Мэри Эндрюс - The Newcomer

37

AVA AND ISABELLE MET HER in the parking lot at the motel. “Are you okay?” Ava asked. “Joe called to tell me what happened.”

“I’m a little shook,” Letty admitted, lifting Maya out of her car seat. “Sorry I didn’t get your groceries.”

“Hi, Isabelle!” Maya reached out her arms to her babysitter.

“Hi, Maya Papaya,” Isabelle said, giving the child a quick hug before setting her on the ground.

“Was it really Rooney?” Isabelle whispered, leaning into Letty.

“I don’t know. Remember, I’ve never seen him in real life. But when I looked up and saw him staring at us, and then when he tried to talk to Maya, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I couldn’t get away from him fast enough.”

“If it was him, he’d better not show his face around here again,” Ava said, her expression fierce. “I would just as soon shoot him as…”

Letty cut her eyes toward her niece.

“Anyway,” Ava said. “You’re okay, and that’s all that matters.”

“Isabelle, let’s go to the beach,” Maya said, taking her babysitter’s hand as they walked slowly toward the office.

Letty shook her head slightly and Isabelle caught her meaning.

“Not right now. My mama is going to fix us some lunch! And after that, we can play dress-up.”

“I wanna go to the beach,” Maya said, her lower lip pooching out.

Letty shook her head again.

“Maybe we’ll bake some cookies,” Ava offered. “Do you know anyone who likes cookies?”

Maya held up her stuffed elephant. “Ellie loooooves cookies.”

“I’m probably being super paranoid, but please tell Isabelle not to let her out of her sight today,” Letty whispered in Ava’s ear. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but keep her inside, away from the pool or the beach. Just in case.”

Ava patted her arm. “Don’t you worry. We’re not gonna let anything happen to that little one. Or to you. And that’s a promise.”

“First off,” Vikki Hill asked Letty, “how is it that you were able to recognize Declan Rooney? It was my understanding that you never met the man.”

They were sitting in the living area of Letty’s unit.

Letty turned to Joe. “After you told me about Rooney’s connection to Tanya, I looked up his booking photo online. But there’s something else…”

She clasped her hands in her lap. “I was going to tell you guys. First thing this morning. But then stuff was happening so fast…”

“Tell us what?” Joe asked.

“About the nanny cam. In Ellie. Tanya must have sewn it there. So she could snoop on Evan when Maya was with him. She never said a word about it to me. I only found it by accident.…”

“Whoa! Who’s Ellie?” Agent Hill looked from Letty to Joe. “A nanny cam?”

“Ellie is Maya’s stuffed elephant. Like, her security blanket. Right? But this is the first I’m hearing about a nanny cam,” Joe said. “Letty?”

“The other night, after the barbecue, Isabelle was babysitting and Maya fell asleep and we were carrying her inside to put her to bed, and she must have dropped Ellie out in the breezeway. It was the night it rained so hard. Anyway, I found her out there, Ellie, that is, not Maya, in a puddle, and I was drying her off with a hair dryer, and I felt something hard—inside, like, her forehead. So I got some scissors, and dug around, and I pulled out this thing. It turns out it was a tiny video camera. I didn’t know what to do with it, but I asked Isabelle, and she has a friend from school who’s sort of a hacker, so Sierra came over, and…”

“You told my seventeen-year-old sister about this nanny cam? But not me?” Joe interrupted.

“Yeah. I did.” Letty was unrepentant. “Turns out Isabelle had already figured out that I’m Tanya’s sister. This was before Agent Hill showed up. While I still wasn’t sure I trusted you. Can I keep going now?”

“Be my guest.”

Letty quickly filled them in on how she’d figured out her sister’s password, which allowed Sierra to access the nanny-cam videos on Tanya’s iCloud. And she gave them a description of the content that she’d watched the night before.

“We need to see that video right now,” Vikki Hill said. “Did you watch all of it?”

“No. There are hundreds of hours of footage, starting from November. A lot of it is whatever you can see while Maya drags Ellie around the apartment. Or in the car. It’s mostly life from the viewpoint of a four-year-old.”

“Tell us again about the part where Rooney shows up,” Joe said.

“It might not even be him,” Letty repeated. “It’s a guy in a knit cap and a puffy jacket. He walks into the apartment, and Tanya looks a little surprised, but then happy to see him. They kiss, and Tanya points out Maya, who’s across the room holding Ellie, which is why it’s hard to make out the guy’s face, or hear any of what the grown-ups are saying. Then, Maya freaks out and runs upstairs, taking Ellie with her. And that’s it. I watched more of the footage after that, but the mystery man doesn’t show up again.”

“And you can’t hear what Tanya and the man are talking about?” Agent Hill repeated.

“No.”

“Where’s this camera now?” she asked.

Letty fetched the camera and thumb drive Sierra had given her from her nightstand and placed it in the FBI agent’s hand. “This is it. Can you copy it and return it to me?”

Vikki nodded. “Okay. We’ll get it back to you. When was the most recent video shot?”

“February twenty-eighth was the last date,” Letty said. “I probably only got through a couple weeks’ worth before I finally fell asleep last night.”

She looked down at her hands, and then up at Vikki Hill. “I think the battery must have run down … before Tanya was killed. I fast-forwarded to the end, which takes place three days before. It’s nothing special. She takes Maya to the dentist, and the pediatrician. Tanya was getting ready to move to LA, you know, so she wanted to have all Maya’s records for when she started school out there.”

Letty’s eyes filled with tears. “I know my sister wasn’t a model mom. She could be self-involved and impetuous and so, so self-destructive. And yes, she struggled with drugs and alcohol. She and Evan had these awful knockdown fights, right in front of Maya. There’s one on the video, and it was so tough to watch. But she loved her daughter. Really loved her. And she was trying to do what was best for Maya. To get away from Evan, and start over.”

Letty found herself remembering the last bit of footage she’d watched the night before. The video showed Tanya giddy with excitement in anticipation of the move. She found herself choking up as she described the video.

“They went to Old Navy. It was snowing outside. She bought Maya a bathing suit, because the house she was going to rent out there has a pool.…”

Vikki Hill nodded. “It’s okay. We get it. I’ll take a look at the videos on the thumb drive, and I’ll send the one with Rooney to the bureau’s tech guys. Maybe they can amplify the sound or something.”

She glanced over at Joe DeCurtis. “How the hell would Rooney know where to find Tanya? And how—and why—would he show up back down here, following Letty and Maya around?”

“I’m wondering the same thing,” Joe said.

“We can’t get sidetracked by that right now,” the FBI agent said. “There’s no evidence Rooney was anywhere near Tanya’s apartment that day.”

She pointed at Letty. “Wingfield wants you ‘disappeared’ as he put it. This weekend. I’ve got to show him proof that you’re dead. And then he wants me, personally, to deliver Maya back to him.”

Letty crossed her arms over her chest. “Over my dead body.”