Chương 11
Baldric looked down the corridor.
“Northline?”
“Yes.”
“How did he get in?”
“He’s in reception.”
“Send him home.”
“He refuses.”
“Security exists for a reason.”
“He says he’ll leave if he speaks to you.”
Baldric almost laughed.
“So he knows.”
“He knows.”
“How?”
“Still unclear.”
Baldric leaned against the wall.
“What does he want?”
“He says this is personal.”
“It became personal when his son put my daughter on a bathroom floor.”
Daniel was silent.
Baldric immediately regretted the sentence.
“That’s exactly what Arianne told me not to do.”
“What?”
“Mix the two.”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s voice softened.
“You can be her father and still run a company.”
“That sounds easier when you say it.”
“It is not easier.”
Baldric stared at the hospital floor.
“Tell Roger the board meeting remains tomorrow.”
“He won’t like it.”
“I’m not scheduling around his feelings.”
“I’ll tell him.”
Before Baldric could hang up, Daniel said, “There’s another development.”
“Of course there is.”
“Caroline found a payment from Marwick to a private psychiatric clinic.”
Baldric’s stomach tightened.
“How much?”
“Forty-eight thousand.”
“When?”
“Over the last year.”
“For Derek?”
“No patient name on the invoices.”
Baldric went very still.
“Do not speculate.”
“I’m not.”
“What clinic?”
Daniel told him.
The name meant nothing.
“What services?”
“Consulting.”
“That word again.”
“Yes.”
“Any connection to Arianne’s psychiatrist?”
“We’re checking.”
Baldric ended the call and returned to the room.
Arianne was helping Gideon color on the back of an old hospital menu with a blue pen.
Baldric stood in the doorway too long.
She looked up.
“What?”
“There may be a financial connection between one of Derek’s companies and a psychiatric clinic.”
Her hand stopped moving.
Gideon continued drawing.
“What clinic?”
Baldric gave her the name.
The pen slipped from Arianne’s fingers.
It landed on the blanket.
Baldric did not need to ask.
“That’s yours.”
Arianne nodded.
Gideon looked between them.
“Mom?”
She picked up the pen.
“I’m okay.”
He returned to drawing.
Baldric lowered his voice.
“Did Derek choose the psychiatrist?”
Arianne looked at him.
“Yes.”
“Did he ever attend appointments?”
“The first one.”
“What did he say?”
She rubbed her forehead.
“He talked more than I did.”
“About what?”
“My moods.”
Her voice became distant.
“My memory.”
“Anything else?”
“He said I was impulsive.”
Baldric sat slowly.
“Were you?”
“Sometimes.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Arianne looked annoyed.
“I don’t know.”
She glanced at Gideon.
“People become very unsure of themselves when someone spends years telling them what they are.”
Baldric let that sit.
Arianne continued quietly.
“The doctor kept asking whether I had ever experienced periods of unusually high energy.”
“Had you?”
“I had a newborn.”
She laughed without humor.
“I had periods of no energy.”
“Did the doctor diagnose anything beyond anxiety?”
“No.”
“Did Derek seem disappointed?”
Arianne looked at him sharply.
“I never thought about it.”
She pressed her fingers to her mouth.
“Oh God.”
Baldric reached across the bed.
She pulled back.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“I was going to hold your hand.”
“I know.”
She breathed slowly.
“I just need nobody touching me for a minute.”
He withdrew.
Gideon kept drawing a truck with wheels too large for the body.
Arianne watched him.
“What if Derek was paying them?”
“We don’t know that.”
“What if he was paying for reports?”
“We don’t know that.”
“What if this whole thing started before I even knew?”
Baldric kept his voice level.
“Then somebody will have to prove it.”
Arianne looked furious.
“I’m tired of proof.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Her voice rose before she caught herself.
Gideon looked up.
Arianne softened immediately.
“Sorry, baby.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t.”
Gideon considered that.
Then he resumed coloring.
Arianne lowered her voice again.
“I lived it.”
She looked at Baldric.
“And now every part of it has to be translated into something strangers consider believable.”
Baldric had no answer.
This time he did not try to invent one.
At eleven fourteen, Melissa called.
The emergency protective-order petition had been filed.
Derek’s custody petition would be heard the same afternoon.
Arianne closed her eyes.
“Today?”
“Yes.”
“Can I attend from here?”
“We requested remote appearance because of your medical condition.”
“Did they approve it?”
“Not yet.”
“When will they decide?”
“Soon.”
Arianne laughed bitterly.
“Everybody keeps saying soon.”
Melissa continued.
“There’s one more thing.”
Baldric and Arianne exchanged a look.
“Roger Vance filed an affidavit supporting Derek.”
Arianne’s face hardened.
“What does it say?”
“That he has personally observed you behave erratically.”
“Personally?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“He cites a family dinner in April and a charity event in May.”
Arianne stared at the wall.
“I left the charity event because Derek grabbed me under the table.”
Melissa’s voice became quieter.
“Did anyone see?”
“Bertha.”
“Anyone else?”
Arianne shook her head.
Then she stopped.
“Maybe.”
Baldric leaned forward.
“Who?”
“A server dropped a tray.”
Her eyes narrowed as the memory came back.
“Derek grabbed my thigh hard enough that I jerked away.”
She looked at Melissa’s voice coming through the phone.
“The server was right beside us.”
“Do you know the venue?”
“Yes.”
“Name?”
Arianne gave it.
Melissa said, “I’ll see whether we can identify staff.”
Baldric stood.
“I can have someone—”
Arianne looked at him.
He sat back down.
“Sorry.”
Melissa almost laughed.
“Progress.”
The call ended.
Arianne stared at the window.
The morning had turned bright.
Cars moved along the road below.
Somebody across the parking lot was loading balloons into the back of a minivan.
Gideon held up his drawing.
“Grandpa.”
Baldric looked.
The truck had flames painted down the side.
“Is that mine?”
“Yes.”
“My truck does not have flames.”
“It should.”
Arianne smiled.
Baldric took the drawing.
“I’ll consider it.”
His phone buzzed again.
This time it was a message from Daniel containing only one sentence.
ROGER JUST ADMITTED HE KNEW ABOUT MARWICK.
Baldric read it twice.
Then a second message arrived.
May you like
HE SAYS DEREK TOLD HIM THE MONEY WAS BEING USED TO PROTECT THE FAMILY FROM ARIANNE.
Baldric felt the room narrow.
