Chương 14
"They can't move a board vote without notice."
"They sent notice."
"When?"
"Last night."
Kevin searched his inbox.
Nothing.
Martin swore under his breath.
"Check spam."
Kevin did.
The message sat there.
Board Special Session.
Sent at 8:43 p.m.
His stomach tightened.
"Who requested it?"
"Whitmore and Lang."
"Why?"
"They're challenging the acquisition."
"No."
"They're challenging you."
Kevin looked at Annie.
She was folding clothes again, though more slowly now.
"What did they say?"
Martin hesitated.
"That your judgment has been compromised since Claire died."
Kevin's face went cold.
Annie looked up.
Martin kept talking.
"They're not asking you to resign."
"Yet."
"No."
Kevin scrolled through the attachment.
His eyes moved faster.
References to missed meetings.
Delayed approvals.
Delegated authority.
Three occasions he had left early.
Two weeks when Martin handled investor calls.
One paragraph mentioned personal instability.
Kevin stopped.
"What is this?"
"I know."
"Who gave them this?"
"I don't know."
"Some of this is internal."
"Yes."
Kevin stood.
The room seemed suddenly too small.
"They're building a record."
"Looks like it."
"How many votes?"
"Five to four."
Kevin's pulse kicked.
"Against?"
"Against proceeding with the acquisition under your current leadership."
Kevin laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"So what happens now?"
"They want a review."
"By whom?"
"Independent committee."
"Of course."
Martin lowered his voice.
"Kevin, where are you?"
"Home."
A pause.
"Stay there."
Kevin stared at the phone.
"What?"
"You heard me."
"I need to come in."
"No."
"They're questioning whether I can run my own company."
"Exactly."
"And your advice is to stay home?"
"My advice is not to storm into the office furious and hand them their argument."
Kevin opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Martin continued.
"Take an hour."
"I don't need an hour."
"You do."
"I need facts."
"I need to know who leaked internal scheduling."
"I said I'll get them."
Kevin turned away from Annie.
"Martin."
"I have defended you for seven months."
The words stopped him.
Martin's voice was tired now.
"Let me do it for one more hour."
Kevin said nothing.
The dryer stopped.
The sudden quiet made Martin's breathing audible through the phone.
"Fine," Kevin said.
"Kevin."
"What?"
"Don't go digging through Claire's ghosts and pretend that's the same thing as dealing with this."
Kevin looked at the restoration paper in his pocket.
His hand went still.
"How do you know about that?"
Martin was silent.
Kevin's voice lowered.
"How do you know?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You just said Claire."
"You said family matter."
"No."
Kevin stepped away from the desk.
"You said ghosts."
"Figure of speech."
"Martin."
Annie stopped folding.
Martin exhaled.
"I have to go."
"Don't hang up."
The line went dead.
Kevin stared at the phone.
Annie watched him.
"What happened?"
Kevin did not answer immediately.
His eyes remained fixed on Martin's name on the screen.
Then he looked at Annie.
"Someone is trying to remove me from my own company."
She went still.
"And I think Martin knows something about Claire."
Annie did not ask what he meant by that.
She looked at the phone in his hand, then at his face.
"You should call him back."
"He'll lie."
"Then listen to the lie."
Kevin almost laughed.
"That's your advice?"
"If he's hiding something, people usually tell you more when they're trying not to."
He stared at her.
"You should have stayed in teaching."
"Probably."
Kevin called Martin.
It rang twice.
Then voicemail.
He ended the call before the message began.
"He's not answering."
Annie picked up the last unfolded shirt.
"Then you have twenty minutes before one thirty."
"For what?"
"To calm your body."
Kevin looked at her.
She pointed toward the hallway.
"The blue chair is upstairs."
He laughed despite himself.
The sound loosened something in his chest.
"Oliver told you?"
"No."
"Then that's disturbing."
"I've met five-year-olds."
Kevin put the phone on the desk.
His first impulse was to call an attorney, then Caroline, then the gallery, then half the board.
Instead he sat in the wooden chair beside the household invoices.
It was not blue.
It was also uncomfortable enough to prevent heroics.
Annie finished folding.
Neither of them spoke for several minutes.
Kevin watched the second hand move around the wall clock.
At twelve fifty-eight, his phone rang.
Not Martin.
Elena Morris.
Kevin answered immediately.
"Mr. Hart, Richard Vale returned my call."
Kevin stood.
"Can I speak to him?"
"He's here."
Kevin looked at Annie.
"At the gallery?"
"Yes."
"We moved your appointment earlier."
Kevin checked the time.
"I can be there in twenty-five minutes."
"Come."
He grabbed his jacket.
Annie watched him.
"What about Martin?"
At the doorway he stopped.
"And Annie?"
"Yes?"
"Don't accept anything before I get back."
Her expression became guarded.
"Kevin."
"I'm not ordering you."
"Good."
"I'm asking."
She looked at him for a long second.
"Until tomorrow afternoon."
He nodded.
"Fair."
The gallery felt different when Kevin returned.
Elena met him at the reception desk with an older man wearing a brown cardigan and magnifying glasses hanging from a cord around his neck.
"Richard Vale."
They shook hands.
Richard's grip was dry and surprisingly strong.
"I'm sorry about your wife."
"Thank you."
Kevin had said the words so often they barely sounded like language anymore.
They went into the same private room.
The miniature sat on a padded surface beneath a bright work lamp.
Richard lowered himself into a chair.
"I remember this piece."
"Why?"
"Your wife asked unusual questions."
Kevin sat opposite him.
"About the inscription?"
Richard nodded.
"And about whether I'd ever seen the name Abigail Hart connected to it."
Kevin felt his spine straighten.
"Hart?"
"Yes."
"You're sure?"
Richard looked mildly offended.
"I wrote it in my notes."
Elena handed Kevin a photocopy.
There it was.
Client asks whether inscription possibly reads Abigail Hart rather than Abigail Hunt.
Kevin read the line twice.
"Did it?"
Richard adjusted the glasses on the cord.
"We couldn't be certain until the backing came off."
May you like
"And then?"
Richard looked at Elena.
