In my experience honest people often couldn’t comprehend the dishonest kind. They believed if they just made things clear, right would triumph. Until recently, I’d been one of them, at least as far as my own family was concerned.

Ella was waiting for my response. I plowed through it. “I’m guessing Wendy quietly went behind your back and framed you so that my father would never believe anything you said about her.”

“She proved she wasn’t just deceitful, she was experienced. Of course the email I’d saved to protect myself disappeared from my computer and our server. The flash drive I’d backed it up to went missing, and the manager in Barbados was fired for stealing cash from a hotel guest.”

It was hard to believe my sister’s reach had extended as far as Barbados. But all of this was hard to believe, and I couldn’t discount any of it.

“Did you try to tell my father what was going on?”

“I did try, but by then it was clear he wasn’t going to believe a word I said.”

Dad had rejected Ella’s story, but now I wondered if it would help him accept the truth, if or when things with Wendy finally came to a head.

“I’m sorry. I keep saying that, but I am.” I touched her hand, which was still hovering over her sandwich. “You didn’t deserve any of this.”

“If all this comes out in the open, and your father realizes he fired the most loyal employee he’ll ever have? If somehow that little miracle occurs?” She looked up. “I don’t want my job back. I don’t want anything from any Gracey, except to be left alone.”

“I won’t bother you again. You gave me more than I had a right to know.”

“I don’t think you’re anything like Wendy, if that’s any comfort.” Ella picked up her sandwich and took her first bite.

Maybe it was a comfort, but not much of one. I stood, left my sandwich on the table hoping she would take it home for dinner, and walked out of the café.

At home after lunch with Ella, Glenn’s email was no surprise. He asked if I wanted him to send the two dozen or so photos he’d retrieved from the flash drive, while also implying it would be a bad idea to do it over the internet. I was in no mood to wait, so I took my chances. When I had finished clicking through them, I knew that Ella had only discovered the tip of the iceberg.

I also understood why Wendy had hired Jonah to empty the safe. Six men, probably all Gracey Group investors of one kind or the other, were now prime candidates for blackmail. It didn’t take an experienced investigator to realize what Wendy, in various stages of undress, had planned.

I wondered if the photos were just insurance, something she’d planned to tuck away and pull out if her other life plans fell apart. If so, the disintegration had begun. I wondered if Bryce had caught her with a fellow officer or two while she was honing her covert photography skills. But even with a divorce, Wendy was still in line to take over Gracey Group, pay herself an extravagant salary and live happily-ever-after.