The Atonement (The Arrangement, #3)(36)

When the detective didn’t laugh along, he straightened up, clearing his throat. “My kids don’t think it’s funny either. That was probably the worst of them. I’ve got more—”

“That’s really not necessary, Mr. Greenburg.” She met my eyes again. “We didn’t find anything in the room either. There’s nothing here to suggest any of what you said or anything from that email is true. No black bag in the space in the wall, no traces of blood, no bodies in the woods.”

“It’s not possible,” I said, finding my voice again as I watched my chance to finally end this slipping away. I’d been so close. “I don’t know how he did it, Detective, but I promise you, he had to have moved the bodies. They’re there. They have to be.”

“And you know this how, Mrs. Greenburg? Because he wrote some email? There’s no proof that your husband wrote that email at all, other than it being sent from his email address, which you, no doubt, have access to. I’m not here to play marriage counselor. The taxpayers are not paying for us to come out here and ruin each other’s days for you guys. Filing a fake police report is a very serious matter. I could have you arrested—”

“It wasn’t false. I swear to you, it wasn’t. This is what he does. He had to have known I was going to turn him in. He knew I found the email. He knew I’d tell you where the bodies were.”

“Do you have any proof that the bodies existed at all? Anything besides the email?”

“No, nothing, but—”

“Had you ever seen them with your own eyes?”

Peter was staring at me now, too. Obviously enjoying this all a bit too much.

“No.”

“Then our work here is done.” She held her hand up with what must’ve been a signal, because the remaining officers began retreating to their cars, their work obviously done.

“Wait, wait!” I shouted as one final idea occurred to me. “Please…check under the patio. There’s a body under the patio.”

Detective Burks glanced over at the concrete patio, then back at Peter. Finally, she looked at me. “The letter didn’t mention that. I thought you said all the bodies were in the woods.”

It was my only chance. This was the only shot I had. There was no way Peter had moved Stefan’s or Illiana’s bodies, which meant they could still be found.

“They were. They…are. They should be. But there was one. He told me about it when I found the email. It’s why he put the patio down last summer.”

The detective blew a piece of hair from her eyes. “Look, Mrs. Greenburg, I don’t know what’s going on, but it seems an awful lot like you’re trying to play with me. I’m not going to waste any more time, energy, or resources on digging up your patio when we just had to dig up your woods.”

“Oh, please, no. If you’ll just dig it up, I promise you, you’ll see that—”

“If you can find me proof—” She held up her hand to cut me off. “I will listen. But otherwise, I advise the two of you to separate—at least for the night, but preferably for a long, long time—and cool off.”

“Thank you, Detective. We will,” Peter said, bowing to her as if he were practicing martial arts. I felt as if I were living in some alternate universe. How was any of this happening?

“Detective, please, if you’ll just listen—”

“I have listened, Mrs. Greenburg. I’m done listening now. I’m sorry.” She took another step back, but hesitated. “One last question.” She was looking at Peter. “If you’re not a gardener…” I felt bitter hope fill my chest. “Why has so much of your property been disturbed in the last few months?”

“Ex-excuse me?”

She turned back to face us. “Well, it’s obvious quite a bit of the area Mrs. Greenburg directed us to had recently been disturbed. Now, if you were a gardener, I guess that might make sense. But since you’ve already said you’re not…” She paused. “Would you care to explain?”

He shot a glance at me, then straightened his shoulders. “I…I’m not exactly sure where you were looking, but I’m in the early stages of clearing out some of the woods to build an extra workspace for my architecture firm. I’m hoping it’ll mean I can be home with the kids more—work from home and all that. Especially once we divide up custody. I’ve been digging around, preparing to lay the foundation and, like you saw, we have buried quite a few family pets out there and there are coyotes in the woods. I couldn’t say for sure which one caused what you saw. I’m happy to answer more questions if you want to show me the exact area.”

She was silent for a moment, then her lips pressed into a thin smile with a puff of breath from her nose. Her chest fell with the heavy release of air. “That won’t be necessary. I’ve taken up enough of your time.” Somehow, I thought she wanted to say we’d taken up enough of hers. She opened her mouth, obviously weighing what she was about to say. “Mr. Greenburg, I should ask if you want to press charges against your wife for the false allegations.”

He beamed at her, mocking sincerity. “Oh, no, it’s okay. Thank you, Detective. We don’t want to waste any more of your time. Tensions are just high right now. I’m really sorry you had to come all the way out here for this.”