Chương 8
“Then I want everyone out.”
Reyes shook her head.
“You don’t control the scene.”
“This is Daniel’s house.”
“That doesn’t change what I said.”
Nora pressed her fingers to her temple.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Daniel waited.
The guests waited.
Even Lily, visible on the sofa through the doorway, had stopped moving.
Finally Nora said, “It was supposed to make him sick.”
Daniel felt a dull impact in his chest.
Nobody gasped.
The silence was worse.
Reyes spoke first.
“What was?”
Nora looked at the blue bottle.
“That.”
Daniel took one step toward her.
Reyes immediately moved between them.
He stopped.
“What do you mean sick?”
Nora’s mouth trembled.
“Nauseous.”
“How sick?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I didn’t know exactly.”
Daniel’s voice rose.
“You put something in my drink without knowing what it would do?”
“I knew it wasn’t supposed to kill you.”
The sentence shattered whatever restraint remained in the room.
Someone in the sitting room said, “Jesus Christ.”
Warren swore under his breath.
Lily slid off the sofa.
Daniel saw her move and pointed sharply.
“Stay there.”
She froze.
Nora covered her face.
Daniel wanted to pull her hands away and force her to look at him.
Instead he stood behind Reyes and let rage shake through his arms.
“Why?”
Nora lowered her hands.
Her eyes were wet now.
“Because you were going to sign the Calder restructuring tonight.”
Daniel stared at her.
“That’s your explanation?”
“No.”
“Then explain it.”
“I was trying to delay you.”
“By drugging me?”
“I thought if you got sick, dinner would end.”
Daniel could barely process the stupidity of it.
“You could have asked me not to sign.”
“I did.”
“You could have left.”
“I couldn’t.”
“Why?”
Nora looked toward the floor.
Daniel followed her gaze to the broken cup.
The foam had mostly flattened into a dirty white film around the brown stain.
A crime scene technician had arrived and was photographing it from several angles.
The ordinary professionalism of the work made Nora’s confession feel even more grotesque.
Reyes asked, “What is in the bottle?”
Nora rubbed her palms against her dress.
“I don’t know the chemical name.”
“Where did you get it?”
She hesitated.
Daniel said, “Answer her.”
Reyes shot him a warning look.
Nora swallowed.
“From someone who supplies veterinary products.”
Daniel blinked.
“You bought animal medication?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“It was something used to induce vomiting.”
Evelyn spoke from near the kitchen door.
“Emetic?”
Nora looked at her.
“I guess.”
Reyes asked, “You guess?”
“I was told a few drops would make someone sick and wear off.”
“Who told you?”
Nora said nothing.
Reyes waited.
Daniel felt his anger shifting again.
The confession should have simplified everything.
Instead it opened another door.
“You didn’t get this yourself,” he said.
Nora looked at him.
“No.”
“Who did?”
“I’m not saying yet.”
Daniel almost stepped forward again.
Reyes stopped him with one look.
Nora continued before he could speak.
“Because there’s more to this.”
Daniel laughed harshly.
“Of course there is.”
“I mean it.”
“Everyone who gets caught says that.”
“I didn’t plan to hurt you.”
“You put something in my tea.”
“To make you sick for a few hours.”
“You say that like it helps.”
“It doesn’t.”
For the first time, she did not defend herself.
That quiet answer took some of the force out of his anger and replaced it with something heavier.
Nora looked older suddenly.
Not dramatically.
Just tired around the mouth.
Daniel had seen that tiredness before and ignored it.
He had assumed it came from work.
He wondered how many things he had assigned easy explanations because they were convenient.
Reyes asked, “Why was delaying the restructuring worth committing a crime?”
Nora looked at Daniel.
“Because Calder isn’t just a bad division.”
Daniel frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“You never read the full transfer history.”
“I read the reports.”
“You read what I gave you.”
The room became very still again.
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“What did you give me?”
Nora took a breath.
“Clean reports.”
He stared at her.
Warren moved closer from the doorway.
Reyes glanced at him.
“I’m his attorney.”
“I’m not questioning him.”
“I know.”
Nora continued.
“Some of the payments weren’t where they were supposed to be.”
Daniel felt a new kind of fear.
Money was no longer abstract.
It had employees attached to it.
Audits.
Tax filings.
Board responsibility.
People whose names he knew.
“How much?”
Nora shook her head.
“I don’t know the final number.”
“You controlled the division.”
“I controlled what I was told to move.”
Daniel stared at her.
“What does that even mean?”
“It means I signed transfers.”
“To where?”
“Different vendors.”
“Fake vendors?”
“Some.”
Daniel heard Warren inhale.
Nora’s voice became smaller.
“I found out six months ago.”
Daniel could barely speak.
“And you said nothing.”
“I tried to fix it.”
“By hiding it?”
“I tried to move the money back.”
“You moved more money?”
“Yes.”
The word came out almost inaudibly.
Daniel turned away.
For a moment he looked at the long white tablecloth, the untouched desserts, the abandoned wineglasses, and the place where he had been sitting when Lily ran toward him.
His company had begun twenty-two years earlier in a rented room with two desks and an air conditioner that leaked onto the carpet.
He had built it into something large enough that numbers sometimes stopped feeling like money and became columns.
He had trusted Nora with those columns.
He had trusted her with Lily.
That betrayal was harder to separate than he expected.
“Who told you to move the funds?”
Reyes asked.
Nora looked toward Warren.
Not at Daniel.
At Warren.
The attorney’s face changed.
Daniel saw it.
Warren said, “Don’t.”
Nora gave a broken laugh.
“That’s funny.”
Daniel turned slowly.
“What?”
Warren straightened.
His expression became professional.
Blank.
Controlled.
Daniel had seen that expression across negotiating tables for years.
Nora pointed at him.
“He did.”
Nobody moved.
Warren looked at Daniel.
May you like
“She’s lying.”
Nora shook her head.
