Chương 7
She simply said, "I know."
Daniel closed his eyes.
He hated that those two words sounded sincere.
"Tell me what Claire was investigating."
Mara exhaled slowly.
"Come to the office tomorrow."
"Why?"
"Because I don't want this conversation recorded."
Daniel looked at his phone.
"Are you worried about me recording you?"
"No."
"Then who?"
Mara did not answer.
That was the answer.
Daniel ended the call.
He did not sleep much.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Claire in the photograph outside the building.
Alive.
Walking.
Carrying secrets.
The next morning, he took Lily to school himself.
Normally, Claire had handled mornings because she was better at making rushed moments feel calm.
Daniel was better at finding missing shoes and forgetting permission slips.
Lily noticed the difference.
"You look tired."
"I am tired."
"Adults aren't supposed to say that."
Daniel glanced at her.
"Who told you that?"
"Nobody."
She adjusted the straps on her backpack.
"People just act like they aren't."
He almost smiled.
"You spend too much time listening."
"Mom said listening was how you learned things."
Daniel looked at the school entrance.
He wondered how many things Claire had learned by listening.
And how many of those things had killed her.
After dropping Lily off, he drove to Bellandi headquarters.
This time, he was not nervous about entering.
He was angry.
Anger was easier to carry than fear.
Mara's assistant brought him directly upstairs.
The photograph beside the elevator was gone.
Daniel noticed immediately.
He stopped.
"What happened to it?"
The assistant looked confused.
"What?"
"The picture."
She followed his gaze.
The wall was empty.
"I don't know."
Daniel looked at the empty space.
Someone had removed it quickly.
Too quickly.
When he entered Mara's office, she was already standing.
"You noticed."
"Yes."
"Good."
Daniel frowned.
"Good?"
"It means you are paying attention."
He stared at her.
"You knew it would disappear."
"I suspected."
"Everything is suspicion with you."
Mara ignored the comment.
She walked to a cabinet and removed another folder.
"This belonged to Claire."
Daniel took it.
Inside were printed pages, handwritten notes, and photographs.
Not the kind of photographs people took at events.
These were documents.
Buildings.
People entering offices.
License plates.
Dates.
Daniel looked through them.
"She was investigating someone."
"Yes."
"Who?"
Mara looked at him.
"Someone close to me."
"Vincent?"
"No."
The answer came quickly.
Daniel looked up.
That was the first time Mara had answered without hesitation.
"Then who?"
Before Mara could respond, her office door opened.
Vincent walked in.
He stopped when he saw Daniel.
The expression on his face changed immediately.
Not anger.
Recognition.
"You."
Daniel noticed.
"You know me?"
Vincent smiled slightly.
"I know who you are."
"How?"
Vincent looked at Mara.
That small movement told Daniel more than words would have.
"Interesting," Daniel said.
Vincent stepped farther into the room.
"Your wife caused a lot of problems."
The sentence was casual.
Too casual.
Daniel felt something tighten in his chest.
"My wife?"
"Claire."
"Be careful."
Vincent tilted his head.
"Or what?"
The old Daniel would have backed away.
The old Daniel would have chosen peace because peace was easier.
But the old Daniel had not spent the night looking at a photograph of his dead wife alive.
"Or you explain why my wife was investigating your family."
Vincent's smile disappeared.
Mara spoke.
"Leave."
Vincent looked at her.
"You trust him now?"
"No."
The answer surprised both men.
Mara continued.
"I trust that he deserves the truth."
Vincent laughed quietly.
"You have no idea what you're doing."
Mara's face hardened.
"That is exactly what your father said before he lost everything."
The room went silent.
Vincent looked away.
For the first time, Daniel saw something beneath the confidence.
Pain.
Real pain.
Then Vincent left.
Daniel watched the door close.
"What was that?"
Mara returned to her desk.
"My family has spent years pretending old wounds are healed because nobody wants to touch them."
"And Claire touched one."
"Yes."
Daniel looked at the folder again.
"Who was she investigating?"
Mara sat down.
"Someone who had access to company finances, family records, and information they should not have had."
"Name."
Mara looked at him.
"Your brother."
Daniel froze.
The room seemed to lose all sound.
"My brother?"
"Thomas Carver."
Daniel stared.
"That's impossible."
Mara did not respond.
Because she knew.
Impossible was the word people used right before the truth became inconvenient.
Daniel stared at Mara as if the name had been spoken in another language.
"My brother?"
Mara did not repeat herself.
She did not need to.
The weight of the accusation was already sitting between them.
Thomas Carver had been Daniel's older brother by four years.
He was the person who taught him how to ride a bike.
The person who showed up at the hospital when Lily was born carrying a stuffed bear almost as big as the baby.
The person who helped Daniel move into his first apartment after college.
He was also the person who disappeared for three years when Daniel needed him most.
After Claire got sick, Thomas had visited less.
Called less.
Offered explanations that became shorter every time.
Daniel had told himself it was because Thomas hated hospitals.
Because some people were bad at dealing with illness.
Because grief made people strange.
He had never considered something worse.
"No," Daniel said.
Mara watched him.
"No?"
"No."
His voice became firmer.
"You are wrong."
Mara did not argue.
That bothered him.
"You don't even want to defend yourself?"
"I am not trying to convince you."
"Then what are you doing?"
"Showing you what Claire found."
Mara opened the folder again and pulled out a stack of documents.
She placed them on the desk one at a time.
Daniel did not reach for them immediately.
The first page was a company transfer record.
The second was a list of payments.
The third was a photograph of Thomas entering a private office building.
Daniel recognized the building.
May you like
It was near the harbor.
The same area where Claire's meeting had been scheduled.
