“Ma’am, the police who were here, they spoke to each person individually—in person. They said they’d be back when you two came home if they had further questions. They didn’t say anything about calling.” He inhaled. “My experience is that these situations are handled in person.”
“That is unusual that you received a call,” Van said, looking at me. “Did you get a name?”
I shook my head. “No. Maybe someone at my parents’ house did. I can call Rosemary.” I sighed. I hadn’t spoken to my parents since I left their home. I’d read through my father’s emails, but I’d avoided his and my mother’s calls, choosing instead to concentrate on Van.
Albert pulled his phone from the inside pocket of his suit coat. “I have the officer’s name who spoke to us. He’s from the local police department—here in Ashland.”
“How has this not gone beyond local jurisdiction?” Van asked.
Albert walked to the desk and wrote on a small notepad. “There you go, Mr. Sherman.”
“Thank you. We have a visitor, Ms. Lena Montgomery, coming to the house later today. Don’t allow anyone else access beyond our people.”
Ourpeople.
That categorization took a bit of the chill away.
Paula was still in the kitchen cooking. Margaret was upstairs cleaning. Jonathon and Michael were out doing what they did. Albert was here. I needed to remind myself that we had people around us, people who cared about our safety.
I stood as Albert left us alone, again closing the door to the hallway.
My thoughts went back to the conversation about the police. “I hadn’t given it thought,” I said, “but we’ve been home for two days. Wouldn’t you think we would have heard from the police?”
“Do you remember the state troopers who came here a few weeks ago?”
I nodded. “Yes…the woman’s name was Howard. She gave me a card.”
“Can you find that?”
“I think it’s in our suite somewhere.”
“I want to talk to someone about the conversation with Madison.”
“Why did she want you to pretend to be Phillip?”
Van took a deep breath and reached for my hand. Tugging me close, he wrapped his arms around me. “I want to tell you everything I know and that I remember, but I don’t want to frighten you.”
“Too late.” I looked up at his green stare. “Tell me.”
“Remember me telling you about the divorce papers?”
“Yes, you just mentioned them again. Madison had them delivered the day of the wedding.”
Van nodded. “They had her signature, not Phillip’s. She said hecouldn’t.” He emphasized the word. “Madison asked me to pretend to be him and sign.”
“Couldn’t?” I asked as the chill returned.
“Yes. And Michael just told me that one of the last reports I got from Rob was false. Michael has a friend, and his friend accessed the security at the Doubletree in Chicago. Phillip checked out the day he pretended to be me”
I felt like pieces of a puzzle were snapping in place. “The day we checked out of the hotel…we were on our way to the car, and you got a call.”
“Yes. It was Rob.”
“And he told you that Phillip was in Chicago,” I said.
Van nodded. “But he said that he didn’t know where.”
“That’s the call that separated us, why I was alone with Albert.”