Chương 7
Niko leaned closer. “Owen knows there’s a video. He doesn’t know I have it. He asked if anyone saw a phone near table eleven.”
“Did someone tell him?”
“Maybe the woman who whispered. She called this afternoon and asked me if I had recorded her voice.”
“What did you say?”
“No.”
Sadie took a slow breath. “My lawyer can use the video. But your name may come out.”
“I can’t lose this job.”
“You may anyway.”
“My mother’s insulin is six hundred dollars when insurance gets confused. Insurance gets confused every month.”
“I won’t use it without your permission.”
Niko looked at her. “Will Julian?”
“He doesn’t know.”
“Keep it that way.”
The laundromat door opened.
Mateo entered.
Niko stood so quickly his chair struck the floor.
Sadie felt anger arrive before fear.
“What are you doing here?”
Mateo stopped inside the doorway. He wore no overcoat despite the cold rain outside. Water darkened his hair.
“Mr. Croft asked me to make sure you weren’t followed.”
“You followed me.”
“There is a distinction.”
“Not from this chair,” Niko said.
Mateo looked at him. “I’m not here for your phone.”
Niko’s face went pale.
Sadie stepped between them. “How do you know about his phone?”
“I saw the message notification when you were in Mr. Croft’s car earlier.”
“You read my screen?”
“I read everything visible.”
“That is not an answer people find comforting,” Niko said.
Mateo’s expression did not change. “I don’t intend it as comfort.”
Sadie picked up her bag. “Leave.”
“I need to tell you something first.”
“No.”
“It concerns Iris.”
She hated that he knew which word would stop her.
Mateo glanced at Niko. “Not here.”
“It happens here or not at all,” Sadie said.
For a moment, the dryers and fluorescent lights seemed to hold the three of them in separate worlds.
Then Mateo sat down.
“I found the liaison assigned to Iris’s building,” he said. “Her name is Dana Wills. She worked for a relocation contractor hired by Vane Urban. Three weeks ago, Dana reported that Iris refused all offers and threatened to contact Julian directly.”
“Why would that matter?” Niko asked.
“Because Celeste had told her team that Mr. Croft wanted the block cleared before the engagement announcement.”
“Did he?” Sadie asked.
Mateo looked at her. “He wanted the project secured.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“No. He did not order Iris removed.”
“But he wanted the project.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to Dana?”
“She was told to increase pressure. Utility inspections. Noise citations. Repeated entry notices. Nothing that looks criminal by itself.”
“And the men who took Rufus?”
“Dana hired a private security contractor. Two employees claimed they were animal-control officers. After they removed the dog, he escaped from their van near The Harrington’s loading street.”
“Escaped?”
“One man says Rufus bit him when they tried to transfer him. They struck him and tied him to a rail behind an abandoned warehouse. The rope broke.”
Niko closed his eyes.
Sadie’s hands curled against her knees.
“Where are the men?”
“Gone.”
“Gone where?” she asked.
Mateo’s silence answered.
Sadie stood.
“You said you weren’t here for the phone.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re here to make me believe you solved it.”
“I came because you deserve to know.”
“Do the police know?”
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“We are verifying.”
“That means deciding what to hide.”
Mateo’s mouth tightened. “It means if I give Officer Brooks unsupported names, those men disappear more effectively.”
“They already disappeared.”
“From us. Not from the country.”
Niko looked at Sadie. “This is what I was afraid of.”
Mateo turned toward him. “Your video should go to your attorney and the police. Preserve the original file and its metadata. Do not send it to Mr. Croft.”
Sadie stared at him.
“Why are you saying that?”
“Because Officer Brooks was right.”
He stood.
Before leaving, he placed a folded page on the plastic chair.
It was a copy of Dana Wills’s internal report.
At the bottom, beneath notes about Iris’s refusals, someone had written: CV requests accelerated resolution before 14th. No direct Croft contact.
Celeste’s initials.
Niko read the line twice.
“Is this real?”
Mateo looked at Sadie. “Ask your lawyer to verify it.”
“You could be giving me anything.”
“Yes.”
“Why help us?”
He glanced at the laundromat window. His reflection floated over the dark street.
“I told Julian that Iris was being monitored. I did not tell him I stopped checking who was doing it.”
“That isn’t the same as taking her dog.”
“No.” Mateo opened the door. “It is the distance from which people like me prefer to cause harm.”
After he left, Niko sat down again.
“I want my name kept out until the police guarantee something.”
“They can’t guarantee your job.”
“Then I don’t know.”
Sadie folded Dana’s report and put it in her bag.
“You don’t have to decide tonight.”
“You do?”
“No.”
For the first time since the dining room, she admitted it.
The following morning, Celeste Vane appeared on a nationally streamed business program wearing a cream suit and no visible ankle bandage.
She spoke calmly about the East Halcyon redevelopment project. She described affordable units, small-business grants, and community renewal. When the interviewer asked about the incident at her engagement dinner, Celeste lowered her eyes.
“It was a frightening moment,” she said. “An injured animal was brought into a formal event. I reacted imperfectly. I regret any distress caused, but the online narrative is false and deeply harmful.”
She did not name Sadie.
She did not need to.
The screen displayed the old Maplewood Animal Hospital headline.
Celeste continued. “There is a pattern of physical aggression that should concern people before they rush to judgment.”
Janelle threw a sock at the television.
Sadie sat on the edge of the couch, pressing her thumbnail into the seam of a cushion.
“She’s good,” Janelle said.
“At lying?”
“At saying the truth around the lie.”
Sadie’s phone rang. Mara.
May you like
“Do not respond publicly,” the lawyer said.
“I wasn’t going to.”
