Chương 8
“I know.”
“No, you keep saying you know and then walking toward the next fire.”
“I’m not leaving Toby with a stranger.”
“Good.”
“So we wait.”
The guard looked relieved.
“I’ll radio her.”
He stepped away.
My phone vibrated again.
This time the message came from Leonard.
DON’T TRUST ARTHUR.
A second message followed before I could open the first.
I LET HIM IN.
I showed Daniel.
His face went flat.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said Leonard approved Evelyn’s credentials.”
“Yes.”
“Did he know her before you did?”
“Not that I know of.”
Daniel pointed at the screen.
“Call him.”
I did.
The call went straight to voicemail.
I tried again.
Same result.
Then my phone rang from an unfamiliar local number.
I answered.
“Thomas?”
Leonard’s voice was weak and breathless.
“Where are you?”
“Ambulance.”
“What happened?”
“Not a heart attack.”
“That isn’t reassuring.”
“They think panic attack.”
Leonard gave a dry laugh that turned into coughing.
“I picked a lousy day to discover I’m mortal.”
“What did you mean when you said you let Arthur in?”
Silence.
Sirens wailed behind him.
“Leonard.”
“I gave him access.”
“To what?”
“Not directly.”
“Stop protecting yourself and answer me.”
Daniel raised his eyebrows.
I ignored him.
Leonard exhaled.
“Three years ago, Kensington Strategic came to us through Halpern Advisory.”
“I know Halpern.”
“They wanted preliminary numbers on redevelopment targets.”
“Public numbers?”
“At first.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“At first.”
“I thought it was normal market intelligence.”
“What did you give them?”
“Acquisition models.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Which models?”
“West Harbor.”
I sat down.
“You gave our bid models to Arthur Kensington.”
“Not the final bids.”
“Leonard.”
“They were scenario ranges.”
“Those ranges were confidential.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
He did not answer.
That silence told me before he did.
“How much?”
Daniel looked at me sharply.
Leonard said, “It wasn’t like that.”
“How much?”
“Seventy-five.”
“Thousand?”
“Yes.”
My vision blurred for a second.
“You sold my company’s numbers for seventy-five thousand dollars.”
“I was underwater.”
“With what?”
Another pause.
“Gambling.”
Daniel turned away and rubbed his forehead.
Leonard’s voice dropped.
“My wife didn’t know.”
I had known Leonard for seventeen years.
He brought his own lunch to work in glass containers.
He complained about resort fees.
He once drove forty minutes back to a hardware store because a cashier had given him four dollars too much change.
People did not arrive labeled with the thing that would break them.
“How long?”
“Five years.”
“You’ve been selling information for five years?”
“No.”
“Then answer the question I asked.”
“The gambling.”
A paramedic said something in the background.
Leonard replied, then came back.
“I stopped giving Arthur anything after the first set.”
“But you gave him a way in.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I mentioned your habits.”
My stomach turned.
“What habits?”
“Where you ate.”
“Keep going.”
“Events.”
“Keep going.”
“Who handled your calendar.”
Daniel swore softly.
“And the charity dinner?”
Leonard was quiet.
“Yes.”
I stared at the wall.
Evelyn had not found me.
Leonard had helped Arthur place her in my path.
“Did you know he was sending Evelyn?”
“No.”
“Do not lie to me.”
“I swear I didn’t.”
“What did you think he wanted?”
“Access.”
“To me.”
“To your decision-making.”
“And when Evelyn appeared?”
“I suspected.”
“When?”
“After the second dinner.”
The answer hurt in a way I had not expected.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I was scared.”
“You watched me build a relationship with her.”
“I know.”
“You watched me propose.”
“I know.”
“You came to my engagement dinner.”
Leonard started crying.
Not dramatically.
Just breath pulling unevenly over the phone.
“I know.”
Daniel looked at me and shook his head once, warning me not to keep pushing a man in an ambulance.
I almost laughed at the absurdity.
My daughter had a concussion.
My grandson had carried evidence into my wedding.
My fiancée had admitted spying on me.
My CFO had sold access to my life.
And somehow I was still required to behave like a civilized adult.
“What happened in the ballroom?” I asked.
“Arthur came to me.”
“When?”
“Five minutes ago.”
“What did he want?”
“The drive.”
I looked at the USB beside the laptop.
“How does he know about it?”
“He said Genevieve made a copy.”
“Did he say Toby had it?”
“No.”
“What exactly did he say?”
“That she had duplicated documents and that if I helped recover them, he could keep my name out of everything.”
Daniel leaned toward the phone.
“Did he threaten you?”
Leonard heard him.
“Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Leonard swallowed audibly.
“He reminded me I took money.”
“That’s leverage, not necessarily a threat.”
“He said federal charges would destroy my family.”
Daniel wrote something down.
“What did you tell him?”
“That I didn’t know where the copy was.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“What made you collapse?”
Leonard let out a breath.
“I saw Evelyn.”
I looked at Daniel.
“What did she do?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why?”
“Because she was wearing that dress.”
I almost snapped at him.
Then I understood.
The wedding made the consequence visible.
Whatever Leonard had helped start years earlier had become a room full of flowers and relatives and promises.
“I kept thinking this was partly mine.”
“It is.”
Daniel shot me another look.
I did not take it back.
Leonard went silent.
Then he said, “I know.”
The paramedic told him they were arriving.
“Which hospital?”
“Northwestern Lake Forest.”
“Stay there.”
“I wasn’t planning an escape.”
Even now, his dry accountant humor surfaced.
For one second, he sounded like the man I knew.
Then he said, “Thomas.”
“What?”
“Arthur isn’t trying to save Evelyn.”
I gripped the phone.
“What makes you say that?”
“He called her expendable.”
The line went dead.
I stared at the phone until the screen dimmed.
Daniel sat beside me.
“That matters.”
“Yes.”
May you like
“It also gives Evelyn a motive to turn on him.”
“Or a motive to make us think she has.”
