Chương 7
Calvin stood up.
“I need a lawyer.”
Mercer nodded.
“That would be reasonable.”
Calvin seemed to expect something else.
Maybe resistance.
Maybe accusation.
Instead Mercer simply stepped away and told Collins not to question him further about the messages until they had clarified Calvin’s status.
That restraint made the whole thing feel more serious.
Nobody was performing anymore.
Not even Derek.
I stared at Calvin.
He kept his eyes down.
For six years I had parked in the same general area every morning before sunrise.
I had complained about rent increases in the break room.
I had mentioned fixing my own sink because there was nobody else to do it.
I had brought in a cake once and joked that cooking for one person was an inefficient use of electricity.
Tiny pieces of ordinary life.
I had never considered that someone was collecting them.
Not maliciously.
Maybe that was worse.
Calvin had simply known.
People knew things about one another at work.
Who had kids.
Who was divorced.
Who took the bus.
Who had bad knees.
Who lived alone.
Information passed around in conversations that seemed harmless until it was placed in the wrong hands.
I folded my sleeve down over my wrist.
Mercer watched the motion.
“You need somewhere else to stay tonight.”
“No.”
“Morgan.”
“No.”
Derek laughed softly from the curb.
It was enough.
I turned toward him.
“What?”
He shrugged.
“Nothing.”
“You think you’re going home?”
Collins stepped between us.
“Ms. Reed.”
Derek’s eyes stayed on mine.
His confidence was returning now that the immediate danger had passed.
“I think this got blown way out of proportion.”
I almost smiled.
“Four men blocked my car.”
“We were talking.”
“You took my keys.”
“Evan took your keys.”
Evan looked up sharply.
“Because you threw them at me.”
Derek ignored him.
“You attacked Jason.”
The man I had pinned against the hood nodded.
“My shoulder is messed up.”
“You tried to put my arm behind my back.”
“You were acting crazy.”
Mercer said, “That’s enough.”
Derek leaned back again.
“I’m just saying she’s not some helpless victim.”
The word helpless did something inside me.
It pulled open a door I had kept closed for years.
Not because I had once been helpless.
Because I had failed to be helpless when I should have been human.
Dust.
Concrete.
The smell of overheated wiring.
A boy named Aaron calling for a medic even though the medic was already dead.
I forced the memory down before it could form.
Mercer saw my face.
He stepped closer.
“Look at me.”
I hated the command.
I hated that I obeyed it.
His eyes were older than they had been overseas.
There were lines around them now.
A scar near his chin I did not remember.
“Parking lot,” he said quietly.
I swallowed.
“I know where I am.”
“Tell me.”
“Walmart.”
“What city?”
“Fayetteville.”
“What year?”
I glared at him.
He waited.
“Twenty twenty-six.”
“What’s in your hand?”
I looked down.
“My thermos.”
Teresa frowned.
“What is happening?”
“I’m fine.”
Mercer ignored me.
“What color is Teresa’s jacket?”
Teresa looked at her own jacket.
“Purple.”
I almost snapped at her.
Then I laughed.
It came out wrong.
Too sharp.
Teresa blinked.
“Sorry.”
“No,” I said.
“I’m sorry.”
Mercer lowered his voice.
“Better?”
I nodded once.
Kayla stared at me with careful concern.
I hated that expression more than pity because people used it when they were trying not to show pity.
“I need coffee,” I said.
Teresa held up my thermos.
“You are literally holding coffee.”
“Coffee that doesn’t taste like aluminum.”
“That narrows Walmart out.”
Kayla gave a small laugh.
It helped.
The world returned by inches.
The buzzing light above the cart corral.
The cold pavement beneath my shoes.
The smell of stale fryer oil drifting from somewhere beyond the highway.
Ordinary things.
Useful things.
Mercer stepped away once he was certain I was steady.
He did not ask what I had seen.
That was one reason I had once trusted him.
He knew some memories became worse when somebody demanded names for them.
Pamela finished a phone call near her SUV.
When she returned, she looked exhausted.
“Corporate security is preserving the store systems.”
Calvin remained silent.
“Compliance wants written statements from every employee who had contact with Derek or knowledge of the camera issue.”
Teresa said, “That’ll be a few people.”
Pamela nodded.
“I suspect so.”
“What happens to Calvin?”
Pamela glanced at him.
“He’s suspended pending investigation.”
Calvin laughed bitterly.
“So I’m guilty already.”
Pamela faced him.
“No.”
“Sure sounds like it.”
“You shared protected employee information with a vendor who was the subject of a harassment complaint.”
“I was trying to defuse the situation.”
“You may keep saying that.”
“It matters.”
Pamela’s expression hardened.
“Yes.”
“It does.”
“Intent matters.”
“So does judgment.”
Calvin looked at me.
“You know I would never deliberately put you in danger.”
I did not answer.
His face tightened.
“Morgan.”
“You told him when I left work.”
“I thought he wanted to apologize.”
“You told him I lived alone.”
“That was stupid.”
“Yes.”
“I know that now.”
“No.”
My voice surprised me with how calm it sounded.
“You know it now because there are deputies standing here.”
He flinched.
“That’s not fair.”
I almost said neither was any of this.
The words felt too easy.
Instead I looked at him.
“What would you have thought tomorrow morning if he’d scared me and left?”
Calvin said nothing.
“What if he’d shoved me?”
His mouth opened, then closed.
“What if there hadn’t been a knife?”
“I don’t know.”
“I think you do.”
He looked away.
That was the first time I believed he might actually understand what he had done.
Not fully.
Maybe never fully.
But enough to stop defending himself for three consecutive seconds.
Pamela took a breath.
“I need to speak with Kayla privately.”
Kayla immediately shook her head.
“I want Morgan there.”
Pamela looked at me.
May you like
I nearly refused.
Every instinct told me to go home, lock the door, close the curtains, and disappear again.
