Chương 5
Mara did not answer.
That was answer enough.
Daniel looked down at the papers.
"Vincent."
Mara's silence stretched.
"You think it's him."
"I think my grandson is hiding something."
"That's different."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because suspicion is easy."
She closed the folder.
"Proof is expensive."
Daniel thought about the broken rabbit.
About Vincent's expression.
About how quickly everyone had gone quiet.
"What happens if you find proof?"
Mara looked toward the window.
"I lose someone."
The honesty in her voice unsettled him.
Not because she sounded cruel.
Because she sounded like someone who had already lost too much.
A knock came at the door.
Mara's assistant entered.
"I'm sorry."
She looked between them.
"There is a problem."
Mara's posture changed immediately.
"What happened?"
"The security team found someone near the employee parking area."
Daniel felt his stomach tighten.
"Who?"
The assistant looked at Mara.
"He left this."
She handed over a small envelope.
Mara opened it carefully.
Inside was a photograph.
Daniel could not see it from where he stood.
Then Mara's face changed.
Not dramatically.
Just enough.
"What is it?" Daniel asked.
Mara did not answer.
He stepped closer.
She handed him the photograph.
His breath stopped.
It was a picture of Claire.
Alive.
Standing outside the Bellandi headquarters.
The date printed in the corner was six months after the day Daniel had buried her.
He stared at it, unable to process the image in his hand.
"This is impossible."
Mara took the photograph back.
"I know."
Daniel looked at her.
"No."
His voice lowered.
"Someone is lying."
Mara looked at the picture again.
"Yes."
She placed it on the desk.
"And now we need to find out who."
Daniel kept staring at the photograph long after he stopped seeing it clearly.
The image was grainy, printed on cheap paper, the kind of thing someone would make quickly if they did not care about quality because the information mattered more than the picture itself.
But there was no mistaking her.
Claire stood outside the Bellandi headquarters wearing the gray coat Daniel had bought her two winters before she died.
He remembered that coat because she hated it at first.
She said the color made her look tired.
He told her she always looked tired because she worked too much.
She had laughed and thrown a pillow at him.
The memory came so suddenly that he had to look away.
Mara watched him carefully.
"You recognize it."
Daniel placed the photograph back on the desk.
"That's my wife."
"I know."
"No."
His voice sharpened.
"You know what this picture shows."
Mara said nothing.
Daniel stepped back.
"Claire died in the hospital."
"I know."
"I was there."
"I know."
"Then explain how someone took a picture of her six months after that."
Mara folded her hands together.
"I can't."
The answer angered him more than a lie would have.
"You expect me to believe that?"
"No."
That stopped him.
Mara looked at him.
"I expect you to believe that someone wants you angry enough to make mistakes."
Daniel stared at her.
"You think this is a setup?"
"I think someone wanted this picture found."
"By me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Mara looked toward the closed office door.
"Because you are the one person Claire believed would keep looking."
Daniel shook his head.
"You barely knew me."
"I knew Claire."
That sentence landed harder than he wanted it to.
Because he knew it was true.
Claire had trusted people in ways Daniel sometimes struggled to understand.
She saw possibilities in people before she saw risks.
It was one of the reasons he loved her.
It was also the reason he was afraid of what she might have walked into.
"Where did this come from?" he asked.
Mara looked at the photograph.
"My security team found it outside."
"Outside where?"
"The employee parking garage."
Daniel frowned.
"Someone left it there?"
"Yes."
"Convenient."
"Very."
He looked at her.
"You don't sound surprised."
"I am surprised."
"But?"
"But surprise is not the same as confusion."
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
He felt like every answer created another question.
He wanted to go home.
He wanted to take Lily somewhere far away.
He wanted Claire to walk through the door and tell him all of this was some terrible misunderstanding.
Instead, he was standing in an office with a woman who spoke about danger like it was an employee meeting.
"Who else has seen this?" he asked.
Mara's expression changed.
"Only you, me, and my assistant."
"Then keep it that way."
Mara looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because whoever left it wants a reaction."
"And?"
"And I don't know enough to give them one."
For the first time, Mara looked at him with something close to approval.
"You learn quickly."
Daniel almost smiled.
"I don't have much choice."
"No."
Mara picked up the folder.
"You don't."
The drive home felt longer than usual.
Daniel kept checking the rearview mirror.
He hated that he was becoming someone who checked mirrors.
Claire used to tease him for being cautious.
She said he planned for disasters that never happened.
He always told her that was the point.
Now he wondered if she had been the careful one all along.
When he reached the apartment, Lily was sitting at the kitchen table eating cereal straight from the bowl.
She looked up.
"Did you find out about Mom?"
Daniel put his keys down.
The question had become a doorway he did not know how to walk through.
"Some things."
She studied his face.
"Are they bad things?"
Children were supposed to ask about cartoons and school projects.
Not whether their dead mother left behind dangerous secrets.
Daniel sat across from her.
"I don't know yet."
Lily pushed cereal around the bowl.
"That's what grown-ups say when they don't want to tell the truth."
He looked at her.
She immediately looked embarrassed.
"Mom used to say that."
Daniel felt his chest tighten.
"She did?"
"Yeah."
Lily shrugged.
May you like
"She said adults think kids don't notice things."
The sentence stayed with him.
