"How did the affair start?"
"Brett was rehabbing his shoulder from his last surgery. He was home a lot during the day. His wife, Natasha, was an interior designer for very high-end clients, and she traveled two weeks out of every month. Brett and I would run into each other during the day. Brett liked to play with the kids. He'd see us out front, and he'd come outside to throw Blake baseballs or kick soccer balls to Stacy. We became friends, good friends, and one thing led to another. It just happened, Sean. I didn't plan it. I felt horribly guilty when we were together, but I couldn't stop, because I was happy. Brett gave me attention, and he was there for me."
"How did Sally find out?"
"She saw us kissing one day. She was a sneaky, meddling woman, who also had too much time on her hands. I think she liked Brett as more than a friend. Maybe she sensed that he was into me and not her and decided to pay us both back. Anyway, she took some photos of us, and she sent them to me with a threat to tell my husband if I didn't pay her to be quiet."
"Sally was married to a successful man. She had money. Was it about revenge?"
"It was about both revenge and money. Sally's husband was rigid and controlling. He kept her on a budget. She was always complaining that she had to ask for permission to spend ten dollars."
"How much did you pay her?"
"The first time it was five hundred dollars. Then it went up to a thousand, and I had to pay her in cash. After the third payoff, I started getting angry. It was difficult for me to get the money after Robert quit his job. So I told Sally I was done. She said she was going to tell Robert that if he didn't continue paying her, she would tell everyone about my affair, including his business partners, friends, neighbors, anyone who would listen. She felt sure he would pay to keep her quiet. I guess she followed through on her threat. Did Robert answer the email?"
"No, but that doesn’t mean he didn't talk to her. He didn't say anything to you about it?"
"Not that night. The next day, the day of the fire, Robert was working in his office at home. He had the door closed. When I opened it to tell him I was going on the field trip, he practically bit my head off. He asked me why I couldn't see that he was busy." Her mouth trembled. "That was the last thing he said to me. Maybe Sally did tell him about my betrayal. Perhaps that's why he was so angry with me."
"You could ask her."
Lana uttered a cynical laugh. "Like she'd tell me the truth. She'd use my uncertainty against me. I'd rather not know."
Lana certainly had an odd way of running her life, Sean thought. She was an expert at hiding from the truth and locking away anything that might hurt her.
"You said Robert was working that day at home, but he'd quit his job. What was he so busy doing?" Sean asked.
"I assume he was looking for another job, and I think some of his clients might have left Clark to come with him. I don’t really know. He didn't talk about his work with me."
"I spoke to Clark Hamilton. He told me that Robert stole from the company, and that because of their long friendship, he agreed to let Robert resign rather than be arrested."
Surprise filled Lana's eyes once again. "I can't believe that's true. Robert was a lot of things, but he wasn't a thief."
"Clark was very convincing, and Robert did quit his job without another one in place, a job that you told me he loved more than you."
"That's true," she said slowly. "I don't know. I wish now that I'd pressed him for more information but at the time we weren't really talking. I felt guilty about the affair. Robert was unsettled having nowhere to be every day. We were in a bad place."
"Why didn't you go to Sally's husband after Robert died and tell him what she'd done to you? Robert was dead. There was no secret left to protect. You must have wanted to take revenge on Sally."
She shook her head. "After the fire I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die, but I had Blake to take care of. I knew I couldn't do that and stay in San Francisco. I couldn't go back into that neighborhood, see Brett standing on his porch or Sally spying on me through her curtains. That part of my life was over. I didn't care about Sally and her blackmail anymore. Nor did I want to talk to Brett and hear his apologies. I just wanted to be somewhere else, where maybe I could one day find some peace."
"What do you mean—Brett's apologies?" he asked, latching on to the latter part of her statement.
"He was sorry for the affair."
"And…" He sensed she was still holding back.
"A few weeks before the fire, Brett started asking me to leave Robert. He said he would leave his wife, and the two of us would start a new family. He wanted to be a father. He loved my kids and he loved me. It was tempting; I'll be honest about that. But it was a huge step, and I wasn't ready to take it. The kids loved their dad, especially Stacy. She was a daddy's girl. So I stalled, until…" Her voice trailed away.
"Until what?" he asked impatiently.
"Brett ran out of patience. The day of the fire, Brett told me he couldn't live without me. He couldn't keep pretending to his wife. He begged me to tell Robert it was over, but I refused. I said I wasn't ready to leave. Brett was furious. He had a short fuse anyway, but that day he was beside himself. He told me that if I wasn't going to tell Robert, he would. I pleaded with him not to do that. He said if I wanted to stay married, it was going to have to be with the truth, everything out in the open."
"What happened? Did he talk to Robert?" Sean asked.
"He told me he spoke to Robert an hour or so before the fire. Brett said that Robert wasn’t surprised, that he'd known for a long time that I was cheating on him. Robert said he would let me go, but I had to ask him for a divorce."
"Hang on. That doesn't sound like the way a man would react upon hearing from his wife's lover that his wife wants to leave him. It's way too calm. If some guy said that to me, I'd punch him in the face."
"Robert wasn't a physical man. And I'm not sure he cared all that much," she said. "Anyway, I never had a chance to ask Robert about any of it. When I got home, the house was on fire, Stacy was on her way to the hospital and Robert was dead."
"You didn't find it to be a huge coincidence that your husband dies in a fire an hour or so after he hears about your affair?"
She stiffened. "Actually, I did think about that."
"But you didn't tell anyone. It's not in any of the investigation reports."
"I was distraught when I spoke to the investigator. I didn't know which way was up; the world was spinning."
"It stopped spinning eventually. You had time to think, to speak, if you'd wanted to."
"Fine. I didn't tell anyone, because I was afraid that Robert had set the fire to kill himself, that he was despondent about not having a job and about me wanting to leave him."
"And you wanted the insurance money, didn't you?"
"Yes. Maybe that's sounds mercenary, but I didn't have a job and I had a child to raise, and I wasn't sure it was a suicide, Sean. The fire investigator didn't go in that direction, so I decided to keep my mouth shut. And there was another reason to stay quiet. I didn't want Blake to have to grow up thinking his father killed himself."
He gave her a long look. "Do you think Robert killed himself, Lana?"
She stared back at him, uncertainty in her eyes. "I really don't know, Sean."
"Even with Stacy in the house?"
"I don't believe he knew she was there. He had a rule that no one was to disturb him in his office when the door was closed."
"Why didn't Brett tell the police or the fire investigator about his conversation with Robert?"
"I don't think he wanted to get involved. He didn't want to get blamed for the fire or for Robert killing himself. The only person he told was me."
"And you protected him. Maybe Brett started the fire, Lana. Maybe he killed Robert in a fit of passion. Did you ever think about that?"
She gave a definitive shake of her head. "I know Brett didn't do that, because he drove across town to talk to me while I was supervising the kids at the zoo. He was with me when the fire started. He only beat me back to the house by a few minutes."
Sean sighed. He thought he'd been on to something, but her story took Brett out of the equation.
"Why didn't you get together with Brett after Robert died?" he asked.
"I couldn't look at him without seeing my baby's casket, without wondering if Robert had killed himself because of my affair, which meant Stacy had died because of me, too. Once I left San Francisco, I never spoke to him again."
"He didn't try to find you? I thought he was in love with you."
"I threw my phone away. I told my sister not to tell anyone where I was. If he looked for me, he didn't find me."
That made sense. "Is that all of it?" he asked.
"Yes. Jessica doesn't need to be worried. There's nothing else to find in that house. I destroyed the pictures Sally sent me, and if Sally already took the computer, then she has everything she needs to protect herself."
"Unless Sally sent photos and a blackmail demand to Robert that weren't on the computer," he said.
Lana's eyes widened. "I—I guess that's possible. But Sally isn't dangerous. She's conniving and sneaky and obviously likes money and blackmail, but she wouldn't hurt someone, especially someone like Jessica, who is not involved in the past."
He hoped she was right. "What about Brett? Is there anything in the house he might be worried about?"
"I can't imagine what. I heard his first wife left him. Who else would care about our old affair?" She glanced at her watch and then got to her feet. "I really have to go, Sean."
He stood up. "There's one last thing that puzzles me. The other day Jessica and I ran into Brett at Helen's new apartment. How could Brett be friends with Helen, knowing that he had an affair with you? She obviously adored her son."
"I assume that they became close because they were living across the street from each other. Since Helen didn't know about our affair, she was probably friendly to him."
"It just seems a little odd that Brett wouldn't keep his distance from Helen after everything that happened."
"I don't know what to tell you. It's been a long time since Brett and I were together. Maybe it just didn't matter anymore."
It was hard to believe that.
"I don't mean to be rude, Sean," she added. "But I hope I don't see you again."
"I can't promise that. There are still some things that don't add up for me."
She sighed. "You need to let Robert and Stacy rest in peace. Whether Robert set the fire or it was an accident, the result was the same." She walked him to the door.
"Does your husband know about any of this?" he asked.
"He knows I lost my husband and my daughter in a fire. That's all he needs to know."
Sean stared back at her, seeing the defiance in her eyes. "You really haven't learned anything about keeping secrets, have you?"
As Sean drove back to San Francisco, he went over everything he'd learned from Lana. While she had told him a lot, not all of her story made sense, especially the part about Brett and Robert's allegedly civil conversation. But then, that was Brett's story. Since Robert was dead, only Brett knew what had really gone on between them. He doubted he was going to get a different story out of Brett than the one he'd already told Lana.
So Sean knew everything now about the neighbors and the affairs. But there was still something missing.
He heard Stacy's voice in his head again—
look in the light
.
What the hell did that mean? Where was the light? What was he supposed to see?
Had Stacy seen her father start the fire? Had she known he was trying to kill himself? Maybe she'd thought he was trying to kill her, too.
Frowning, he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as traffic slowed to a crawl. He felt foolish for even thinking his dream had some meaning. Stacy wasn't a ghost. She wasn't coming to him in the night. It was just his subconscious trying to make sense out of what didn't make sense.
Or did things make sense? Robert had lost his job, learned his wife was having an affair and was being blackmailed by the neighbor. That was enough to drive anyone over the edge. It was a trifecta of pain.
As he thought about the first part of that trifecta, his mind turned back to Robert's job, and Lana's refusal to believe that Robert had betrayed his friend or turned into a thief.
Maybe that was his next move, another conversation with Clark Hamilton. His second conversation with Lana had yielded results. Perhaps the same thing would happen with Clark.
He pressed his foot down harder on the gas and changed lanes, eager to get back to San Francisco.
* * *
An hour later, Sean walked into Clark's office.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Hamilton left for lunch," the receptionist told him. "If you'd like to leave him a message or make an appointment for tomorrow or later in the week, I'd be happy to take care of that for you."
"Do you know when he'll be back?" He wanted to speak to Clark today so that when he saw Jessica again, he'd be able to assure her that he'd covered all the bases and that the only person who could have taken the computer was Sally. Once they neutralized Sally, Jessica and Kyle would be safe.
"He has appointments out of the office this afternoon. It could be a while," she said.
"All right," he said, feeling frustrated. "What time does he have open tomorrow?"
She pulled up a new screen on her computer. "He can see you at three. Can I ask what this is about?"
"It's a personal matter."
"Your name is Callaway, right?"
"Yes. Sean Callaway."
"And a number where I can reach you?"
He gave her his number and told her he would see her tomorrow.
As he went down to his car, he considered his next move. It was probably time to check in with Jessica, maybe confront Sally and also speak to Brett. Maybe if they took what each person knew and put it all together, the whole picture would finally become clear.