Chapter 5 - Laurel’s Sister Had Been Keeping Score
Meredith finally agreed to meet Caleb with attorneys present.
She looked perfectly composed when she entered the conference room.
No taupe satin.
No elaborate hair.
Just a simple gray dress and the expression of someone determined not to show fear.
Caleb asked one question before the lawyers began.
“Why did you use my security account?”
Meredith looked at her attorney.
Then back at Caleb.
“I checked on Elara.”
“At two in the morning?”
“Sometimes.”
“Without telling me?”
“I didn’t think I needed permission to care about my niece.”
There it was.
Niece.
Meredith was Laurel’s older sister.
She had been in the delivery room the night Elara was born.
She had been at the hospital when Laurel developed complications days later.
And she had been standing beside Caleb when his wife died.
For months afterward, Caleb had interpreted almost everything Meredith did through that shared grief.
The detective asked why she moved the camera.
Meredith denied intentionally changing its angle.
She claimed she might have bumped it while checking the wall mount.
Then June’s notes were introduced.
June kept childcare logs because that was part of her professional routine.
Feeding.
Sleep.
Medication.
Mood.
Minor incidents.
Over the previous four months, one pattern appeared repeatedly.
Meredith questioned June’s competence after small problems.
A late nap.
A spilled bottle.
A mild rash.
A missed toy.
A monitor temporarily disconnected.
Nothing severe enough to justify firing June.
But taken together, Meredith had turned them into a story.
June was careless.
June was defensive.
June didn’t respect the family.
June spent too much time holding Elara.
June behaved “like the mother.”
Caleb remembered that phrase.
Meredith had said it more than once.
At the time he assumed she was defending Laurel’s memory.
Now it sounded different.
The detective asked Meredith whether she wanted June fired.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t trust her.”
“Why not?”
Meredith’s eyes moved toward Caleb.
“She was replacing someone.”
Caleb felt the temperature of the room change.
“Replacing Laurel?”
Meredith’s voice tightened.
“She walked around my sister’s nursery like it belonged to her.”
June was not present.
Still, Caleb felt anger on her behalf.
“She was doing the job I hired her to do.”
“You hired someone before Laurel’s clothes were even out of the closet.”
“I hired help because my daughter needed care.”
“She needed family.”
May you like
That was the first moment Caleb understood that Meredith had never considered June merely incompetent.
She considered June an intruder.
