Chương 3
Without the cold masking everything, I could see more bruising along her neck.
A woman in a gray blazer sat beside the bed.
She stood when I entered.
“Mrs. Hayes?”
“Ms. Hayes.”
“Detective Nina Calder.”
We shook hands.
Her grip was dry and brief.
She did not look impressed by me.
I liked her immediately.
“Your daughter has given me permission to speak in front of you,” she said.
“Then I’ll listen.”
Chloe turned her head.
Tears filled her eyes, but she did not cry.
“Mom.”
I sat beside her and touched two fingers to the back of her hand.
“You don’t have to tell me anything right now.”
“I do.”
“No.”
Her mouth tightened.
“Yes.”
Detective Calder glanced between us.
“Chloe, we can stop whenever you want.”
Chloe looked at me instead.
“Marcus didn’t just cheat.”
Her voice was rough.
I waited.
“He needed me gone.”
“Gone from Thanksgiving?”
She swallowed.
“No.”
Her fingers tightened around mine.
“Gone before I could tell anyone what he made me sign.”
Chloe closed her eyes as if the sentence itself had exhausted her.
Detective Calder did not lean forward or soften her face.
“What did he make you sign?”
Chloe’s lips moved once before sound came out.
“A statement.”
“About what?”
“Halcyon.”
I felt Ruth shift behind me.
Chloe stared at the ceiling.
“Marcus brought it home three nights ago.”
Her words came slowly, broken by breaths that seemed to hurt her ribs.
“He said there was an internal review at work and somebody had used my credentials to access files.”
Calder lifted one hand.
“Your credentials at Halcyon?”
“No.”
Chloe swallowed.
“My Benton credentials.”
“Benton Engineering?”
“Yes.”
“What files?”
“I don’t know.”
She squeezed her eyes tighter.
“That’s the problem.”
Dr. Patel had told us not to exhaust her, and I could already see the faint grayness returning around her mouth.
I touched her wrist.
“Chloe, stop if you need to.”
“I need this on record.”
Calder nodded once.
“It will be.”
Chloe looked at her.
“Marcus said a contractor had traced a data transfer to a Benton account connected to me.”
“Did he show you anything?”
“A printout.”
“Do you still have it?”
“No.”
“Did you read it?”
“Some of it.”
Her forehead tightened.
“There was a login history, maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“I was scared.”
Calder let the silence sit.
It was an old technique, and a good one.
People often filled silence because they mistook it for disbelief.
Chloe did not.
She just breathed through the pain.
“What did the statement say?” Calder asked.
“That I had used my Benton access to collect documents from a Halcyon subcontractor.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Her answer came hard enough to trigger a cough.
I reached for the water cup, but the nurse had warned us not to give her anything until imaging was complete.
I put my hand back down.
Chloe grimaced.
“Marcus said if I signed, Halcyon could keep it internal.”
“And if you didn’t?”
“He said I could be charged.”
Calder glanced at me.
I gave her nothing.
“What else?” she asked.
“He said Benton would fire me.”
“Would they?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you sign?”
Chloe nodded.
My fingers went cold despite the overheated room.
“Why?” Calder asked.
Chloe looked at me then.
That hurt more than the answer.
“Because he said Mom could get dragged into it.”
Ruth made a sharp sound.
I said, “How?”
“He knew where you used to work.”
The room seemed to contract.
For three years Marcus had pretended my retirement was beneath his curiosity.
Apparently curiosity had found him when it became useful.
“He said because you had been in federal service, investigators might think you helped me understand how to hide things.”
“That makes no sense,” Ruth said.
Calder turned toward her.
“Ma’am, I need you not to interrupt.”
Ruth folded her arms.
“I can do that badly.”
“Try.”
Ruth stared at the wall.
Chloe whispered, “He said even an accusation could put your pension under review.”
That was legally absurd in the form Marcus had presented it.
It was also exactly the kind of lie that worked on someone frightened enough to believe the person she loved knew more than she did.
I kept my voice level.
“What did you sign your name to?”
“I don’t know all of it.”
My restraint slipped.
“Chloe.”
Her face crumpled.
“I know.”
I looked away immediately.
The accusation in my tone had landed where it should not have.
Ruth stepped closer to the bed.
“Hey.”
Chloe’s eyes filled.
“I know I should have read it.”
“No,” I said.
She looked at me.
I forced myself to slow down.
“You should have been able to trust your husband not to put fraudulent documents in front of you.”
The word fraudulent made Calder’s eyes flick toward me.
I corrected myself.
“Potentially fraudulent.”
Chloe gave the faintest, strangest little laugh.
“Still a prosecutor.”
“Occupational damage.”
For three seconds the room became ordinary.
Then Calder asked, “What happened last night?”
Chloe’s humor vanished.
“His mother came over around six.”
“Sylvia Vane?”
“Yes.”
“Anyone else?”
“Marcus’s friend Garrett was there for a while.”
“Last name?”
“Lowe.”
Calder wrote it down.
“What happened after he left?”
“Marcus told me we needed to talk.”
She stopped.
Her hand had begun trembling again.
I moved my chair closer without touching her.
“He said I had embarrassed him.”
“How?”
“I called a number on the statement.”
Calder’s pen paused.
“What number?”
“An internal reporting number.”
“At Halcyon?”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell them?”
“That I thought the statement was false.”
Every part of me sharpened.
“When?”
“Yesterday afternoon.”
“From your phone?”
“From the office conference room at Benton.”
“Did you give your name?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“They asked questions.”
“Who did?”
“A woman.”
“Name?”
“Rebecca, maybe.”
“Did she give you a last name?”
“I don’t remember.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That Marcus brought me documents I didn’t understand and told me I had to sign.”
Calder stopped writing.
May you like
“And?”
“I told her Marcus said the company already knew I was responsible.”
