Page 37 of One Last Goodbye

I type the numbers in, and the computer opens to the desktop. I blink in surprise. “Surely it’s not usually this easy.”

“You’d be surprised. All right. Was there anything else?”

“Well, you’re here, so you might as well remain on the line.”

“Might as well,” he says drily.

I open the internet browser. The home page is his email account. The inbox is full of business emails. Nothing out of the ordinary.

“What are you looking at now?” Sean asks.

“Emails.”

"You won't find anything in the main inboxes. You'll be looking for a password-protected folder in the archived messages. It'll be labeled something innocuous like spam or miscellaneous."

I open the archived messages and peruse the folders. There is a miscellaneous folder, but it’s not password protected, and when I scan the emails, I see only old financial reports.

I try spam, and when it asks for a password, my heart races. “It’s asking for a password.”

“Hmm… Let’s try… oh-four-oh-four-twenty-three.”

“What’s that?”

“That’s the date Veronica Baines started working for Jensen Wealth Management.”

I lift my eyebrow and type in the numbers. The folder opens, and I see a single email thread between Veronica Baines and Frederick Jensen. I pump my fist in excitement. “Sean, you brilliant fool.”

“An oxymoronic badge I will wear with pride,” he says wryly. “I can’t see the screen, so tell me what we have. Is it juicy?”

I read the emails, starting with the most recent and working backwards. “Oh yes,” I reply, “Very juicy.”

The first email I read—the last sent between them—is from Veronica to Frederick. It’s an image of an airline ticket. Above the image is the phrase,See you soon, love,followed by a heart emoji.

Things get considerably worse from there. I read this story backwards, but if I were to arrange it chronologically, I would summarize it by saying that Veronica and Frederick begin an emotional affair almost immediately after she began working for Jensen Wealth Management. After about six months, that emotional affair becomes physical, as evidenced by a numberof pictures I would rather have not seen. Sean rather enthusiastically asks me to forward him copies of these emails, and I choose to believe it's because he wants them as evidence.

Beginning nine weeks before Frederick’s death, he tries to put an end to the affair. This is when things become sobering.

Veronica takes it badly. Very badly. At first, it is simple name-calling and degradation, but when Frederick threatens to fire her, she emails him dozens of pictures and videos of their time together and threatens to tell Catherine about the affair. He threatens to ruin her, and she threatens to, and I quote, “Allow you to live just long enough to regret the day you ever met me.”

Because humans are inexplicable creatures, Veronica sends an apology email three days later, and four days after that—a week before Frederick’s death—Frederick forgives her, apologizes for getting cold feet, and says he wants to be with her for the rest of his life.

“See,thisis some solid evidence,” Sean says. “This is an actual, tangible threat. I think we should—”

The sound of shouting causes me to flinch. “Hush, Sean.”

“What?” he says, concerned. “What is it?”

“Just hush.”

I hear the shouting come closer and recognize the voice as Olivia’s. I curse inwardly. I know she has a habit of coming to her father’s study. If she catches me here, I won’t be able to defend my presence. She already suspects me of snooping.

“I have to go.”

“Shit. Is everything okay?”

“For now, yes,” I say, quickly closing the emails and shutting down the computer, “but if I’m still in this room in thirty seconds, it won’t be. I’ll call you later.”

“All right. Be safe.”

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