Chapter 13 - THE WEDDING RING WAS THE PASSWORD
Inside the wedding ring was engraved:
C&J 0614.
Our initials and wedding month.
The password required more.
The exact time of our ceremony.
4:17.
C&J0614417 opened the final USB partition.
Julian had used our marriage as a memory device.
He assumed I would never connect the ring to encrypted files.
Or perhaps he assumed grief would make me preserve it without questioning it.
The partition contained voice recordings.
Julian negotiating the boat fire.
Gregory discussing insurance.
A marina employee asking for payment.
And Julian saying:
“Claire signs whatever I place beside the coffee.”
I had trusted routine.
He used it.
The recordings transformed suspicion into evidence.
They also revealed conflict.
Gregory wanted Julian permanently gone after the Ashford theft.
Julian had prepared the USB as insurance against him.
Criminals preserve evidence when they do not trust one another.
The object Julian wanted destroyed was never intended to protect me.
It existed to protect him.
I copied the evidence through official forensic channels.
Then removed the ring from my necklace.
May you like
Not yet to discard it.
To stop wearing his password against my skin.
