Chương 11
“Elise was supposed to meet me tomorrow morning.”
Claire stared at her.
“When did you last speak to her?”
“Yesterday.”
“And now?”
“She isn’t answering.”
Vanessa whispered through the speaker, “Oh God.”
Mara picked up her shoes.
Claire’s heart began pounding.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling her emergency contact.”
“Is she in danger?”
“I don’t know.”
The answer was correct.
Claire hated it anyway.
Mara dialed.
A man answered after several rings.
Mara identified herself.
Then she listened.
Her expression tightened.
“When?”
Another pause.
“Which hospital?”
Claire felt the room tilt before Mara ended the call.
“What happened?”
Mara looked at her.
“Elise was admitted this afternoon.”
“Why?”
“Car accident.”
Claire gripped the edge of the desk.
Vanessa made a frightened sound through the phone.
Mara continued carefully.
“She’s alive.”
Claire stared at her.
“Was it an accident?”
“We do not know anything else yet.”
For years, Claire had been taught to distrust her own suspicions.
Now suspicion came too easily.
She hated that too.
Mara reached for her jacket.
“I’m going to call the hospital and confirm what they can disclose.”
Claire looked at Vanessa’s name glowing on the phone.
Then at the forged signature on the desk.
Then at the door she had locked because she insisted she did not need protection.
For the first time since leaving the house, Claire understood that finding the truth might not merely cost Ethan his company.
It might reveal what he had already been willing to risk to keep it.
Mara held the phone against her ear while the hospital operator transferred her twice.
Claire stood beside the desk with Vanessa still connected on speaker, listening to hold music that sounded obscenely cheerful.
Finally Mara said, “Yes, I’m calling regarding Elise Morton.”
She listened.
“No, I’m not family.”
Another pause.
“I understand.”
Claire watched her expression flatten into professional patience.
“No, I’m not asking for medical details beyond whether she is currently admitted.”
The answer came quickly this time.
Mara thanked the person, ended the call, and looked at Claire.
“She is there.”
“Can we see her?”
“Not tonight.”
“Why?”
“She’s in intensive care.”
Vanessa whispered, “Jesus.”
Claire pressed both palms against the desk.
“What happened?”
“The hospital won’t discuss that with me.”
“Her emergency contact said car accident.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I didn’t ask.”
“Why not?”
“Because he had just learned a stranger knew his sister was hospitalized, and I was trying not to sound like someone conducting an interrogation at one-thirty in the morning.”
Claire looked away.
The correction embarrassed her.
“Sorry.”
Mara’s face softened slightly.
“You’re scared.”
“I’m angry.”
“You can be both.”
Claire hated how easily that was true.
Vanessa said, “I should hang up.”
Claire almost agreed.
Then she stopped.
“No.”
Mara glanced at her.
Claire picked up the phone and took it off speaker.
“Vanessa, I need you to think carefully.”
“Okay.”
“Did Ethan ever talk about Elise other than calling her trouble?”
A long silence followed.
“He said she was trying to extort the company.”
Claire looked at Mara.
“What?”
Mara held out her hand.
Claire switched back to speaker.
“Say that again,” Mara said.
Vanessa did.
Mara’s posture changed.
“When did he tell you this?”
“A few weeks ago.”
“What exactly did he say?”
“That she had copied financial records and was threatening to make trouble unless the company paid her.”
“Did he say she demanded money?”
“I think so.”
“You think?”
Vanessa sounded defensive.
“I wasn’t taking notes.”
“Fair.”
Mara lowered her voice.
“Did he mention whether lawyers or police were involved?”
“No.”
“Did he show you anything?”
“No.”
“Did you ever hear him speak to Elise?”
Vanessa hesitated.
Claire felt the hesitation before she understood it.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Last Thursday.”
Mara’s eyes sharpened.
“What did you hear?”
“Not much.”
“Tell us the little you did.”
“I was at his office.”
Claire’s stomach turned, but she kept quiet.
“He stepped into the conference room to take a call.”
Vanessa continued more slowly.
“I heard him say, ‘You’re making this worse for yourself.’”
Mara reached for a notepad.
“What else?”
“He said, ‘You signed an agreement, Elise.’”
“Anything after that?”
“I walked away.”
“Why?”
Vanessa gave a tired, humorless laugh.
“Because at the time I thought I was respecting his privacy.”
Claire closed her eyes.
There were entire structures of harm built from ordinary courtesies.
“Did he sound angry?”
Mara asked.
“No.”
“Threatening?”
“Not exactly.”
“What does not exactly mean?”
Vanessa inhaled.
“He sounded like Ethan.”
Claire opened her eyes.
She knew immediately.
Mara did not.
“What does that mean?” Mara asked.
Vanessa was quiet for a moment.
Claire answered for her.
“Calm.”
Vanessa said, “Yes.”
Claire looked at the carpet.
“He gets calmer when he wants the other person to feel unreasonable.”
Neither woman contradicted her.
Mara wrote something down.
“Vanessa, did Ethan know where Elise lived?”
“I have no idea.”
“Did he ever mention her car?”
“No.”
“Any meeting outside the office?”
“No.”
Mara stopped writing.
“Then we stop there.”
Claire looked at her.
“You think Ethan had something to do with the accident.”
“I think we have no evidence of that.”
“But you were thinking it.”
“I was thinking about possibilities.”
“That’s the same thing.”
“No.”
Mara’s tone sharpened slightly.
“It matters that it is not the same thing.”
Claire felt heat rise into her face.
Mara continued.
“If Elise was in an ordinary collision caused by a distracted driver, and we decide before sunrise that Ethan arranged it, we become easier to discredit.”
Claire folded her arms.
“And if he did arrange it?”
“Then evidence matters even more.”
That silenced her.
Vanessa said softly, “Claire?”
“Yes?”
“I don’t think Ethan would hurt someone.”
Claire almost snapped at her.
Then she remembered how many times she herself had thought nearly the same sentence in different forms.
Ethan would never lie about that.
Ethan would never take money without telling me.
Ethan would never tell people I was unstable.
May you like
Belief usually broke one piece at a time.
“I don’t know what he would do,” Claire said.
