Chapter 7
The building access records arrived.
Elena entered the Evanston conference suite at 8:57 p.m.
Her access was logged by the front desk.
She left at 11:14.
Someone else entered the same reserved room at 8:49 and left at 11:22.
The person used a Harbor House employee credential.
Corinne’s.
Alistair sat completely still.
Rebecca continued reading.
The parking garage records showed Corinne’s vehicle entering at 8:31.
Leaving at 11:31.
They had been together for more than two hours.
Corinne had lied from the day Alistair met her.
Not about knowing Elena casually.
About being one of the last people confirmed to see her alive.
Alistair stood.
Rebecca said his name once.
He stopped.
“You do not go to her house.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
She looked unconvinced.
He sat again.
“What happened in that room?”
“We don’t know.”
“Was Corinne supposed to be there?”
“Yes.”
“Then why hide it?”
“That is what we need to establish.”
Daphne supplied another piece before investigators did.
She remembered Elena calling shortly before midnight.
The call had lasted less than two minutes.
“What did she say?” Alistair asked.
Daphne closed her eyes, reconstructing it.
“She asked if Sadie was asleep.”
“And?”
“I said yes.”
“She sounded?”
“Upset. But not afraid.”
Daphne continued.
“Elena told me to stay with Sadie no matter what happened the next day.”
Alistair looked at her.
“The next day?”
“Yes.”
“She expected something to happen?”
“She expected a conversation with you.”
“What conversation?”
“She didn’t say.”
Daphne paused.
“There was one phrase.”
Alistair waited.
“She said, ‘Daphne stays. That part is settled.’”
His stomach tightened.
Three months after becoming engaged, Corinne had told Alistair that Daphne’s role should become temporary after the wedding.
She used almost the opposite wording.
Alistair had never mentioned Elena’s final call to Corinne.
Yet Corinne seemed unusually determined to remove the exact caregiver Elena had apparently insisted remain.
May you like
Corinne had not only known Elena.
She knew what Elena had been planning for Sadie.
