Chương 3
"What did you do?" she asked.
Daniel looked up.
Not "What happened?"
Not "Are you okay?"
What did you do?
The question landed harder because he had asked himself the same thing since opening the envelope.
"I don't know yet," he said.
Claire placed the grocery bag on the counter.
A bottle of pasta sauce rolled sideways inside and tapped against the glass.
"You don't know if you did something?"
"I don't know what they think I did."
She folded her arms.
"That isn't the same answer."
Daniel looked back at the letter.
The words on the page seemed less like information and more like a door someone had locked from the other side.
"I found out today that someone accessed the project accounts using my credentials."
Claire's expression changed slightly.
"Your credentials?"
"Yes."
"Meaning your password?"
"Meaning my account."
She waited.
Daniel hated that silence.
Claire had always been good at silence.
He had built his career by filling silence with solutions.
Claire built her life around knowing when not to fill it.
"Did you give someone your password?" she asked.
"No."
"Did you write it down somewhere?"
"No."
"Did someone ask you for it?"
"No."
Her eyes moved away for a second.
The movement was small.
Most people would not have noticed.
Daniel noticed everything about her.
"What?" he said.
"Nothing."
"Claire."
She sighed and looked toward the window.
"You have been acting strange for weeks."
The sentence made his stomach tighten.
"Strange how?"
"Like you are waiting for something."
Daniel wanted to deny it.
The denial reached his mouth before the truth did.
"I've been busy."
"That's what you always say."
The apartment became quiet.
Outside, a delivery truck stopped near the building entrance.
A man wearing a blue jacket carried boxes inside while talking on his phone.
Someone upstairs dropped something heavy.
A dog barked twice and then stopped.
Life continued.
Daniel hated that life continued.
"You think I did this," he said.
Claire looked at him.
"I think something is happening and you haven't told me."
That was different.
It was not an accusation.
It was worse.
It was disappointment.
Daniel leaned back in the chair.
Three weeks earlier, he had discovered that someone inside the company was altering maintenance reports.
He had not reported it immediately because he wanted proof.
He told himself that was because he was being responsible.
The truth was less flattering.
He was afraid.
The company had survived two difficult years.
People had lost jobs.
Friends he had known for a decade had packed their desks into cardboard boxes and walked out without anyone saying goodbye.
Daniel had convinced himself that waiting was protecting people.
Maybe it was only protecting himself.
"I found something," he said.
Claire did not move.
"Something at work."
"What kind of something?"
"Records were changed."
"By who?"
"I don't know."
"But you knew something was wrong."
Daniel looked down.
"Yes."
"How long?"
He did not answer quickly enough.
Claire closed her eyes for a moment.
"Daniel."
"A few weeks."
"A few weeks?"
"I was trying to understand it."
"No, you were trying to control it."
The words irritated him because they sounded too accurate.
"I was trying to keep people from getting hurt."
"And now?"
He had no answer.
Claire picked up the letter from the table.
She read it slowly.
Her face changed as she reached the second page.
"What is this name?"
Daniel looked over.
The name belonged to Marcus Vale.
A senior financial manager.
Someone Daniel had trusted.
Someone who had trained him when he first joined the company.
"Why is Marcus mentioned?" Claire asked.
"He isn't."
"He is in the attached list."
Daniel stood quickly.
Claire handed him the pages.
At the bottom of the document was a reference to an internal audit file.
Marcus Vale's name appeared among the employees connected to the review.
Daniel felt something cold move through him.
Marcus had called him two days earlier.
He had sounded nervous.
Not guilty.
Nervous.
There was a difference.
The call had lasted less than four minutes.
Marcus had asked if Daniel had noticed anything unusual with the project accounts.
Daniel had said no.
That was the first lie.
The second was pretending he had forgotten the conversation.
"Daniel?"
He looked at Claire.
"I need to make a call."
"To who?"
He grabbed his phone.
"Marcus."
Claire watched him unlock the screen.
"Are you sure?"
Daniel stopped.
No.
He was not sure.
That was the problem with every important decision he had made recently.
He kept waiting for certainty to arrive before acting.
It never did.
He called.
The phone rang once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then Marcus answered.
"Daniel."
The voice sounded tired.
"You knew."
Daniel froze.
The apartment suddenly felt too small.
"Knew what?"
"Don't do that."
"What are you talking about?"
Marcus exhaled.
"I saw the notice."
Daniel looked at Claire.
She was watching him carefully.
"You saw it?"
"Everyone saw it."
A wave of anger rose in Daniel.
"Everyone?"
"Daniel, listen to me."
"No, you listen to me."
His voice became louder than he intended.
"Someone used my account."
"I know."
"Someone is making it look like I did something."
"I know."
The second answer stopped him.
"How do you know?"
Marcus did not respond immediately.
That silence was different too.
Not Claire's silence.
A guilty silence.
A frightened one.
"Marcus."
"I should have told you."
Daniel gripped the phone tighter.
"Told me what?"
The line crackled.
For a moment, Daniel thought Marcus had hung up.
Then he heard him speak.
"The records were not changed to hide money."
Daniel waited.
"They were changed to hide a mistake."
"What mistake?"
Marcus swallowed audibly.
"Yours."
The word stayed between them.
Daniel felt Claire step closer.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying you signed off on the original report."
"No, I didn't."
"You did."
"No."
"You did, Daniel."
He opened his mouth.
May you like
Nothing came out.
Because somewhere in the back of his mind, beneath the anger and fear, there was a memory he had been avoiding.
