Chương 5
He noticed the sweater when I opened the door.
“You still have that?”
His voice was soft.
I looked down.
“You hate this sweater.”
“I hate the stain.”
“I know.”
For a second, we were people who had been married for four years instead of adversaries waiting to find out what kind of marriage they had.
Then he stepped inside.
He had taken off his tie completely.
His hair was damp at the temples, and I could smell hotel soap or maybe the soap from a restaurant bathroom.
“Where did you go?”
“The Four Seasons.”
“You checked in?”
“No.”
I closed the door.
“Why not?”
“I sat in the lobby for twenty minutes and realized I didn’t want to be there.”
“So where were you?”
“Walking.”
“At this hour?”
“Yes.”
“That’s unlike you.”
“I’m having an unusual night.”
There was enough bitterness in the sentence to make me flinch.
He heard it too.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize automatically.”
“I’m not.”
“You do.”
He dropped his eyes.
“That’s fair.”
We went into the kitchen.
He saw the counters had been cleaned and rubbed the back of his neck.
“You always clean when you’re furious.”
“I clean when things are dirty.”
“You alphabetized the spice drawer after my thirty-fifth birthday.”
“Your friends put cigarette ashes in a cereal bowl.”
“Two different issues.”
I looked at him.
He almost smiled.
I almost did too.
That frightened me.
Not because warmth was wrong, but because it reminded me how easy it was to let familiarity blur judgment.
“Your medication is upstairs,” I said.
“I know.”
“You said you need to talk.”
He nodded.
“Can we sit?”
We sat at opposite ends of the kitchen table.
The distance between us was less than six feet.
It felt formal.
Alejandro folded his hands, unfolded them, then picked at a small crack in one thumbnail.
“I should start with my mother.”
“No.”
He looked up.
“I don’t want to talk about her right now.”
“That’s part of this.”
“Maybe.”
“It is.”
“I’m listening to what you need to tell me, not what you think is easiest to confess first.”
His expression changed.
“What does that mean?”
“You tell me.”
He leaned back.
“Did Daniel call you?”
I said nothing.
His jaw tightened.
That was answer enough.
“What did he say?”
“What do you think he said?”
“Mariana.”
“No.”
“What?”
“You’re not going to interrogate me about what I know.”
He looked toward the windows.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then he said, “There are problems with Toluca.”
“How long have you known?”
“Maybe six weeks.”
“Maybe?”
“I noticed things six weeks ago.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I became sure there was a problem about three weeks ago.”
Three weeks.
The date on the receipt.
I kept my face still.
“What kind of problem?”
He rubbed both palms over his knees.
“Vendor approvals that didn’t make sense.”
“Whose approvals?”
“Mine.”
The word landed quietly.
I waited.
He looked at me again.
“I didn’t make all of them.”
“All?”
“Some were legitimate.”
“Which ones weren’t?”
“There were emergency authorizations entered under my credentials after I’d already signed off on the weekly batch.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe someone stole your credentials?”
“I expect you to believe my credentials were used.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“I know.”
“Did you share them?”
“No.”
“Did you leave a terminal unlocked?”
“Probably.”
“Probably?”
“I run operations for a company with hundreds of people calling me all day.”
“That doesn’t make leaving an executive terminal open acceptable.”
“I know that.”
“Apparently you didn’t.”
His face tightened.
“Can you not do this like I’m already guilty?”
I almost snapped back.
Instead I stood and poured myself water.
My hand shook slightly against the glass.
I hated that he noticed.
He did not comment.
“When you discovered the approvals, what did you do?”
“I checked the vendor.”
“Grupo Marea.”
His head came up fast.
There it was.
Not surprise at the name.
Surprise that I knew it.
“How much did Daniel tell you?”
“Enough.”
Alejandro stood.
“Then why are we doing this?”
“Sit down.”
“I’m not an employee in this kitchen.”
“No.”
“You’re talking to me like one.”
“I’m talking to my husband, who just admitted he found suspicious payments three weeks ago and did not tell me.”
He froze.
That finally reached the center of it.
I lowered my voice.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He sat again.
“I was trying to figure out who was behind it.”
“You had an audit team.”
“I couldn’t use them.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought someone inside the company was helping.”
“That is exactly why audit exists.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“Then explain it.”
He pushed his chair back an inch and stared at the tabletop.
“Tomás called me.”
I said nothing.
“He said my mother had given his company contacts to some people working on Toluca.”
“His company?”
“Not exactly his.”
“Naviera del Centro?”
He looked at me sharply.
This time he was frightened.
“You know about that too.”
“Keep talking.”
He swallowed.
“He said he was doing administrative work for a holding company.”
“And Grupo Marea?”
“He claimed he had nothing to do with operations.”
“Did you believe him?”
“At first.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s an idiot, Mariana.”
The bluntness almost startled me.
Alejandro rubbed his face.
“He can barely keep track of his own taxes.”
“So you assumed he couldn’t steal from us?”
“I assumed he couldn’t build a scheme sophisticated enough to route invoices through shell entities.”
“That’s a dangerous compliment.”
“I know.”
“Where does your mother fit?”
He looked toward the hallway.
I could almost see him choosing which betrayal hurt least.
“She introduced him to someone.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
“You asked her?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Again, three weeks.
“What did she say?”
“That Tomás deserved an opportunity.”
“And you accepted that?”
“No.”
“I mean before the irregular payments.”
May you like
Alejandro looked embarrassed.
“She’d been talking about him needing work for months.”
