Chương 4
The officer asked Harrison to step into the hallway.Harrison didn't move at first.His eyes stayed on me as if I might explain how a man could appear on hospital security footage without being there.Then Dad said, "Go."Harrison looked at him."Thomas—""If you didn't do it, standing here won't help."That seemed to reach him.Harrison followed the officer out, and the door clicked shut behind them.I stared at the empty chair he'd left behind.Denise pulled the privacy curtain a little farther across the doorway even though there was nothing left to hide from anyone who mattered."What exactly did the video show?" I asked.Dad looked toward the door."We'll find out.""I hate when you say things like that."He glanced at me."Like what?""Like you're already halfway inside some plan."His mouth pressed into a line."I don't have a plan.""That's worse."A small smile appeared and disappeared.Lily began making the strange goatlike noises newborns apparently considered normal.I shifted her against my shoulder.My body protested.Denise noticed."Pain?""Everywhere.""That's a valid location."I laughed again despite myself.The laugh hurt less this time.Ten minutes passed.Then fifteen.The clock above the sink seemed louder than any clock had a right to be.Dad peeled the plastic from one of Denise's crackers and ate it without enthusiasm.He always ate when he was nervous.At Mom's funeral, he consumed three plates of potato salad and later denied remembering any of them."What are you thinking?" I asked."That these are terrible crackers.""Dad."He folded the wrapper into a narrow strip."If Harrison wasn't here, someone wanted people to think he was.""Marcus?""Maybe.""Why?"Dad looked at me."That's the part I don't like."The door opened.Detective Ruiz entered with the officer.Ruiz wore a navy sport coat over a wrinkled shirt and carried two phones in clear evidence bags.He had interviewed me once before at the advocacy center.Back then, he never pushed me to file charges.He asked questions, explained options, and told me he would still answer if I called later.I had called later."Emily.""Detective."He looked at Lily."Good timing?""No.""Fair."He remained standing."Harrison Vance is cooperating.""Did he explain the video?""He says he arrived at the hospital at 7:16 this morning with his wife.""That's true.""We've confirmed their vehicle entered the garage at 7:09."Dad said, "Then who was on the hall?"Ruiz glanced at him."That's what we're working on."He placed one evidence bag on the counter.Inside was Marcus's phone."The corridor footage isn't as useful as it first sounded."My stomach sank."Why?""The person enters wearing a surgical mask, ball cap, and dark overcoat.""Then why did anyone say it was Harrison?""Because the man uses Harrison's visitor credential."Harrison's credential.Not his face.I closed my eyes briefly."When did Marcus get that?"Ruiz didn't answer immediately."He may not have."Dad set down the cracker wrapper."Meaning?""Harrison says his credentials are issued through the hospital foundation because he's on the donor advisory board."Of course he was.Harrison could not enter a building without somehow already being on a committee inside it.Ruiz continued."The badge was reissued last month after he reported the previous one missing."Dad's expression sharpened."Missing where?""At Marcus's house."My heart began beating faster.I knew the day.There had been a dinner.Harrison complained for forty minutes because he couldn't find the leather case where he kept his cards.Marcus teased him about getting old.Evelyn blamed our housekeeper, Rosa.Rosa cried in the laundry room afterward.I had sat beside her on the dryer and apologized for a family I hadn't yet admitted I needed to escape."It was stolen," I said.Ruiz's eyes settled on me."You remember something?"I told him.He wrote the date down."Who was at the house?""Marcus, me, Harrison, Evelyn, Rosa.""Anyone else?""Marcus's friend Colin came by."Dad frowned."Colin who?""Mercer."Ruiz stopped writing.That pause made my skin tighten."You know him," I said."I know the name.""How?""Private security contractor."I stared at him."For Harrison?""No."He looked at the evidence bag."For Marcus."The room became quiet.I had met Colin maybe a dozen times.He was the kind of man who never seemed fully present at parties because he was always checking entrances.Former police, Marcus once told me.Or former military.Marcus changed the story depending on who was listening.Colin had installed our home security system.He had also recommended the camera Marcus kept over the driveway.I looked at the stuffed bunny."Can Colin access our cameras?"Ruiz's eyes shifted toward it too."Potentially."A wave of nausea rolled through me.Not fear.Violation.My evidence suddenly seemed less like a hidden weapon and more like something I'd left on a table in a room full of strangers."He could know about the bunny.""Maybe.""You keep saying maybe.""Because I'm not going to tell you more than we know."I hated him for that sentence.Then I trusted him more because of it.Dad stood."What does Marcus say?""That Harrison visited Emily privately after the assault and pressured her to accuse Marcus."I stared at Ruiz."That's insane.""Yes.""Does anyone believe him?"Ruiz put his notebook away."Belief isn't the standard we're dealing with."There it was again.The unglamorous machinery of reality.Evidence.Procedure.Statements.Nothing moved at the speed fear wanted."Marcus says his father has been trying to push him out of the family business," Ruiz continued.Harrison had never mentioned anything like that.Neither had Marcus.But two months earlier, Marcus had started coming home angry after meetings.He'd thrown his keys so hard one evening that they chipped the kitchen tile.When I asked what happened, he said his father was "forgetting who made the company relevant.""What business issue?" Dad asked."We're checking."I looked at Ruiz."There's something on Marcus's laptop."His attention sharpened."What?""Spreadsheets.""What kind?""I don't know exactly."That was partly true.I had seen one open by accident when Marcus left his laptop on the dining table.Rows of vendor payments.Several company names I didn't recognize.One repeated every month.Northstar Civic Solutions.The amounts were too large for anything ordinary.When Marcus came back, he slammed the laptop shut so fast that the edge caught my finger.He apologized immediately.Then he asked whether I'd read anything."I wrote down one company name."Ruiz took out his notebook again.I told him.His expression did not change.Dad's did."Northstar?""You know it?""No."He said it too quickly.I looked at him."Dad."He rubbed one thumb along the side of his index finger.A mechanic's habit when he was trying to decide whether something was worth saying."Northstar Civic Solutions bought two fleet vehicles from my garage last year."Ruiz turned toward him."Directly?""No.""Who signed?"Dad stared at the floor for a moment."Colin Mercer."The room seemed to shift.Ruiz asked for the paperwork.Dad said it was at the garage.I looked at him."The memory card is there too."He stared back.Denise quietly moved closer to the door.Ruiz nodded once."Where?""In a carburetor box."Dad closed his eyes."Emily.""What?""You hid evidence in my parts inventory?""It was a clean box.""That's not the issue."Despite everything, I nearly smiled.Ruiz didn't."Nobody goes to the garage until we secure it."Dad's amusement vanished."Why?""Because if Mercer knows the evidence might be there, he may already be looking."Dad reached for his phone.Ruiz stopped him."Who are you calling?""My employee.""Don't.""Sam opens at six."Ruiz checked the time.It was after eight.Dad's face lost color.He called anyway.Speaker off.We listened to the ringing.Once.Twice.Three times.No answer.Dad hung up and called again.Still nothing."He could be under a car," he said.Nobody responded.He tried the shop landline.The phone rang until voicemail.Dad put his jacket on.Ruiz stepped between him and the door."You're not going there.""It's my shop.""Exactly."Dad's voice lowered."Move.""No."For a second, I saw something in him that I had never seen directed at anyone wearing a badge.Not defiance.Calculation.Ruiz saw it too."Thomas, if somebody is there, what do you think happens when you walk in?"Dad's jaw tightened."I know the building.""They may know it too.""My employee could be hurt.""And charging in helps him how?"Dad looked toward me.I knew that look.He was asking permission without asking.Years ago, when I broke my wrist falling from a bicycle, he had carried me three blocks because he decided waiting for an ambulance was slower.He fixed things.That was his religion.Ruiz was asking him to stand still while something might be broken."Dad."He looked at me."Stay."His face tightened.Then he sat.It was possibly the hardest thing I'd ever watched him do.Ruiz called dispatch.Within minutes, officers were sent to the garage.There was nothing cinematic about waiting for news.Denise found me apple juice.Dad paced exactly six steps from the sink to the window and back.Lily woke and screamed with astonishing force.I changed her diaper while my hands shook.She peed on the blanket halfway through.I stared at the spreading stain.Dad stared too.Then he laughed.Not loudly.Just once."Your timing is terrible, kid."For thirty seconds, the world shrank to a newborn, a wet blanket, and Denise searching a cabinet for another receiving cloth.Then Ruiz's phone rang.He answered.We watched his face."Say that again."Dad stopped pacing.Ruiz turned slightly away."No entry?"A pause."Rear door?"Another pause."Where's the employee?"Dad took one step forward.Ruiz held up a hand."What vehicle?"His eyes moved to Dad.Then to me."Got it."He ended the call.Dad was already speaking."Sam?""He's alive."Dad exhaled so hard his shoulders dropped."He arrived twenty minutes ago and found the rear door forced.""Where is he?""Across the street with officers."I held Lily closer."The memory card?""They haven't entered yet."Dad looked furious at the delay.Ruiz ignored it."The alarm was disabled before the break-in.""How?""Correct code."Dad frowned."Only three people have it.""Who?""Me, Sam, Emily."My mouth went dry."I haven't used it in months."Ruiz asked Dad whether the code had ever been written down.Dad said no.Then he stopped.His face changed."What?"Ruiz asked.Dad looked at me."When did Marcus replace your phone?""After the pantry."The old one had cracked against the wall.Marcus bought me a new model the next morning.He transferred everything himself because my lip was swollen and he was being kind.Or performing kindness.My notes.Passwords.Saved contacts.The garage alarm code.I stared at Dad."He had it."Ruiz was already making another call.My phone vibrated on the bedside tray.Unknown number.A photograph appeared.Dad's garage.Taken from inside.The carburetor box sat open on his workbench.Beneath the image was a single sentence.You should have taken the money when we offered it.
