Chương 3
“So you discussed an employee complaint with the person it was about,” Mercer said.
Calvin’s eyes sharpened.
“I discussed a vendor access issue.”
“Did you tell him who made the complaint?”
“No.”
Derek laughed from the curb.
Calvin turned toward him too quickly.
That was answer enough.
Evan lowered his head.
The tall man whispered something under his breath that sounded like a curse.
Mercer stepped between Calvin and the four men.
“What exactly did you tell Mr. Vance?”
Calvin’s face tightened with the miserable resentment of somebody who had spent years believing that good intentions should protect him from consequences.
“I told him Morgan had a habit of getting involved in things that weren’t her business.”
Teresa said, “Jesus, Calvin.”
“I was trying to calm him down.”
“You told him that?”
“He was angry.”
“So you fed him her name.”
“I did not feed anybody anything.”
His voice rose on the last word.
A few yards away, Collins looked up from writing in his notebook.
Calvin noticed and lowered his voice again.
“I said Morgan had been the one who stepped in on the loading dock.”
I felt something colder than anger settle behind my ribs.
“You told him where I work.”
“He already knew where you work.”
“You told him I made the complaint.”
“I didn’t say those words.”
Derek leaned forward.
“You said she was the reason I was off the route.”
Calvin shut his eyes.
Mercer’s jaw moved once.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
The banjo ringtone started again from the dropped phone.
This time Collins bent down, silenced it without unlocking the screen, and placed it with the other property he had collected.
A tractor trailer rumbled along the service road behind the store.
Its brakes hissed.
For one strange moment, the night resumed being ordinary.
A truck arrived.
A cart rolled loose.
Somewhere inside the store, an announcement crackled about a spill in grocery.
Then Calvin said, “I never told him to come here.”
I looked at him.
“That’s your defense?”
“I’m saying I didn’t know this was going to happen.”
“You knew he was angry.”
“Yes.”
“You knew the camera was out.”
Calvin’s mouth twitched.
“That had nothing to do with it.”
“You knew he’d been waiting near the employee exit.”
His eyes flicked toward Teresa.
She took one step forward.
“Don’t look at me like I betrayed you.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I’m trying to understand what everybody suddenly thinks I did.”
Teresa gave a short, humorless laugh.
“You want a list?”
Mercer raised one hand.
“Enough.”
He looked at Calvin.
“Do not leave.”
Calvin’s face changed.
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“You are now part of what we need to document.”
“I didn’t commit a crime.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
“That sounded like what you were saying.”
“It sounded like I told you not to leave.”
Calvin went quiet.
The authority in Mercer’s voice was not loud, but it left nowhere useful to push.
I had heard that voice before.
Years ago, when a local commander had refused to clear civilians from a courtyard we believed was about to become a firing position, Mercer had spoken exactly that way.
No anger.
No argument.
Just a narrowing of choices.
He caught me watching him.
For an instant, something old passed between us.
I looked away first.
Collins came over with my keys sealed in a small evidence bag.
“We’re going to photograph these before we return them.”
“That’s fine.”
“Do you need EMS?”
“No.”
“Ma’am.”
“No.”
He glanced at Mercer.
“Apparently she’s consistent,” Mercer said.
“I’m standing right here.”
“That has never stopped you from being difficult.”
Collins looked uncertain whether smiling would be inappropriate.
I saved him the decision.
“Can I give my statement now?”
He nodded.
We moved several yards away, close enough that I could see my car but far enough that Derek could not hear every word.
Collins asked me to begin with when I had left the building.
I told him about clocking out at 2:07, stopping at the break room because I had forgotten my thermos, and walking through the employee exit at approximately 2:14.
I told him I had noticed a dark pickup near the garden center but had not recognized anyone until Derek called my name.
That part bothered me.
Not because I had failed to identify the truck.
Because I had noticed it.
Some part of me had registered its position, the engine running, the fact that nobody was loading merchandise.
I had ignored the warning anyway.
Six years of trying not to be the person who noticed things had apparently worked.
“Did they say why they approached you?” Collins asked.
“Derek said they wanted to talk.”
“About the complaint?”
“Not at first.”
I glanced toward Evan.
“He made a comment after you arrived.”
Collins wrote it down.
“What happened after they blocked your vehicle?”
I described the wrist grab, the keys, the attempt to restrain me, and the knife.
I did not describe what my body had done in terms Collins would have recognized as training.
I said I got free.
I said I defended myself.
I said I stopped when I could.
Mercer remained several feet away, pretending to inspect the area near the cart return.
He knew exactly what I was doing.
“Which one had the knife?” Collins asked.
“Derek.”
“Did he point it at you?”
“He moved toward me with it.”
“Did he say anything?”
“No.”
“Were you afraid he would hurt you?”
The answer should have been simple.
Instead I watched Derek sitting on the curb with his shoulders rounded and his hands cuffed behind him.
He looked smaller now.
Just a man in a dirty work jacket.
I had seen men with rifles who frightened me less.
“No,” I said.
Collins stopped writing.
Mercer turned his head.
Collins said, “You weren’t afraid?”
“I believed he intended to hurt me.”
“That isn’t the same answer.”
“I know.”
He waited.
May you like
I hated him a little for being patient.
Finally, I said, “I was afraid of what I might do if he tried.”
