“I warned you,” she says. “I gave you ample opportunity to act like a decent human being and not put yourself in legal trouble.”
“I suggest you stop there,” I interrupt. “Before you say something you won't want to be brought up in your trial.”
Her eyes flicker over to the receptionist and back to me. She shifts uncomfortably.
“I don't know what you're talking about,” she says.
“You got my message. I think you understand it,” I say. “And if you don't. I have pictures here I would be more than happy to show everyone in the office. Unless, that is, you'd like to have a private conversation.”
She looks at her receptionist. “Mary, take the rest of the afternoon off.”
“Are you sure?” she asks. “If you don't want to be alone…”
“I'll be fine,” she says. “Please let the others know as well.”
The receptionist gets up to leave. I keep my eyes locked on Rachel. When everybody else in the office is finally gone, Rachel gestures me through her door. I step inside into her suit and take the folder out of my bag.
“You know, I really wanted to believe you,” I start. “I really wanted to think you could be the good person everybody else thinks you are.”
“I am that person,” Rachel says.
I let out a short, merciless laugh. “I don’t know whether you’re just trying to convince everyone around you, or whether you actually believe it. But even you can't completely let go of it. You think you have. You think you've done enough good in this world to cover it up. But even you are still carrying it in your heart.”
“What are you talking about?” Rachel asks.
“When you were doing the news interview, you said your father shouldn't be held responsible for something that happened outside that hotel twenty years ago,” I say.
“Yes,” Rachel says. “He shouldn't. He didn't have anything to do with Lindsey Granger and whatever happened to her. Neither of us did.”
“Then how did you know something happened to her outside of the hotel?”
Chapter Forty-Four
“Everybody knows Lindsey Granger walked out of that hotel,” Rachel says.
Her voice shakes slightly.
“But you know why,” I say, drawing one of the pictures out of the folder and showing it to her. “Tell me, Rachel, what did you say to her? How did you get her to meet you outside? Did she think your father was going to be there?”
She stares at the picture, her mouth trembling as she tries to find the next lie. In an instant, her eyes change. Something in her mind releases, and she's not trying to hide anymore. Words she has wanted to say for years bubble up inside her, and she has to release them.
“Yes,” she says. “I told her my father was waiting for her.”
“He loved her, Rachel. Did you know that?”
“No, he didn't,” she snaps. “He didn't love her.”
“Yes, he did. Even Lilith knows that,” I insist. “If you had really wanted your father to be happy, you would have let him be with her. But instead, this is what you did to her.”
I take more of the pictures out of the folder and toss them onto the desk in front of her. She reaches out and touches the pictures, her fingertips soft on their edges. She looks as if she's in a daze, not sure if she's actually here or not.
“I couldn't let her ruin him,” Rachel says. “He had an affair. Men do that. All the time. But it can destroy the reputation and career of a politician. Especially one who is just getting started. I knew my father would do great things. From the time I was a little girl, I knew he would be one of the most powerful men alive.”
“And how many times in your life have you said that?” I asked. “How many times have you said those words? Because you've now told me twice. Is it the narrative that you give everybody else, or the one you give yourself?”
“I had to fix it,” she says. “He couldn't help it. Lindsey Granger seduced him. I had to make sure everything was okay again. I needed to make her go away. But I didn't intend to hurt her.”
“Is this what you call not hurting her?” I ask, pointing at the pictures.
“It was an accident,” she says. “I never intended to kill her. I wanted to offer her money. That's what I figured she wanted, anyway. I didn't think anything mattered to her but prestige and wealth. If I could give her enough money to set herself up with a good new life, she wouldn't need to keep interfering with my father. But she said no. She said she loved him.”
“So, why didn't you believe her?”
“I thought she was just holding out for more. She knew she could cause a divorce between him and Lilith, which would be detrimental to how the public saw him. Nobody would trust him after watching him go through an extremely public divorce based on adultery. She was using it for leverage.”
“Or, she was telling the truth,” I reply. “She really did love him. Is that why she wore that ring?”
I point at the old ring found among the bones.
“I offered her a lump sum, then payments every year. She refused it. She was walking away from me. She was going to go call my father. I had to stop her. Just so that I could talk to her more. I reached out to grab her, but she moved away from me. There was a party that night, and a delivery truck was sitting right outside the door to the freezer. It was full of linens. When she turned, she slipped, and her head hit the back of the truck. When she landed on the pavement, I didn't know she was dead. I thought it had
