Caroline pounced. “Almost.”
Steven pinched the bridge of his nose as if trying to stem a horrible headache. “Except ten thousand dollars. We had a petty cash account we kept on hand for miscellaneous expenses. Dominic withdrew the money that morning. After I told him what happened to Denny.”
“There,” Russell stated emphatically. “If that doesn’t signal his guilt, I don’t know what does. He planned to run. The bastard! He’s put a viable company at risk. The jobs of a hundred people at stake.”
“Oh, please, Russell,” Steven stopped him with a raised hand. “You don’t care about the employees of Encrypton. You care about your investment.”
“Damn right I do. This is your future. And my daughter’s, if you haven’t forgotten. I’m not going to see everything I’ve risked ruined because of some convict who got it into his head to take the money and run. If he gets caught, he should give you the company. If he doesn’t, you need to take legal action. We can still get that government contract. The product is good. The best on the market. Everything can be saved. But you need to act. And if you don’t, I will.”
“Daddy,” Anne interjected, placing a hand on her father’s arm. “Please. We’re not there yet. Dominic will contact us. Soon. I know it.” With her other hand, she reached out to touch Caroline’s wrist.
Caroline looked down at the hand that held her. Anne was trying to offer comfort but Caroline didn’t feel comforted. Looking at Russell’s red face and Steven’s clenched jaw, she realized that each of them had their reasons for being with her. And none of those reasons were concern for her welfare. Or for Dominic’s.
“I don’t know what to do,” she whispered falling back against the counter feeling as if all her strength had left her.
“You?” Russell huffed. “Well, really, there’s nothing for you to do. You don’t have any vested interest in this company. Hell, you barely have any time invested in your marriage.”
“That’s enough, Russell,” Steven snapped.
“I’m being practical. The marriage isn’t legal. She has no say in what happens with the company.” Russell faced her directly. “If I were you, I would leave. Cut your losses and go home.”
Caroline thought about her house waiting for her back in Virginia. Her quiet life. Her small group of friends. How easy would it be to leave, to run home. Just like a coward.
She pushed herself off the counter and moved away from the three of them. “I am home. And I think you should leave.”
“Caroline, Daddy didn’t mean…”
“I know what he meant. I’m not even saying he’s wrong for thinking it. You believe Dominic is guilty.”
“Damn right I do.”
“Then we’re at odds. I believe he’s innocent. You should leave.”
Russell took a step toward her, his gaze suspicious. “If you think that there is any loophole, any way for you to get your hands on this company, think again, little lady.”
“I don’t want the company,” she said quietly, unflustered by Russell’s threatening tone. “I want my husband back.”
“Let’s just go,” Steven said. His shoulders slumped and Caroline could see the exhaustion in his face. It seemed he hadn’t slept any more in the last few days than she had. Steven stood back as Russell took Anne’s hand and led her out the front door. When they were beyond earshot he grasped Caroline’s hand.
“We’re not at odds. I don’t think he’s guilty, either.”
Caroline said nothing.
“But if he contacts you in any way, you have to let me know. He has to come back from wherever the hell he is hiding and make this right. My father-in-law is a greedy money-hungry bastard, but he’s got a point. We still have a chance to save this contract. More than that, this company needs Dominic. It
“Okay.” It was an easy reply that answered nothing. But Steven must have seen in her face that she wasn’t going to say anything else. After a moment, he left and followed his family outside.
The door closed behind him and for a while Caroline stared at it, thinking about what came next. The funeral was over. The murder investigation was proceeding. Dominic was out there somewhere…doing what? Hiding? Or maybe searching for Denny’s killer on his own.
What was her next move? She could look for him. Drive around Half Moon Bay calling out his name as if he were a lost dog but what was the point?
Suddenly feeling as exhausted as Steven looked, she climbed the stairs and found Munch waiting for her on the bed. The dog lifted her head as if to offer an invitation and Caroline took her up on it. She dropped down on Dominic’s side and tried to remember what it felt like to lie next to him. To smell him. To hear him breathe.
Tears rolled into her hair, but before she could work up the energy to wipe them away she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
The sound of a loud ringing woke her up. Startled, she jerked into consciousness. A second later, she recognized the sound of the phone. The room was dark, dusk having long since passed, but she had no problem finding the phone on the bedside table. It was the same one she’d picked up when Steven called her that fateful morning.
“Hello?” she answered as she sat up. Her voice was rusty with sleep so she tried again when she got no answer. “Hello?”
“Go home.”
Confused by the response, it took a second for Caroline to recognize the dark voice.
“Dominic!”
“Go home.” Click.
The dial tone echoed in her ear. Then later, the sound of a busy signal indicating the phone had been off the hook too long shook her out of her daze.
It was him. His voice. His words. His order. There was no way to mistake it for anything else.
Go home.
She wanted to scream at him. If he’d been standing in front of her, she would have chucked the phone at him.
Go
What was the point of hanging on if the person you were hanging on for was willing to let you go?
“Munch,” Caroline said calmly. “We’re leaving.”
Chapter 9
“I’m leaving.”
Caroline stood in the area marked off in the San Jose police headquarters as Mark Hernandez’s office. An area that consisted of a desk and a chair.
“When was the last time you slept for more than three hours?”
It wasn’t the response she was expecting.
“Did you hear what I said?”
“I heard it. I just don’t get it.”
“I talked to my lawyer back home. I’m from Virginia. He said you can’t hold me here if I’m not a person of interest.”
The detective shrugged. “He’s right. But why now? Last time we talked, you seemed pretty convinced your man was going to come back and that he was innocent.”
“He is innocent.”
“So why are you leaving now?”
Because even though he was innocent, he wasn’t coming back. At least not for her. “I…I just have to,” she stumbled.
“Caroline, I’m going to ask you a question and I need you to answer me honestly. Has Dominic Santos been in
