won’t have time to make a phone call.”
“You’re scaring me, Detective.”
“Hey, if you’re uncomfortable, I understand. I’ll take you back to jail, and we can forget about the cooperation. Who knows, maybe you can beat the murder rap. But if not, you’re looking at life in prison.”
We’d pulled up to the door.
“What do you want to do?” Hagerty said.
I couldn’t breathe. Life in prison? Was this real? If I could’ve snapped my fingers and been back at the Baldwin Grill, setting up the dinner shift, I would have, in a heartbeat. If I could make it so I’d never met Connor—not now, not before—I would.
“You’re threatening me with life in prison?”
“It’s not a threat. It’s reality. I’m not the person who put you in this situation.”
He meant I’d put myself there, but he was wrong. Somebody else had, by manipulating the evidence to make it look like I murdered Nina Levitt. That person was willing to put me away for life, then go home and eat a nice dinner. I had to pull myself together. I had to get mad again. Not just mad—filled with a cold rage that made me smarter, bolder, more strategic. I should do it for my daughter. No way was she growing up without me. Never. I had to beat this rap, no matter what it took.
“I’ll do it.”
“All right, let’s go.”
I got out of the car. Hagerty took a briefcase from the trunk and came to stand behind me.
“Kovacs might’ve warned anyone inside that we’re coming, so just in case, don’t ring. Use your key. Let’s enter quietly and see what we see.”
I let us in. The cavernous foyer was silent and dark. I didn’t know where the light switch was. I had to hunt for it along the walls before I managed to turn on the lights.
“Can you call the staff? I’d like to know who’s home before I set up the monitoring system. I don’t need an audience.”
“Hello? Hello? It’s Tabitha. Anyone home?”
My words echoed off the walls. I turned to Hagerty and shrugged.
“Who would normally be here?” he asked.
“Gloria and Juliet at least. Maybe Connor.”
“Where would they be?”
“The housekeeper is probably in the kitchen, which is that way.” I gestured. “When they’re done working for the night, Gloria and Juliet have rooms on the third floor. Connor could be upstairs in our bedroom, or in the library, that way, in the opposite wing from the kitchen.”
“Wait here,” Hagerty said, then lowered his voice. “I don’t want you encountering anyone until the monitor is activated and you’re wired. That first conversation could be critical.”
He walked off toward the kitchen, leaving me alone in the hall.
My clothes were wet from the rain and stale from two days of travel. Rather than sit in the beautifully upholstered chairs that flanked the grand fireplace, I stood there, huddled into myself, rubbing my arms for warmth. The bleakness of this place descended on me. I’d never felt at home here. I’d always been an outsider—alone, afraid. Now I was actually a spy, returned to trick the occupants into confessing their crimes. The occupants. My husband and his accomplices. I told myself that he deserved it. That he’d murdered his first wife for the money and was now framing me for that crime. Me, his wife, the mother of his child. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t believe it. I was in denial. I’d loved him. I still did. To think he could do such a thing—it tore me apart.
Hagerty strode back into the hall.
“I found the housekeeper,” he said. “She claims to be alone in the house. Your husband and the assistant are both out. I told her to stay in the kitchen until further notice. That gives us the opportunity to install the system without prying eyes. Let’s get a move on, before anyone else shows up and starts asking questions.”
For the next hour, I followed Hagerty around Windswept as he set up the monitoring system that he’d brought with him in his briefcase. He fitted me with a padded monitor that clamped around my ankle and tightened with screws. It was an unwieldy black plastic thing that looked sort of like a giant Apple watch. No matter how he adjusted it, it wouldn’t get comfortable. Finally, he gave up and told me I needed to live with it.
“It’s not a bedroom slipper,” he said.
Once activated, the ankle bracelet would send a continuous signal to a receiver installed in Windswept’s landline telephone system. He installed