“How did you get in?” No emotion lived in my voice, face, or eyes. “If it was so easy, why didn’t you do it months ago? Why that night?”
His frown deepened. “It wasn’t easy, Sue. Your mother only became bedridden in these last couple months. Before then she was alert and vigilant, waiting for me to make a move. She found someone who installed a program that would send the file immediately if her password was inputtedincorrectly even once, or if the computer sensed an intrusion.” He snorted. “Believe me, she took great pleasure in telling me that.
“No, the only way to get in was to find her password, and I didn’t get my chance to search for it until—”
“I gave Reynard the night off.”
Rhodes nodded, sweeping out a hand. “He dosed her up with heavy sleeping meds and left, and you were busy with the party. There was no one to stop me tearing apart her office to find the password. I found it taped to the bottom of the file cabinet—by the way.” He tossed his head, rolling his eyes. “Your mother was clever, I have to give her that. To find it there you either had to flip the damn thing over, or take out all the files to drop it on its side, and then you’d have to put all the files back in the right place or risk getting caught.
“The first method is crazy loud, and the second method takes crazy long. Either way, you’d be caught before you finished.”
I’d be honest, I was a bit impressed with my mother’s ingenuity on that one.
“So... you’re not lying to me,” I said softly. “You were in her office and only her office?”
“Baby, I swear.” Rhodes took a step. Then, another. “I can show you the password taped to the cabinet. I can prove it gets me into the computer.”
“No, that’s okay. I already know it,” I mumbled. “The lawyer gave it to me so I could start gathering all the documents he needed. As much as she must’ve disliked him for carrying out Appa’s harsh terms, she also liked him for the same reason you gave. He’s fanatical about carrying out his clients’ wishes. He’s her executor too.”
I put up a hand, stopping Rhodes in his tracks when he tried to get closer—tried to take me in his arms.
“Say the password, Rhodes—if you really know what only me, my mother, and her lawyer should know—”
“SarangSooMin3467,” he rattled off without pause. “Or the translated version, LoveSooMin3467. I guess it’s nice to know in the end that your mother could be sweet and sentimental.”
Not so sweet, since Sarang was my name, and not a term of endearment attached to Soo Min, but there wasn’t any need to explain that to Rhodes.
Sighing, I dropped my hand.
Rhodes bounded up and hugged me so fast, I squeaked as he crushed me to his chest. “Fuck’s sake, woman.” He held me tighter, sinking waves of love and comfort into my cold and brittle bones. “You know there’s only so many times you can accuse a man of murder before he starts to get offended.”
A soft laugh escaped me. “Ditto on how many times you can lie to a woman before she starts withholding blowjobs.”
“Whoa, don’t even joke about that.”
We smiled at each other, the tension leaking from our bodies just a little bit.
“Well, then, in the spirit of honesty, I need to tell you that I... lied about one more thing.”
My smile burned right off my face. “Are you serious? What now!”
He had the decency to look sheepish. “I didn’t see Reynard in the garden that night—from the second floor or the third floor. I didn’t see anyone,” he said to my slackening jaw. “I made it up because I wanted you to suspect him, question him, even give his name to the police.”
“What? Rhodes,” I cried. “Why would you want that? Reynard is innocent—”
“He’s not innocent.” The look in his eyes silenced me. “Sue, when I went snooping through your mother’s computer, I went through her emails. I don’t think Reynard knows this, but the estate lawyer sends her a copy of every medical bill the estate pays on her behalf. It’s all there in a million unread email invoices she never bothered to look at, but I looked.”
“I— I don’t understand. Was something wrong?”
“You know how it works,” he said. “Staff submit the bills directly to the estate. We don’t even need to see them. Well, in the last few months, our good nurse Reynard has been loading the invoices with fraudulent charges and no doubt pocketing the difference.”
“What!” I lurched back, gaping at him. “Are you sure? How do you know this?”
“I’m sure. I saw all these treatments and services that I know for afactOmma never received. Weekly acupuncture sessions, weekly massages, tai chi at the Coldstone Wellness Center in upstate New York, and the bestone, Eversaic medicinal pills at five thousand dollars a fucking bottle,” he tossed out. “The thing is, I looked into Eversaic when a client asked me if it was a good idea to invest in their growing company, and I told them no, because Eversaic sold nothing more than overpriced multivitamins. And even if they didn’t, I’ve never seen a bottle of the stuff on your mother’s pill caddy. Have you?”
I stiffly shook my head, throat tight.
“Just like I’ve never seen her allow a stranger to give her a massage, let alone stick needles in her body.”
