Chương 3
“I think I don’t know enough to promise they won’t.”
She stared at him for a long second.
“Then we’re leaving now.”
“Yes.”
“I want someone to drive us.”
“I’ll arrange it.”
“Not one of your security men who reports everything upstairs.”
Adrian almost corrected her, then stopped.
“That’s reasonable.”
“I’ll call my sister.”
“She lives in Tacoma.”
Nora narrowed her eyes.
“You know where my sister lives?”
“Payroll emergency contact.”
“That’s creepy.”
“It’s administrative.”
“It’s creepy administrative.”
He accepted that.
Nora reached for the door.
“Mr. Cross.”
“Yes.”
“If Lily gets dragged into this publicly, I will quit.”
Adrian’s first instinct was offense.
It arrived so fast and felt so familiar that he almost trusted it.
Then he pictured Lily under the curtain, holding her breath while adults discussed turning a marriage into an acquisition.
“You won’t have to.”
“That wasn’t a request.”
“I know.”
Nora left.
Adrian remained seated for several seconds after the door closed.
He noticed a coffee ring on the edge of the desk.
Someone had set a mug there without a coaster.
Under ordinary circumstances he would have mentioned it to housekeeping.
Instead, he rubbed at the mark with his thumb until it faded.
Daniel returned.
“Your fiancée is looking for you.”
“Of course she is.”
“She sent one of the planners.”
“What did you tell them?”
“That you were on a call.”
“That’ll buy ten minutes.”
“Maybe five.”
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
He checked it.
“The examiner is downstairs.”
Adrian opened the office door.
“Bring him up.”
“No.”
Daniel pointed toward the recorder.
“We leave it where it is.”
“We already moved it.”
“You moved it.”
“You watched.”
“That distinction matters professionally.”
Adrian stared at him.
Daniel sighed.
“Fine.”
He left again.
Adrian picked up his champagne glass.
The bubbles had nearly disappeared.
He carried it to the bathroom connected to the office and poured it down the sink.
A red smear marked the rim where Elena’s lipstick had touched the glass before she handed it to him.
He watched the water carry it away.
When he returned, Daniel entered with a compact man in a dark raincoat carrying a hard black equipment case.
“Evan Cho,” Daniel said.
Evan offered no handshake.
He looked at the recorder, then at Adrian.
“Who touched it?”
“I did.”
“With what?”
“A handkerchief.”
“Before or after removing it?”
“During.”
“Anyone else?”
“No.”
Evan set down the case.
“Was it powered when discovered?”
“Yes.”
“Still is.”
He photographed the desk, the underside where adhesive residue remained, the recorder from several angles, and Adrian’s handkerchief folded beside it.
He asked questions without reacting to the answers.
When Adrian mentioned Lily, Evan paused.
“Minor witness?”
“Yes.”
“Do not interview her repeatedly.”
“I asked what she saw.”
“Once?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Daniel looked at Adrian as though this proved something.
Evan put on gloves.
“Did anyone attempt playback?”
“No.”
“Connect it to another device?”
“No.”
“Remove storage media?”
“No.”
He nodded.
“That helps.”
Adrian folded his arms.
“How soon can you tell us what’s on it?”
“I can tell you what files are on it after acquisition.”
“And whether they were altered?”
“Sometimes.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the accurate answer.”
Adrian disliked him immediately.
That also helped.
Evan sealed the recorder in an evidence bag, documented the seal number, then opened his equipment case and prepared a laptop.
“You’ll need a place where I’m not going to be interrupted.”
“You’re standing in it.”
From the hallway came three quick knocks.
“Adrian?”
Elena.
No one moved.
Her hand tried the handle.
Locked.
“Adrian, are you in there?”
Daniel whispered, “You have to answer.”
Adrian looked at the sealed recorder in Evan’s hand.
“Yes.”
“What are you doing?”
“Working.”
“You locked the door.”
“Daniel’s here.”
A beat of silence.
Then Elena laughed lightly.
“On Thursday before our wedding?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Adrian said, “Apparently marriage does not suspend securities law.”
There was another pause.
When Elena answered, something in her voice had changed.
“Open the door.”
Adrian looked at Daniel.
Daniel shook his head.
“I’m changing.”
The lie sounded absurd the moment it left him.
Elena said nothing.
Then her footsteps receded.
Evan raised one eyebrow.
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
“That was astonishingly bad.”
“I’m not practiced.”
“You lie for a living.”
“I negotiate.”
“That is lying in a better suit.”
Evan returned to his laptop.
“I’m going to pretend this is normal client behavior.”
Adrian walked to the door and listened.
Nothing.
He unlocked it.
Daniel grabbed his wrist.
“What are you doing?”
“She knows something’s wrong.”
“She knows you’re behaving strangely.”
“She knows Daniel is here.”
“That’s not illegal yet.”
Adrian opened the door.
The hallway was empty.
A floral arrangement stood on a console table twenty feet away.
One white petal had fallen onto the floor.
He stepped into the hall.
At the far end, the elevator doors closed.
Elena was gone.
Adrian returned to the office.
“Call downstairs.”
Daniel did.
No answer from house security.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
Adrian took out his phone and called the kitchen manager.
She answered over a roar of voices.
“Mr. Cross?”
“Where is Elena?”
“I just saw her crossing the ballroom.”
“Alone?”
“I think so.”
“Toward where?”
“The east stairs.”
Adrian ended the call.
Daniel’s expression changed.
“The guest suites.”
“The red folder.”
“Do not run through your own wedding rehearsal chasing your fiancée.”
Adrian was already at the door.
“Then walk quickly.”
They took the east corridor.
Below them, the house was alive with voices and clinking glassware.
A coordinator intercepted Adrian at the staircase.
“Finally.”
“Not now.”
“Actually now, because your uncle refuses table nine and Elena says—”
“Where is Elena?”
The coordinator blinked.
“She went upstairs.”
“When?”
“Two minutes ago.”
“Did she have anything?”
“A purse.”
“Anything else?”
The woman looked confused.
“A folder, maybe.”
“What color?”
“I don’t know.”
Adrian continued upstairs.
Daniel followed, breathing harder.
“You are going to kill me before the fraud does.”
May you like
“You should exercise.”
“I bill by the hour, not the mile.”
