Chương 11
The place had six cars outside and a flickering blue OPEN sign that made the O disappear every few seconds.
Daniel looked at Claire.
"Can I get pancakes?"
"It's eleven at night."
"So?"
"So absolutely."
Megan parked.
Claire stared at her.
"You are not helping."
"I've spent fourteen years being the fun aunt."
"You're thirty-nine."
"I started young."
Inside, a waitress with silver hair led them to a booth without asking why Daniel had a crutch, why Megan's dress had blood on it, or why Claire was carrying a canvas bag against her chest like somebody might steal it.
Claire loved her immediately for all three omissions.
Daniel ordered pancakes.
Megan ordered fries and coffee.
Claire asked for tea and then forgot about it until the waitress set it in front of her.
The photograph lay facedown beneath Claire's hand.
"Show me," Megan said.
Claire slid it across.
Megan read the back.
"R.M."
"What?"
"These initials."
Claire leaned closer.
Three sets of initials appeared beside the catalog number.
R.M.
E.V.
L.H.
"E.V. could be Evan Vale."
"Or Elvis."
Daniel said, "Elvis's last name wasn't Vale."
Megan pointed at him.
"This is why you get pancakes."
Claire took out her phone.
"Who's L.H.?"
"Could be anybody."
"Not anybody."
She searched her contacts first, although she knew she had no L.H. connected to Vale Biomedical.
Then she searched old emails.
Four years of archived messages produced dozens of people whose names began with those letters and none who made sense.
Daniel's pancakes arrived.
He cut them into exact squares, a habit he had inherited from Evan.
Claire watched the knife move through the stack and had to look away.
Megan noticed.
She said nothing.
That kindness was worse than a joke would have been.
Claire's phone vibrated.
Samir.
She answered immediately.
"What happened?"
"I checked the scan."
"Samir."
"My patient is fine."
"Good."
A pause followed.
She could hear a door close on his end.
"I found someone in facilities who remembers the old garage system."
Claire sat straighter.
"Can he access it?"
"She."
"Can she access it?"
"Possibly tomorrow."
"Possibly?"
"The records were migrated when the hospital changed vendors."
Megan leaned across the table.
"Ask about the Audi."
Claire held up one finger.
"What survives from the old system?"
"Entry and exit records tied to employee badges, registered plates, and payment transactions."
"Registered plates."
"Yes."
"Would it identify the driver?"
"No."
"Camera footage?"
"Not after four years."
Claire looked at Daniel.
"Could it tell us when Samir's old Audi entered?"
"If the plate was still registered in the system."
"Do it."
"I can't personally request the archive without creating a record."
"Then your facilities person does."
"Claire, she's not going to risk her job because I ask nicely."
Megan said, loudly enough for the phone, "Try being charming."
Samir replied, "I have never successfully been charming."
Daniel stopped cutting his pancakes.
"That's true."
For the first time that night, Claire laughed.
It escaped before she could stop it.
The sound felt indecent.
Then Samir laughed too, very quietly, and something about hearing him made Claire's chest hurt.
She ended the moment herself.
"What does she need?"
"A legitimate work order."
"Can you create one?"
"Not without lying."
Megan stared at the phone.
"Oh, now we've discovered ethics."
Samir ignored her.
"There may be another route."
"What?"
"The garage vendor retained raw migration backups for seven years under the hospital's records contract."
"How do you know?"
"My facilities contact sent me the old vendor name."
"And?"
"And Vale Biomedical used the same company."
Claire's hand tightened around the phone.
Megan stopped eating.
"Why?"
Claire asked.
"Richard negotiated both contracts."
The diner seemed to become louder around them.
A dishwasher dropped something in the kitchen.
Someone at the counter asked for more ketchup.
Daniel poured syrup onto one remaining square of pancake until it disappeared beneath a shining brown pool.
Claire said, "Send me the vendor name."
"I already did."
Her phone chimed.
Northline Systems.
Megan wiped salt from her fingertips and took out her own phone.
"Never heard of them."
Claire opened the company's website.
Northline Systems provided access control, facilities data, and compliance archiving for hospitals, laboratories, and corporate campuses.
The page was dull enough to be reassuring.
"Don't contact them yet," Samir said.
"Why?"
"Because Richard will know."
"How?"
"Vale may still be their client."
"So?"
"So if you call asking for records involving Vale property, they may notify the account holder."
Claire stared at the initials on the photograph.
"Then we don't ask about Vale."
"Claire."
"We ask about the hospital."
"Which may still trigger notice."
Megan said, "You're both assuming Richard is monitoring a four-year-old parking record."
"No."
Claire turned the photograph toward her.
"I'm assuming he cared enough about that night to lie about a car for four years."
Daniel put down his fork.
"He saw me."
Claire's attention snapped to him.
"Who?"
"Grandpa."
Nobody moved.
Daniel looked frightened by his own certainty.
"Where?"
Megan asked.
"In the garage."
Claire's mouth went dry.
"You said you didn't see who was in the black car."
"I didn't."
"Then where did you see Grandpa?"
Daniel pressed both palms against his eyes.
"Stop."
Claire immediately leaned back.
"Okay."
"No, I mean stop talking."
They fell silent.
Daniel lowered his hands.
His breathing had changed.
Megan pushed his water toward him.
He did not drink.
"There was a sound," he said.
Claire waited.
"The elevator made that ding."
Samir was still on the phone.
No one seemed willing to disconnect him.
Daniel looked toward the diner's front door as if the hospital elevator might open there.
"Dad was behind the pillar with me."
Megan whispered, "I was there."
"No."
Her face changed.
Daniel shook his head.
"You went to get the car."
Megan stared at him.
"I didn't."
"You did."
"I wouldn't have left you."
"You left because Dad told you to."
Megan's certainty broke slowly.
May you like
Claire saw it happen.
"He said he needed you to get Daniel out," Megan murmured.
