Holt leaned forward slightly. “I’m going to need to take a formal statement from you. Everything you’ve told us today, on the record.” He watched her face. “Is that all right?”
Sienna looked up. A flicker of something moved across her face, apprehension maybe, or relief. It was difficult to tell the two apart with her. “Yes,” she said. “That’s fine.”
June stood and pulled open his office door as Holt and Sienna stood as well. At that moment, Rad walked past on the way to his office. He’d obviously just come in as he was still in his jacket from the call he’d been on. Rad stopped when he saw the three of them standing at Holt’s door, his eyes moving between Holt, June, and Sienna with a quick, assessing look.
“Rad,” Holt said. “Good timing. I need you to take Sienna to interview room two and get her formal statement.” He looked at Sienna. “Rad will look after you. He’ll go through everything with you carefully.”
“Of course.” Rad looked back at Holt. “I’ll get set up.”
“Before you go,” Holt said, glancing at Sienna, “can I get you anything? Some water perhaps?”
“Yes, please,” Sienna said. “Water would be good.”
Holt looked toward the open office door where one of the administrative staff, a steady and discreet woman named Paula, was passing in the corridor. He caught her eye, and she stepped into the doorway.
“Paula, could you bring a bottle of water and a glass for Sienna, please?” Holt asked.
Paula nodded and disappeared without a word.
“She won’t be a moment,” Holt told Sienna.
“Thank you,” Sienna said, as Rad gently guided her away.
As they walked up the hallway, Paula walked up with the bottle and glass in her hand. Holt stopped her.
“Paula,” he said quietly, stepping close enough that his voice didn’t carry. “When Sienna is done in the interview room, make sure you keep the water glass and the bottle. Don’t let them go in the trash.”
Paula held his gaze for a fraction of a second, then gave a single, discreet nod.
“Of course,” she said, “I’ll ensure they get put discreetly into evidence bags.”
“Thank you,” Holt said as Paula nodded and walked toward the interview room.
Holt closed the office door, but as he walked back to his desk, it felt like something wasn’t sitting right. He couldn’t put a clean name to it yet. Holt should be happy that they may have just blown open their case
He turned back into his office and closed the door.
June was still in her chair with her notepad on her knee, her pen moving in the quiet, unhurried way it moved when she was writing things down, not because she needed to but because the act of writing helped her think. She looked up when Holt closed the door.
She was already watching him with the expression that told him she’d been sitting with the same feeling.
Holt crossed to his desk and sat down. He looked at the photographs of the boards spread across the surface in front of him, the neat columns and color-coded threads and carefullydocumented incidents that had been building toward something for weeks without quite arriving.
“Do you trust her?” June asked.
Holt looked at the photographs for a moment before answering. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
“I know,” June said. She set the pen down on the notepad. “My question stands. If the safe belonged to Victoria and Sienna was keeping it for her, why would Victoria steal it back? Why not simply ask Sienna for it? Sienna was clearly protecting her.”
“That’s the part that won’t settle,” Holt agreed. He leaned back in his chair. “And the letter.”
June’s brows lifted slightly.
“A page is missing,” Holt said. “Right in the middle of the most important part.” He looked at June steadily. “That’s a convenient place for a page to go missing.”
“Very convenient,” June agreed.
“Sienna said her mother must have intercepted the letter when it arrived and hidden it,” Holt continued. “But the letter arrived a month after her grandfather died. Sienna was twenty-something years old at that point, living in the pool house, receiving her own mail.” He shook his head. “Victoria intercepting a special delivery letter addressed to her adult daughter without Sienna ever knowing about it for all this time?” He picked up his pen and turned it over in his fingers. “That’s a stretch.”
