Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
A storm blew through Lasalle Harbor with enough force to rattle the stop signs. Water crashed over the seawall at Bayview Pier.
I couldn’t go home. I didn’t want to be at the hotel.
Someone had figured out my plans to check in.
Was I being followed? Had Lock monitored my credit card activity?
I sat in the car, rain pelting my windshield.
The envelope with the photographs lay unopened on my lap.
I’d flipped through the images at least a dozen times after leaving my hotel room. For three hours, I drove aimlessly.
The lighthouse loomed before me; its painted red tower could be seen for miles.
A beacon in the storm. It was here Lock proposed to me on a cloudless, moonlit night two years ago today.
I’d forgotten that part. Lock was usually the one to remind me.
I married him less than a month later at the courthouse.
Elena Clarke performed the brief ceremony.
I pledged to spend the rest of my life with him. Forsaking all others.
Tonight, that woman felt like a stranger to me.
As if a spell had been lifted. Every doubt I had over the last few months.
At every turn, Lock had gaslighted me. Told me I was catastrophizing.
And I let him. I had Corrine’s letter to Matt Woodson in my hands!
I wanted so badly to believe it was a lie. That I could trust Lock.
He’d made me question myself. Ignore my own instincts. Even put my career in jeopardy, getting me to agree not to go to Roy Dennison right away.
LOCK IS LYING TO YOU.
He was good at it. He gave me open access to his phone, his computer, and what I thought was his soul. For two years, he taught me to trust him. Now, I knew that misplaced trust was what allowed me to explain away everything.
I opened the envelope and let the obscene photos fall out. I picked one up that showed a close-up of Lock’s face, his eyes closed in ecstasy as another woman knelt before him. He had his fingers threaded through her hair.
The images were grainy, as though they were stills from a video. Maybe they were. It meant there was a recording out there somewhere. Was that the next “gift” I’d receive?
I didn’t recognize the handwriting on either the envelope or the photo of the note in the stack.
Was it Corrine? Had she set this whole thing up to torture me all along?
She seemed in genuine fear during all of her interviews.
And yet, she handed my own underwear to Roy Dennison, right under my nose.
Had she been inside my home? Or had Lock given them to her as part of some twisted mind game? Only… she knew TRACE would send them off for DNA analysis. What had she hoped to accomplish? Was it Lock she was trying to frame? Or me?
My fear and confusion gave way to pure rage. Lock was lying to me. There was no denying that now. The word written on my windshield in blood simmered in my memory.
COMPLICIT.
In my guilt, I thought the word was meant for me, because I’d kept the truth from Dennison and TRACE. Now, I wondered if it meant Lock.
As I sat there in the storm, one thing finally became clear. This was bigger than me. If I’d been complicit before, that ended tonight.
I put the car in reverse and tore away from the pier. It was almost ten by the time I pulled into Roy Dennison’s driveway. Full dark.
The rain came down in sheets. I tucked the envelope containing the photographs under my jacket and ran to Roy’s front door.
I pounded on the door. By the time Roy opened it, I was drenched.
“Mina?”
Now that I was here, standing in front of him, I didn’t know what to say.
“Is Tonya home?” I asked absurdly. Where else would Roy’s wife be?
Roy looked over his shoulder. “She’s helping Skylar with her homework. Mina, you’re soaked. Would you like to come in?”
“No,” I said. I couldn’t imagine trying to explain any of this in front of Roy’s wife, let alone his three young children.
Roy looked behind him, then stepped out onto the porch. There was an overhang that kept us out of the rain. He gestured to the stone bench in the corner.
“What’s going on?” he asked. “Mina, it’s been a really long day. You know I’ve been searching muddy woods for eight hours at Palicki’s. Is this an emergency?”
“I should have told you a long time ago. I didn’t know how. It seemed like a coincidence. Even now. You might think I’m crazy. Roy, I swear to you, I just didn’t know what to do.”
“Start from the beginning. Has there been another incident? Did you get another message?”
I don’t know what happened at that moment. Nerves, maybe. Or some sort of trauma response. But I burst out laughing. I knew what I sounded like. Unhinged. Maybe I was. I took a breath and pulled the envelope out from under my coat.
“I think Lock is having an affair. I think Corrine Egan knows about it. I think it’s been going on for a long time. I think he knows something about Matt Woodson.”
“What?”
I couldn’t put the thing on a linear timeline. All the events of the last couple of months, all my fears and suspicions—it all came tumbling out in a string of disconnected thoughts and words. I don’t even know what I said. Finally, I slipped off my smartwatch.
“Lock gave me this,” I said, breathless. “When we were dating. I’ve never taken it off.”
Roy took my wrist and held it up so the porch light hit it.
“Like the one Corrine said Woodson gave her,” I said. “She described it right, Roy. It’s a commitment. A promise.”
“Mina… I think—”
“No,” I said. “I know you’ll have a thousand questions. Most of them, I can’t answer for you. I got these today.”
I handed Roy the envelope and then buried my face in my hands. The floodgates opened and I started to cry.
Roy opened the envelope and leafed through the photos. He only got through about four of them before he slid them back and resealed the envelope.
“Where did these come from? Did you hire someone to follow your husband?”
“No,” I said. “They just showed up. I’m staying at the Bayview. Someone left them for me. Someone who knows I was there. Someone might be following me.”
“Okay. Where is Lock now?”
“I don’t know. I mean… he’s away on business. New York.”
“Mina, I’m really sorry. This must be devastating for you. Is there anything I can do?”
I looked up. Roy’s face was full of concern, but also pity.
“You don’t understand,” I said. “The ribbon. The rules. Just like Corrine said.”
“You think Corrine Egan is involved in this? You think this is her?” He looked back at the photos, squinting, and cocking his head. “This could be anyone.”
“Well, it’s not me! And Corrine gave you my underwear.”
“What?”
“The blue underwear she dropped off as evidence. They’re mine, Roy. I don’t know how she got them. I don’t know why she’s doing any of this. Or maybe Lock’s doing it.”
“Okay,” Roy said. “I think you just… Mina, I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry. But you don’t seem okay. You’re saying Lock’s out of town?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm. Maybe, under the circumstances, that’s a good thing. Give yourself a chance to clear your head. Did you argue with him?”
“No, he doesn’t know I have those photos. Or at least, I don’t think he does. I just… I guess I don’t know anything anymore. Maybe he sent them.”
Roy put an arm around me. It was odd. I’d never had physical contact with him more than a handshake at best. He was handling me. I realized what all of this must sound like. I was a frantic woman who had just found out her husband was cheating on her.
“Roy, Corrine is involved somehow. There was a note. She had to have written it. It was addressed to Matt Woodson and I found it under our bed.”
“Can you show it to me?”
I reached into the side compartment of my purse where I’d kept the letter. It was gone. I checked every other compartment. I turned my purse upside down and dumped it.
“It was here!” I said, panicked. “Roy, it was here!” Was I really losing my mind?
“Okay. We’ll figure this out, Mina. Try to hold it together, okay? This is all a horrible shock. I get that.”
“We need to find her,” I said. “We need to find Corrine Egan and you need to bring her in for questioning. I think she’s the one who painted my car. I think she’s the one who killed that dove and left it on my porch.”
“A dove?”
“My little dove. Don’t you remember? She said Matt called her that. That’s what Lock calls me.”
“Okay. Mina, don’t go home. I agree it’s not the best place for you right now.”
Home. My home with Lock? If Corrine killed the dove, stole a pair of my underwear, and maybe even stole the letter out of my purse, it meant she’d been in my home! Had Lock brought her there?
“I have to go,” I said, feeling panic starting to rise.
“Where will you be, Mina?”
“I don’t know. Not the Bayview. Someone knew I was there and sent those. There’s more than one hotel in town. I’ll find one.”
“Okay. Do that. Get a good night’s sleep. We’ll talk more in the morning. You have my cell. It’s gonna be okay.”
Roy stood up with me. He still had the envelope in his hand. There was an awkward moment where neither of us knew what to do with it. Should he keep it? Did I want them back?
“Burn them,” I said.
Roy put a hand on my upper arm. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I stepped off Roy’s porch and back into the rain. I hadn’t been cold before. Now I was shivering.
“Maybe you should come in and dry off,” Roy said. “I can put some coffee on.”
I shook my head. “No. I have to go. I have to… I just have to… go.”
I turned my back on him and raced toward my car before I lost control for good.