Page 85 of Where the Snakes Sleep

“Yes.”

“So he could’ve hidden the originals here but convinced Henri there were copies somewhere else.”

“Possibly. Or there really were copies elsewhere. A solicitor, a bank deposit box, someone in America, instructions scheduled to be acted upon if Alberte died under suspicious circumstances. There are dozens of possibilities, and I have never found proof of any one of them.”

Ryan chews the inside of his cheek. “But then Alberte dies, and nothing comes out.”

“Nothing publicly, at least,” I add.

“So if Henri is alive, he waits a little while to see if anything gets released, nothing does, and then…” He points toward the frozen image of the sedan. “This.”

“Potentially.”

“Which would mean whoever is in that car thinks the evidence still exists and is at the cottage.”

“Or believes the cottage is the most logical place to begin looking.”

Ryan falls quiet.

The silence stretches long enough that I hear the faint ticking of the antique clock behind me.

Eventually, he says, “But Alberte knew he was getting old.”

I look at him. “He was sixty-nine, not ninety.”

“I know, but still. He had to know that eventually he’d die. Why wouldn’t he tell someone where everything was?”

“Perhaps he did.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know.”

Ryan drags both hands over his face, the gesture leaving his hair standing unevenly around his temples. “Every answer creates five more questions.”

“That is generally how investigations work.”

“It sucks.”

“It does.”

“And why me?” The question comes quieter.

I do not understand it at first.

“Why leave the cottage to me?” he clarifies. “If there’s something dangerous hidden there, why give it to the grandson who doesn’t know anything?”

A difficult question.

One I have asked myself many times since learning of Alberte’s will.

“I cannot know what Alberte intended.”

“He could’ve left it to my dad.”

“Would he have accepted it?”

Ryan’s lips part, then press together again. He looks away. “No. God, no. He’s too busy getting wasted to care about anything other than himself.”