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“Other than the fact that you almost drove Madeline’s out of business,” Julia said, her voice cold. Carole was stealing from her so Harper could have a designer handbag? “Why didn’t you tell Harper to get a job if she wanted expensive things?”
“She’s only fifteen,” Carole said. “Not many places will hire a fifteen-year-old.”
Julia opened her mouth, then snapped it closed. Not her job to tell Carole how to raise her daughter. And the bottom line was, Carole could have said no to Dawson’s scheme, but she chose to go along with it.
“Did you ask him why he was willing to help you do that?” Julia asked.
Carole’s face turned red. “He said it was because he was so crazy about me,” she muttered. “He didn’t like to see me unhappy. And he said you should be paying me more money.”
Julia stared at her hands for a long moment. When they curled into claws, she flattened them on her thighs. “Kent Dawson’s real name is Jeff Stewart. He’s my brother, Carole. He started the fire that killed my parents and was supposed to kill me.”
Carole recoiled as if Julia had slapped her.
Julia held the other woman’s gaze. “But Jeff was cocky even back then. He didn’t check carefully enough to make sure that I was in my bed when he set off that explosion. He needed to correct his mistake. He wanted Madeline’s to fail so that when it closed, no one would notice when I disappeared.”
Carole gasped. Clapped her hand over her mouth and stared at Julia, shock and horror in her gaze. “I never wanted you dead, Julia.”
“But the things you did were helping my brother make sure I wouldn’t be missed for a while if I died.”
Carole looked away, her lower lip quivering. “I don’t have the money I stole from you,” she whispered. “I spent it all. But I swear I’ll pay you back. Every single penny. It’ll take me a while, but as soon as I find another job, I’ll give you money every week. I’m sorry, Julia.”
Carole would never be Julia’s friend. She never wanted to see her former hostess again. But she was pretty certain her regret and remorse were genuine.
“Let me know when you find another job, Carole,” she said after a long moment. “And you’ll have to testify against Kent. Get on the witness stand and tell the jury everything. Will you do that?”
Carole nodded vigorously. “I will. I’ll tell them everything you want me to tell them.”
“I want you to tell them the truth,” Julia said, clenching her jaw. “No exaggerating. No embellishing. You need to tell the jury exactly what Jeff said. Was it his idea to put the spyware on my computers?”
Carole nodded. “He said I needed to know if you changed your password,” the woman said in a small voice. “He always called me when you did.”
Julia shoved away from the table. “I’m glad he didn’t kill you, Carole. You didn’t deserve to die. But I’d rather not see you again. When you get another job, I expect you to mail me a check every week. Do you understand?”
“I’m really sorry, Julia,” Carole said again. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Julia stared at her for a long moment. “You did mean to hurt me, Carole. You, Ruth and Andra chose to steal almost ten thousand dollars from me. You didn’t think that was going to hurt me and my business?”
Carole stared at her hands and remained silent.
“One more thing, Carole,” Nico said. “Did Dawson have a key to your apartment?”
Without raising her head, Carole nodded.
“He was in your apartment one day when Harper came home from school. What was he looking for?”
Carole gasped. Lifted her head. “He… he didn’t hurt her, did he?”
“No. I got her out of there.” Nico leaned closer to Carole, who shrank away from him. “What did he want?”
Carole sighed. “I took some pictures of him. Of the two of us. Had them made into prints. My guess? He wanted those pictures so there wouldn’t be any proof he knew me.”
Gorowski frowned. “I’ll need those pictures,” she said.
When Carole nodded, Julia and Nico stood up. “Detective Gorowski, can you tell me what the other woman’s bail is?” Nico asked.
Gorowski pulled a binder off her shelf and paged through it. “Josie’s bail was a thousand dollars.” She looked up with an apologetic expression. “She was a repeat offender.”
Nico pulled a check out of his wallet and filled it in. “Here you go, Detective. I need to get Julia out of here.”
