Claire finally looked her in the eye. “I saw her name on the news. I don’t know her. Paul never mentioned her to me. She’s just this stranger who’s been raped, and Paul has a file on her. And he has a lot of files on other women, too.”
Lydia felt a sudden cold come over her body. “What kind of information was he collecting?”
“Where they work. Who they date. Where they go. He hired private detectives to follow them without their knowledge. There are pictures and reports and background checks.” Claire obviously felt cold, too. She stuck her hands deep into her front pockets. “From what I saw, he checks in on them once a year, the same time every year, and I keep asking myself why would he have them followed if not for a reason, and what if that reason is that he raped all of them?”
Lydia felt like a hummingbird was trapped in her throat. “Does he have a file on me?”
“No.”
Lydia studied her carefully. Claire had always held on to secrets like a cat. Was she lying? Could Lydia trust her about something so important?
“They’re in my office.” Claire hesitated. “Not that I’m saying you should look at them. I mean …” She shrugged. “I don’t know what I mean. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’ve pulled you into this. You can still go. You should probably go.”
Lydia looked down the driveway. Rick’s truck was parked in a turn-around by the front of the house. He wouldn’t let Lydia drive the van until he changed the wiper blades, which kindness she had returned by letting a special agent with the FBI record his license plate number.
Rick had crossed paths with the various law enforcement agencies during his time as a heroin addict, because he’d managed to sell almost as much as he’d used. Nolan would need to block out a few hours to read his rap sheet. And then what would he do? Go to the gas station and harass Rick until his boss had to let him go? Swing by the house to interrogate him, and maybe run a check on his neighbors and find out that Lydia lived next door?
And then Dee would be pulled into it, and the Mothers would find out, and the people who worked at Lydia’s shop would be harassed, and maybe her clients, who would make lame apologies about how they couldn’t let a woman being investigated by the FBI give their poodle a sanitary shave because it was too complicated.
“Pepper?” Claire had her arms crossed low on her waist. “You should go. I mean it this time. I can’t involve you in this.”
“I’m already in it up to my neck.”
“Pepper.”
Lydia climbed her way back through the garage. Instead of going down the driveway, she headed toward the house. She had dealt with her share of cops, too. They were sharks looking for blood, and by the sound of it, Claire had two boxes of chum in her office that might just get Agent Fred Nolan off all of their backs.
NINE
Claire slumped down into the overstuffed chair in her office as she watched her sister go through Paul’s collection of files. Lydia seemed energized by the prospect of uncovering more lurid details, but Claire felt as though she was suffocating under the weight of every new revelation. She couldn’t believe that only two days ago, she had watched Paul’s coffin as it was lowered into the ground. Her body might as well have been buried along with him. Her skin felt desiccated. She had a deep chill in her bones. Even blinking was a challenge, because the temptation to keep her eyes closed was almost too much to resist.
She stared at the burner phone in her hand. At 12:31 in the morning, Adam had responded to her text about the files with a short, “Okay.”
Claire didn’t know what that “okay” meant. The USB drive was waiting for him in the mailbox. Was Adam reserving his judgment until he saw what was on it?
She dropped the phone on the side table. She was sick of all these unanswered questions, and angry that instead of grieving for her husband, she was questioning her own sanity for loving him in the first place.
Lydia clearly had no such reservations. She was sitting on the floor going through the plastic boxes, her expression the same as every Halloween night they’d shared as kids. She had the colored folders stacked