Chương 11
Margaret had never told me.
On the recording, Leonard continued.
“She said she was going to.”
Arthur sounded annoyed.
“But she didn’t.”
“Because she got sick.”
“That is not our fault.”
“You pressured her.”
“I reminded her that disclosure would expose you.”
“You threatened to destroy her husband’s company.”
“I explained consequences.”
Daniel paused the recording.
I looked at him.
“Keep going.”
“You sure?”
“Keep going.”
He did.
Leonard spoke next.
“She was already sick.”
Arthur replied, “Exactly.”
“You knew.”
“I knew she had appointments.”
“You had somebody following her.”
“For business reasons.”
“You knew before Thomas did.”
That sentence cracked something inside me.
Margaret had gone through three weeks of tests before she told me how serious the doctors thought it might be.
She had said she wanted certainty before frightening me.
Arthur had known.
A stranger had known about my wife’s illness while I was still complaining to her about contractor delays over dinner.
Leonard’s voice came again.
“You used it.”
Arthur said nothing.
“You waited until she was scared and sick, then you told her if she exposed us you’d leak financial allegations about Thomas.”
“They were not fabricated.”
“They were distorted.”
“They were supportable.”
“She begged me to fix it.”
I shut my eyes.
I could see Margaret at our kitchen table that fall, thinner than usual, rubbing her thumb over the rim of a coffee mug.
I had asked if something was wrong.
She had said she was tired.
I had believed her because believing her was easy.
Leonard continued.
“She thought the investigation would destroy him.”
Arthur answered, “Then she made a rational choice.”
“What choice?”
“To keep quiet.”
The recording ended.
For several seconds, I heard nothing except Toby chewing crackers.
Then I stood so quickly the chair rolled backward into the wall.
Daniel caught my shoulder.
“Thomas.”
I pulled away.
“Open the door.”
“No.”
“Open it.”
“Not until you’re thinking.”
“I am thinking.”
“No, you’re furious.”
“That is still thinking.”
Toby looked up.
I stopped.
His face had changed at the sound of my voice.
I lowered it.
“Sorry.”
He nodded uncertainly.
Daniel walked to the door.
“Evelyn, how did Genevieve get this recording?”
“I gave it to her.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Where did you get it?”
“Arthur’s home office.”
“Who recorded it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Convenient.”
“I know.”
Daniel frowned at the door.
“That phrase is getting old.”
“So is being lied to.”
Her voice cracked.
That was new.
I walked closer but left the deadbolt locked.
“When did you find out Arthur was involved with Margaret?”
“Five weeks ago.”
“How?”
“I was looking for West Harbor files.”
“For him?”
“No.”
“For Genevieve?”
“For myself.”
I laughed bitterly.
“That clears everything up.”
“I was trying to understand how far back it went.”
“How far what went?”
“My father’s interest in you.”
“You knew he targeted me from the start.”
“Yes.”
“But you thought it started with you.”
“Yes.”
“What changed?”
“I found the 2019 report.”
“And then?”
“I confronted him.”
“About Margaret?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“That she was collateral damage.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
My hand went to the wall.
It was the only thing nearby solid enough to trust.
“Those exact words?”
“Yes.”
“You recorded him?”
“No.”
“I didn’t know there was already a recording.”
“Then where did that file come from?”
“Leonard.”
I looked at Daniel.
“Leonard gave it to you?”
“Not directly.”
“What does that mean?”
“He had copied it years ago and stored it with Arthur’s files.”
“Why would Arthur keep a recording that made him look guilty?”
“It doesn’t make him guilty of killing Margaret.”
Daniel cut in.
“She’s right about that.”
I turned on him.
He held up a hand.
“The recording shows pressure and concealment.”
“Not murder.”
“No.”
“Margaret died of cancer.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn spoke through the door.
“Arthur didn’t cause her cancer.”
The sentence hit me with almost insulting obviousness.
I wanted to be angry at someone for her death.
For five years, there had been nobody to blame except biology and bad luck.
Now Arthur had appeared beside her final months like a stain.
“He frightened her while she was dying.”
“Yes.”
“He used her illness.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know any of this when you accepted his money?”
“No.”
“Do I believe that?”
“I don’t know.”
At least she did not ask me to.
Daniel crouched beside Toby.
“Hey, buddy.”
Toby held out a cracker.
Daniel accepted it solemnly.
“I need you to do something important.”
Toby watched him.
“Eat that.”
Daniel looked at the cracker.
“That wasn’t what I was going to ask.”
“Eat.”
Daniel ate it.
Toby nodded, satisfied.
I almost laughed.
The sound caught somewhere behind my ribs.
Marisol turned toward the door.
“I have two security officers at the service stairwell.”
Evelyn said, “Please don’t send them after Arthur yet.”
Daniel’s head snapped up.
“Why not?”
“Because if he gets cornered, he’ll destroy whatever he left downstairs.”
“You said you didn’t know what it was.”
“I don’t.”
“Then how do you know it matters?”
“Because he sounded scared.”
Daniel looked at me.
“That I believe.”
Arthur had not sounded scared anywhere on the recordings.
Annoyed, contemptuous, controlling.
Never scared.
I unlocked the deadbolt.
Daniel grabbed my arm again.
“Thomas.”
“I’m not opening it all the way.”
I cracked the door with the security latch still engaged.
Evelyn stood alone in the hallway.
Her veil was gone.
Her hair had begun to fall loose around her face.
There was a dark smear beneath one eye where mascara had run and been wiped away.
She looked less like my bride than a woman who had escaped a formal photograph.
“Show me your hands,” Daniel said.
She stared at him.
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
She raised them.
Empty.
“Turn around.”
“Daniel.”
“Do it.”
She turned.
Nothing.
Marisol checked the hall.
Two security officers waited near the corner.
I looked at Evelyn through the narrow opening.
“Did you push Genevieve?”
Her face changed.
“She told you.”
“Yes.”
May you like
“I grabbed the bag.”
“Did you push her?”
