Chương 6
She closed her fingers around them.
“I’m not admitting anything,” he said.
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“This is going to ruin me.”
Teresa looked at Kayla.
Kayla looked at the pavement.
I said nothing.
Calvin turned toward me.
“You’re happy now?”
The question surprised everyone, including him.
Pamela said, “Do not.”
But he was already committed.
“You always do this.”
I stared at him.
“Do what?”
“Make everything bigger.”
I almost laughed.
“You mean when a man corners a nineteen-year-old employee?”
“I mean you come in here acting like every problem is life or death.”
The words struck somewhere old.
Mercer’s face changed.
I knew he had heard what Calvin could not possibly know.
I kept my eyes on Calvin.
“You think I wanted this?”
“I think you like being the one who knows what everybody else should do.”
Teresa took a step forward.
“Calvin, stop.”
“No.”
He pointed at me.
“She’s been here six years and nobody knows anything about her.”
“That’s none of your business,” Teresa said.
“She acts like she’s above everyone.”
I felt heat rise into my face.
That anger was easier than fear.
Easier than memory.
“You told Derek when I got off work.”
“I never told him to attack you.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
He looked away.
Pamela said, “Did you?”
Calvin’s silence lasted too long.
Mercer moved closer.
Calvin finally said, “He asked when he could come by and talk to Morgan.”
Kayla made a small sound.
Teresa whispered something under her breath.
I said, “And you told him.”
“I told him your shift ended around two.”
My hands went cold.
“You knew the parking lot camera was broken.”
“I didn’t connect those things.”
“You changed my schedule.”
“Because of payroll.”
“You told Teresa you’d handle my schedule.”
“That was unrelated.”
“You told Derek when I left.”
“I didn’t know he would bring people.”
His voice cracked.
There it was.
Not innocence.
A boundary he had drawn for himself.
He had expected Derek to confront me.
He just had not expected four men.
Pamela heard it too.
“What did you think would happen?”
Calvin rubbed his face.
“I thought he’d talk to her.”
“At two in the morning?”
“He said he wanted to clear the air.”
Teresa laughed once.
“Men always want to clear the air when women are alone.”
Pamela looked at Calvin with open disgust now.
“Did you tell him security coverage was down?”
“No.”
Derek shouted, “You told me nobody watched that side.”
Calvin spun toward him.
“You lying bastard.”
Mercer raised his voice for the first time.
“Enough.”
The entire lane went still.
Even the people filming near the entrance lowered their phones a little.
Mercer walked to Calvin.
“If there are communications, they’ll show what was said.”
Calvin breathed hard.
“Fine.”
“Do you consent to us reviewing your phone?”
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
Mercer nodded.
“That is your right.”
Calvin seemed almost disappointed that nobody argued.
Pamela said, “You still need to preserve it for the company investigation.”
“That’s my personal phone.”
“You use it for vendor communication.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do, because you text me from it about deliveries.”
Calvin’s face fell.
Pamela looked toward Deputy Shaw.
“I’m calling corporate legal.”
Calvin sat down on the curb several yards away from Derek.
Nobody told him to.
He just seemed unable to stay standing.
I watched him bend forward with his elbows on his knees.
He looked older than he had an hour earlier.
I expected satisfaction.
Instead I felt tired.
Teresa handed me my thermos.
“You’re still holding this for no reason.”
I looked down.
She was right.
I had been gripping the handle so tightly my fingers hurt.
I twisted the lid off.
The coffee inside had gone cold.
I drank it anyway.
Teresa made a face.
“That is disgusting.”
“It was disgusting hot.”
“That does not improve your decision.”
Kayla stood beside us.
Her arms were still folded across herself.
“You saved me from him.”
I looked at her.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I interrupted him.”
“That matters.”
I wanted to tell her it was nothing.
That instinct rose automatically.
Nothing.
Fine.
Handled.
Words I had lived inside for six years.
Instead I said, “I should have pushed harder after you told Calvin.”
Kayla shook her head.
“You didn’t know.”
“I knew enough to report the camera.”
“That’s more than anybody else did.”
The shame in her voice bothered me.
I lowered mine.
“You were not supposed to solve this by yourself.”
She looked at me for a long moment.
Then she said, “Neither were you.”
I had no answer for that.
Across the lot, Collins had begun reviewing Derek’s phone under the consent procedure with Deputy Shaw beside him.
A few minutes passed.
Then Collins stopped scrolling.
He looked at Mercer.
Mercer crossed to him.
They spoke quietly.
Mercer’s face went still.
Not shocked.
Worse.
Certain.
He walked back toward me.
“What?”
He glanced at Kayla and Teresa.
Then he looked directly at me.
“There are messages from Calvin.”
I felt my stomach tighten.
“What do they say?”
Mercer hesitated.
“They establish that he gave Derek your schedule.”
“That part we know.”
“There’s more.”
Behind him, Calvin looked up.
Mercer lowered his voice.
“Derek asked whether you lived alone.”
The parking lot seemed to lose sound.
I looked toward Calvin.
He had heard anyway.
His face collapsed.
Mercer continued.
“Calvin answered yes.”
I did not feel the shock all at once.
It arrived in pieces.
First there was the sentence.
Then Calvin’s face.
Then the fact that Derek had asked the question at all.
Then the worst part.
Calvin had answered.
Teresa whispered, “Oh my God.”
Kayla moved closer to me without touching me.
Pamela turned toward Calvin.
“You told him she lived alone?”
Calvin shook his head quickly.
“I don’t remember that.”
Mercer’s voice stayed flat.
“It’s in the message thread.”
“I could have meant she comes to work alone.”
“That isn’t what he asked.”
May you like
“I don’t remember the conversation.”
“You remembered enough five minutes ago to tell us what you thought Derek wanted.”
