Chapter 8 - Detective Keene Had Met Nolan Before the AccidentCeleste called Keene immediately.
“Did you know my husband?”
Silence.
Just long enough.
“Yes.”
Celeste’s anger erupted.
“You knew?”
“I was going to tell you when it became relevant.”
“It became relevant when someone drugged my baby!”
“Celeste—”
“Did Nolan give you the red ledger?”
“No.”
“Then why did he write your name?”
Another pause.
“Come to the station.”
“No.”
“This isn’t a conversation for the phone.”
“Then start explaining enough that I know whether I can trust you.”
Keene exhaled.
“Nolan contacted me eight days before his accident.”
Celeste sat down.
“Why?”
“He believed someone connected to Mercer Hospitality was stealing money.”
“Opal?”
“He suspected an internal network.”
“Meaning?”
“More than one person.”
Graham.
Possibly others.
“Nolan did not want to make a formal complaint until he confirmed the records.”
“Why contact you?”
“I worked financial crimes before transferring divisions.”
Celeste remembered Nolan mentioning a friend from college who became a cop.
Never a name.
“He knew you personally.”
“Yes.”
“Why hide that from me?”
“I didn’t hide it.”
“You absolutely did.”
Keene’s voice softened.
“Because the first time we met, you were watching paramedics examine your one-year-old after an abuse report. Telling you I once discussed your husband’s financial suspicions would have sent you directly toward his death.”
Celeste froze.
“You thought I would think Opal killed him.”
“Yes.”
“Did she?”
“No evidence.”
The answer came immediately.
“Nolan’s accident was investigated thoroughly.”
Celeste closed her eyes.
Relief and frustration collided.
“What did he tell you?”
“That household accounts didn’t match company reimbursements.”
“Opal handled those.”
“Yes.”
“He suspected false vendors.”
“What did you tell him?”
“To document everything.”
“And the red ledger?”
“He mentioned a paper ledger he used to cross-check digital records.”
“Did he give it to you?”
“No.”
“Then why your name?”
“I don’t know.”
Celeste looked at Nolan’s note.
The person Opal trusts most.
Mara Keene.
Opal didn’t trust Keene.
Unless the note had another meaning.
“What if punctuation matters?”
Keene waited.
Celeste read the sentence aloud.
“Do not tell her I gave it to the person she trusts most.”
Then the name:
MARA KEENE.
Maybe Nolan wasn’t saying Keene had the ledger.
Maybe he was telling Celeste to give the clue to Keene.
“Can you come here?”
Keene arrived twenty minutes later.
She studied the note.
Then smiled faintly.
“Nolan loved puzzles?”
“No.”
“Tessa did.”
Tessa sat nearby.
“Dad made treasure hunts.”
Keene crouched.
“What was his rule?”
Tessa thought.
“The answer is usually where the clue feels stupid.”
Celeste almost smiled.
That sounded exactly like Nolan.
The person Opal trusts most.
Who did Opal trust?
Herself.
Celeste said it aloud.
Keene looked up.
“Then he gave the ledger to Opal?”
“That makes no sense.”
Tessa suddenly laughed.
“Maybe her picture.”
Celeste turned.
“What?”
“Ms. Opal likes pictures of herself.”
The house contained few.
But Opal’s bedroom did.
Police had returned personal photographs after evidence review.
One framed image remained in a storage box downstairs.
Opal standing beside Nolan’s parents at a charity gala.
Twenty years earlier.
Celeste removed the backing.
Nothing.
Then Tessa pointed.
“Her necklace.”
Opal wore a large silver pendant in the picture.
Celeste remembered it.
She still wore the same pendant.
The person Opal trusts most.
Herself.
Something Opal always kept with her.
Keene’s eyes narrowed.
“Could Nolan have hidden digital data in the jewelry?”
Maybe.
But Opal’s pendant had been inventoried when she was arrested.
Police recovered it.
Technicians examined the clasp.
Inside the oversized pendant was a tiny memory card.
Opal had been carrying the evidence around her neck.
She had no idea.
Keene called Celeste two hours later.
“Nolan hid a copy of his audit inside it.”
Celeste laughed through tears.
“He knew she’d never throw away that necklace.”
“No.”
“What did the audit show?”
Keene’s tone changed.
“Over seven years, approximately $2.4 million moved through false household and vendor reimbursements.”
Celeste went still.
“Opal?”
“Signatures connected to her authorizations.”
“And Graham?”
“Accounting approvals connected to him.”
Two people.
One scheme.
But Keene wasn’t finished.
“There’s a folder on the card called IF I’M WRONG.”
Celeste’s throat tightened.
“What’s inside?”
“A video from Nolan.”
She sat.
“Can I see it?”
“Yes.”
Nolan appeared on Celeste’s laptop that evening.
Alive.
Tired.
Wearing the blue shirt she still kept in the closet.
“If you’re watching this,” he said, “either I was right about Opal or I owe her the biggest apology of my life.”
Celeste covered her mouth.
Nolan continued.
“But there’s something Celeste needs to know before anyone confronts her.”
He looked directly into the camera.
“Opal has been asking questions about whether Celeste can legally manage the children alone.”
Celeste stopped breathing.
May you like
This plan had begun before Nolan died.
Long before Kai’s first mysterious symptom.
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