Chapter 10 - The Night Elowen Died Changed AgainDashiell’s first reaction was rejection.
“No.”
Calder stayed seated.
“Dashiell—”
“No.”
“The driver was drunk.”
“Yes.”
“He crossed the center line.”
“Yes.”
“He went to prison.”
“I know.”
“Then what exactly are you saying?”
Calder looked at the table.
“I’m saying Roxanne thinks Elowen knew something before she left the house that night.”
“That doesn’t make the crash intentional.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
Dashiell paced.
“Then say what you mean.”
Calder took a breath.
“Elowen called Roxanne that evening.”
Dashiell stopped.
“What?”
“Roxanne showed me the phone records.”
“Why would Elowen call her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did they speak?”
“Nineteen minutes.”
Dashiell’s heart accelerated.
Elowen had never mentioned it.
But she died hours later.
“What did Roxanne say the call was about?”
“The evidence.”
“The estate?”
“Yes.”
“Elowen was threatening her?”
“According to Roxanne.”
Dashiell laughed bitterly.
“According to Roxanne.”
“Exactly.”
“What else?”
Calder looked toward Dashiell.
“Roxanne claims Elowen said she had finally told you everything.”
Dashiell froze.
“She hadn’t.”
“I know.”
“So Roxanne thought I knew.”
“Yes.”
Dashiell remembered the night.
Maisy sick.
Elowen restless.
She received a call around dinner.
He thought it was from a friend.
Later she offered to get medicine.
Was she also leaving to meet someone?
No.
The crash location was on the route to the pharmacy.
“What does this have to do with the accident?”
Calder’s voice lowered.
“Roxanne says she drove past the crash.”
Dashiell stared.
“When?”
“Before police arrived.”
“How would she know where it happened?”
Calder went quiet.
There.
Dashiell felt every muscle tighten.
“Calder.”
“She claims coincidence.”
“Of course.”
“She was supposedly driving home.”
“From where?”
“She never said.”
Dashiell grabbed his phone.
The original crash report.
He had not read it in years.
He found the intersection.
Then Roxanne’s address at the time.
Her home was twenty miles in the opposite direction.
Dashiell looked up.
“She had no reason to be there.”
Calder nodded.
“That’s why I started digging.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
“The same time Roxanne moved deeper into my house.”
“Yes.”
“You still didn’t tell me.”
“I needed proof.”
Dashiell laughed without humor.
“Everybody in my life loves protecting me with secrets.”
Calder accepted it.
“Yes.”
Naomi entered quietly.
She had been speaking with the officer.
“What are we discussing?”
Dashiell told her.
Naomi’s expression became serious.
“This is speculation.”
“I know.”
“Do not turn it into fact.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
She looked at Calder.
“Do you have evidence?”
“Phone records.”
“Anything else?”
Calder pulled out his own phone.
“A voicemail.”
Dashiell stared.
“From who?”
“Roxanne.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
“Play it.”
Calder did.
Roxanne’s voice:
Stop asking about the accident. Nothing good happens if Dashiell learns Elowen was meeting me that night.
Dashiell felt cold.
Meeting.
Not merely calling.
Naomi paused the audio.
“She says Elowen was meeting her.”
Calder nodded.
“Why?”
“No idea.”
Another part.
I didn’t make that drunk get behind the wheel. Whatever happened after Elowen left is not on me.
Dashiell closed his eyes.
The wording mattered.
It did not confess causing the crash.
But it placed Roxanne physically in Elowen’s final hours.
“Where were they meeting?”
Calder said:
“Possibly the pharmacy parking lot.”
Dashiell looked up.
The crash occurred six minutes from the pharmacy.
Naomi asked:
“What does Roxanne say happened?”
“She won’t tell me.”
“Why not?”
“She thinks I’m trying to trap her.”
“You are.”
“Yes.”
Dashiell sat.
“What letter did Elowen write Roxanne?”
Calder looked at him.
“I saw only one line.”
“What?”
Calder took a screenshot from his phone.
Roxanne had photographed a torn fragment.
Elowen’s handwriting.
If anything happens to me tonight, Dashiell needs to know why you asked me to meet you.
Dashiell’s heart stopped.
Naomi immediately said:
“That still does not mean Roxanne caused the crash.”
“I know.”
But emotionally, the difference barely mattered.
Roxanne had met Elowen.
Elowen had been afraid enough to write that sentence.
Then she died.
“Where is the rest?”
Dashiell asked.
“Roxanne claims she never had it.”
“Then how did she photograph that?”
Calder shrugged.
“She said it was in an envelope she found in Elowen’s old desk.”
Dashiell thought of the house.
Elowen’s desk had been moved into storage.
Roxanne helped pack it.
Maybe she found a fragment.
Maybe she destroyed the rest.
Naomi asked:
“Who else knew about the meeting?”
Calder shook his head.
Then Kiara entered from the hallway.
She had brought Maisy’s things from the condo.
Her face looked uneasy.
“Sorry.”
Dashiell turned.
“What?”
“I heard you say pharmacy.”
“Yes.”
Kiara swallowed.
“Roxanne asked me something about the old pharmacy last week.”
Everyone went still.
“What?”
“She asked if Mr. Holloway still kept receipts from Mrs. Holloway’s things.”
Dashiell frowned.
“What receipts?”
“I don’t know.”
“Exact words.”
Kiara thought.
“She said, ‘Dashiell keeps every useless piece of paper. Did he keep Elowen’s pharmacy receipt too?’”
Dashiell felt his pulse shift.
A receipt.
Why would Roxanne care about a pharmacy receipt from three years ago?
Then he remembered.
The police returned Elowen’s purse after the accident.
Wallet.
Keys.
Broken phone.
And a pharmacy receipt.
He had put everything into a sealed box.
A box stored with Elowen’s desk.
Calder stood.
“If the receipt shows what time she was there…”
Naomi finished:
“It could establish whether she met Roxanne before the crash.”
Dashiell grabbed the storage keys.
But this time, someone had already beaten him there.
His phone rang.
Storage facility manager.
“Mr. Holloway?”
“Yes?”
“There’s been a break-in at your unit.”
Dashiell closed his eyes.
“What was taken?”
The manager hesitated.
“Hard to know.”
May you like
Then:
“But someone opened a box labeled ‘Elowen.’”
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