Chương 8
You disappeared before breakfast again.
Alexander read the message twice.
Then another appeared.
Mrs. Alvarez says I’m supposed to remind you I have the college thing tonight.
He typed back.
I remember.
Three dots appeared immediately.
That’s suspicious.
Alexander typed.
Seven o’clock.
Ethan replied.
Six thirty.
Alexander looked at the message.
Then at the clock.
He had forgotten the time.
Not the event.
Just the time.
It irritated him more than it should have.
He corrected himself.
Six thirty.
Ethan sent a thumbs-up.
Then another message came.
Do I need a tie?
Alexander stared at it.
Claire was still beside Grace.
Lily had wandered behind his desk without permission and was peering at his screen.
“Who’s Ethan?”
“My son.”
“He needs a tie.”
“I gathered that.”
“Do you know how to tie one?”
Alexander looked at her.
Across the office, Claire began to smile.
“Not well.”
Lily nodded sympathetically.
“My mom does.”
Claire’s smile disappeared.
“No.”
Alexander almost laughed.
Before he could answer, Nina knocked.
“Nathan’s here.”
A thin man in his thirties entered carrying a laptop bag and wearing running shoes with a suit.
He stopped when he saw the girls.
Then Claire.
Then Alexander.
“Did I miss a holiday?”
“No.”
Nathan looked at Marcus.
Marcus shook his head.
“Don’t ask.”
Alexander gestured toward Claire.
“Mrs. Bennett has building security logs.”
Nathan’s expression changed immediately.
“What happened?”
Claire stood.
“Someone may have disabled two cameras outside my apartment last night.”
Nathan set his bag down.
“May have?”
“My daughter says a man came to the door after the cameras stopped recording.”
Grace shifted closer to Claire.
Nathan noticed and adjusted his tone.
“Okay.”
He opened his laptop.
“Send me the logs.”
Claire forwarded the files.
For several minutes, the office became strangely ordinary.
Nathan typed.
Marcus ate one of his questionable cheese snacks.
Sophie watched him with fascination.
Emma looked through the window at the traffic below.
Lily drew a face on Alexander’s notepad.
Claire stood behind Nathan’s shoulder without sitting.
Alexander answered two emails.
No one mentioned Mercer.
Then Nathan stopped typing.
His posture changed.
Alexander saw it first.
“What?”
Nathan turned the laptop.
“The cameras didn’t lose connection.”
Claire leaned closer.
“What happened?”
Nathan pointed to a line in the log.
“They were disabled through the building’s administrator account.”
Claire went pale.
Marcus stopped chewing.
Alexander looked at the timestamp.
Six twelve.
Exactly as Michael had said.
Claire swallowed.
“Who has that account?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
She already did.
Alexander could see it in her face.
“Claire.”
She looked at him.
“My brother.”
Nathan waited.
Claire shook her head quickly.
“No.”
Marcus said nothing.
That was worse.
Claire’s voice sharpened.
“Michael owns the unit and sits on the condo board.”
Alexander stood.
“Anyone else?”
“The property manager has credentials.”
“Same account?”
“I don’t know.”
Nathan pointed again.
“This login came from a device that had used the account before.”
Claire stared at the screen.
Her phone rang.
Michael.
Nobody moved.
The sound filled the office.
Claire looked at Alexander.
For the first time since entering the café, she seemed less frightened of Mercer than of what the next answer might cost her.
She answered.
“Michael.”
Her brother spoke for several seconds.
Claire listened.
Then she closed her eyes.
“No.”
Another pause.
“What did you give him?”
Alexander’s attention sharpened.
Claire opened her eyes.
Her voice came out thin.
“Michael, what did you give Daniel?”
Michael’s answer came slowly enough that Claire lowered the phone and checked whether the call had dropped.
Then she raised it again.
“What access did you give him?”
Alexander could hear Michael now because Claire had switched to speaker without seeming to notice.
“Temporary admin credentials.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
Nathan stopped typing.
Claire did not move.
“Why?”
Michael exhaled through the phone.
“Because Daniel said the building’s security vendor needed them while they were evaluating a facilities contract.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
Claire’s voice flattened.
“You gave the chief operating officer of my company administrator access to the security system in my apartment building.”
“That is not how he presented it.”
“That is exactly what you did.”
“He said Bennett Logistics might consolidate vendors across properties connected to senior leadership.”
Claire looked at Alexander as though she needed someone else to confirm the sentence was as absurd as it sounded.
Alexander offered nothing.
She did not need confirmation.
“Michael, you live in Singapore.”
“I own the unit.”
“I live in it.”
“I know that.”
“Apparently not.”
Emma turned toward the window.
Grace curled deeper into the leather chair.
Sophie stopped examining Marcus’s snack.
Lily, who had been drawing another face on Alexander’s notepad, quietly capped the pen.
Michael’s voice softened.
“Claire, I screwed up.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“That’s fair.”
“No, it isn’t fair.”
Her hand shook once, and she tightened her fingers around the phone.
“You keep giving Daniel pieces of my life because he tells you it’s business.”
“I didn’t give him your life.”
“You gave him the ability to turn off the cameras outside my front door.”
Michael stopped answering.
Claire walked toward the windows.
Cars moved far below them in orderly lines that had nothing to do with her.
“I need to know whether you gave him anything else.”
“No.”
She turned.
“Think.”
“I am thinking.”
“Think harder.”
“Claire.”
“Passwords, building contacts, family schedules, anything.”
“I said no.”
Alexander watched her face.
She did not believe him.
Neither did Marcus.
Nathan looked down at his keyboard as if becoming professionally invisible might help.
Claire said, “Does he have access to Dad’s old files?”
Michael hesitated.
That was answer enough.
Claire went very still.
“Michael.”
“He has access to the corporate archive.”
“Which archive?”
“All of it.”
She pressed her lips together.
“Legal?”
“Yes.”
“Shareholder agreements?”
“Yes.”
“Estate correspondence?”
“I think so.”
“You think so?”
“Claire, I am not the IT department.”
“No, you’re apparently the department that hands out keys.”
Michael swore under his breath.
Emma flinched.
Claire heard it.
May you like
“Don’t swear.”
Michael gave a short, incredulous laugh.
