants to hurt our baby! And you don’t give a damn about her or about me!”
“Amber, listen—”
“No! You listen! I’ve had it!”
She rushes back up the stairs. Even with Lily in her arms, she takes them two at a time.