Chương 14
“You do not need to stand in a freezing driveway to accomplish that.”
“I’m aware.”
“You have a house.”
“I remember.”
He sighed.
Ethan looked at me.
“Come inside.”
I looked toward the doorway.
“No.”
“It’s warm.”
“So is hell, according to several reliable sources.”
He gave a tired laugh.
Madison did not.
I walked toward my car and got in without starting it.
Daniel went to his own vehicle.
Ethan stood near the porch.
Madison remained between the cars as if she belonged nowhere.
For the next several minutes, almost nothing happened.
That was the strangest part.
After all the shouting and disclosures and documents, we simply waited.
Snow tapped softly against the windshield.
My dashboard clock changed from 12:06 to 12:07.
A delivery van passed on the road beyond the hedge, moving slowly through the weather.
Inside the house, someone switched off the dining room chandelier.
The front windows went dark except for the lights on the tree.
I found myself thinking about the turkey.
Beverly would probably insist on wrapping it properly.
She distrusted plastic containers and believed aluminum foil was the backbone of civilization.
The thought made my eyes sting.
I wiped them before anyone could see.
At 12:12, Daniel’s phone rang.
He got out of his car.
We all watched him.
He answered, listened, and then walked toward us.
“The officers are at the office.”
Madison stepped forward.
“And?”
“The front door was unlocked.”
Her face changed.
“I locked it.”
“They found someone inside.”
Ethan’s shoulders tightened.
“Peter?”
Daniel listened again.
Then shook his head.
“No.”
“Who?”
He held up one finger and continued listening.
His expression became puzzled.
Then sharply concerned.
“Understood.”
He ended the call.
Madison moved closer.
“Who is it?”
“A man named Victor Saye.”
“I don’t know that name.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Ethan said, “Who is he?”
“The officers found identification.”
“What was he doing?”
“Standing near a shredder.”
No one spoke.
Madison’s mouth opened.
Daniel continued.
“There are bags of shredded paper on the floor.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“There are also open file cabinets.”
“No.”
“Do you use a shredder in the office?”
“Yes, but not for client files.”
“You do not have clients,” Ethan said.
She turned on him.
“Not now.”
Daniel’s phone buzzed again.
He looked at the message.
“They are detaining him while they determine why he is there.”
Madison said, “Ask him who sent him.”
“They will.”
“Ask if Peter sent him.”
“They will.”
“What if he says I did?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then that becomes something your attorney addresses.”
She stared at him.
“I don’t even know Victor Saye.”
Her voice had lost all anger.
For the first time, she sounded truly frightened.
Ethan looked at Daniel.
“Can they stop whatever credential reset was happening?”
“Brighton says the request was blocked.”
“Blocked or delayed?”
I asked.
Daniel looked at me.
“Good question.”
He took my phone and reopened the bank email.
He read further down.
“The request triggered a manual review because the device was unrecognized and because we had already placed the trust under enhanced security monitoring.”
I nodded.
That was something Daniel and I had requested weeks earlier.
Madison stared at me.
“You were monitoring the trust?”
“Yes.”
“For weeks?”
“Yes.”
“And you never told us.”
“No.”
Her face tightened.
“Why?”
“Because I was trying to learn what was happening before someone lied to me about it.”
Ethan lowered his eyes.
Madison said nothing.
Daniel scrolled.
“The reset was denied at 11:49.”
I let out a breath.
Ethan leaned against the hood of his car.
“Two minutes.”
“What?”
Madison asked.
“He tried two minutes after the request.”
“Whoever it was,” Daniel said.
“We do not know it was Victor.”
Ethan looked at him.
“He was in the office.”
“That is evidence of presence, not proof of the bank attempt.”
Ethan gave a humorless smile.
“You lawyers must be miserable at parties.”
“I leave early.”
Madison turned toward the house.
“I need a drink.”
Daniel said, “No.”
She spun around.
“You don’t get to tell me whether I can drink.”
“Correct.”
He nodded toward her car keys.
“But if you are considering driving anywhere, you should not.”
She stared at him, then threw the keys onto the hood of Ethan’s car.
They slid several inches through the snow and stopped.
“Happy?”
“No.”
She walked inside.
The front door slammed.
Ethan watched her go.
“I should check on her.”
I looked at him.
“Do you want to?”
He hesitated.
That hesitation mattered.
“I don’t know.”
“Then don’t decide because she slammed a door.”
He looked at me.
There was something almost accusing in his expression.
“That sounds like advice you wish someone gave you.”
It took me a second to understand.
His father had been dead thirty-one years, but there were still rooms inside me where grief behaved as if he had just left.
“You’re not wrong.”
Ethan looked away.
“I don’t remember him slamming doors.”
“He didn’t.”
“What did he do?”
“Went quiet.”
I rubbed my gloved hands together.
“Sometimes quiet is worse.”
He nodded.
Neither of us said more.
Daniel’s phone rang again.
This time he answered with his back turned.
The conversation lasted longer.
Ethan looked toward the dark upstairs windows.
“I didn’t know she had a second office.”
“I believe you.”
“I didn’t know about the medical letter.”
“I believe you.”
“I knew about the fake invoices.”
“Yes.”
His mouth tightened.
“I knew enough.”
“Yes.”
He looked at me then.
“Are you ever going to forgive me?”
The question was too large for the hour.
“I don’t know.”
His face fell.
I forced myself not to rescue him from that either.
“I love you.”
His eyes filled.
“That is not the same answer.”
“No.”
He nodded slowly.
Daniel ended his call.
When he turned around, his expression made both of us straighten.
“What?”
I asked.
“The officers found something else.”
Ethan closed his eyes briefly.
May you like
“Of course they did.”
Daniel ignored that.
