Chương 12
His rigidity.
The way his arms had tightened.
The strange desperation she had felt beneath all that control.
She said nothing.
Adrian looked embarrassed by his own honesty.
“That was more than I intended to say.”
“You’re allowed.”
He glanced at her.
“Am I?”
“Occasionally.”
A smile appeared and vanished.
“My mother still refers to plans as though Caroline is available.”
Eve swallowed.
“That must be hard.”
“It is.”
“Does she forget?”
“No.”
Adrian looked toward the window again.
“She just hasn’t updated the grammar of her life.”
Eve felt that sentence somewhere unpleasantly deep.
She looked at her coffee.
“Preston used to text me when he left work.”
Adrian waited.
“My phone still feels wrong at six.”
She gave a small shrug.
“Like something is late.”
Neither of them spoke for a moment.
The toddler at the next table had stopped screaming and was now feeding cracker pieces into his mother’s handbag.
Adrian noticed.
“So that’s how crime begins.”
Eve laughed.
The mother looked down, discovered the crackers, and sighed with the resignation of someone who had seen worse.
Adrian checked his watch.
“Five minutes.”
“You’re very obedient today.”
“I was given clear parameters.”
“Rare experience?”
“Extremely.”
He stood again.
This time Eve let him.
He put one hand on the chair back.
“For what it’s worth, I wasn’t trying to interfere with your job yesterday.”
“I know.”
“I should not have told you what to send.”
“I know that too.”
“I’m not used to people telling me when I’m crossing a line.”
“That sounds like a terrible life.”
“It has disadvantages.”
“Money helps.”
“Enormously.”
Eve smiled.
He looked at her for half a second too long.
Then his phone vibrated.
His face changed when he saw the screen.
Eve caught the name again.
Rachel.
This time there was a preview beneath it.
We need to talk before Elena finds—
Adrian turned the screen over.
Too late.
Eve looked away.
He saw that she had seen.
The silence between them hardened.
“You should answer,” Eve said.
“No.”
“That message looked important.”
“It is.”
“Then answer.”
Adrian did not move.
Eve suddenly understood that whatever Rachel represented, it was not simple.
“Who is she?”
The question came out before Eve could stop it.
Adrian’s eyes lifted to hers.
For the first time since they had met, he looked genuinely cornered.
“My ex-wife.”
Eve sat very still.
Adrian’s phone vibrated again.
“And,” he added quietly, “she used to run the division Dennis reports to.”
The warmth left the table.
Eve looked at the phone.
Then at him.
“You said we weren’t discussing the investigation.”
“We aren’t.”
“You just connected your ex-wife to it.”
“I answered your question.”
“That was a terrible decision.”
“Yes.”
He looked toward Daniel.
Daniel was already walking toward them.
Adrian’s phone rang.
This time he answered.
“Rachel.”
He listened.
His expression changed almost immediately.
“What do you mean, gone?”
Eve felt the room narrow.
Adrian turned slightly away.
“No, don’t touch anything.”
Another pause.
“Who else knows?”
His eyes met Eve’s.
Whatever Rachel said next erased the last trace of color from his face.
Adrian ended the call.
Daniel reached the table.
“What happened?”
Adrian slipped the phone into his coat.
“Cole Bennett didn’t show up for his interview.”
Daniel’s expression remained controlled.
“So?”
Adrian looked at Eve.
“His office was cleared out this morning.”
Eve looked at Adrian, waiting for him to explain why a cleared office frightened him more than a missed interview.
He did not.
Daniel asked, “Security footage?”
“Rachel said Legal is already pulling it.”
“Badge access?”
“Same.”
Daniel nodded once.
The two men exchanged a look that excluded Eve without being deliberately rude.
That was almost worse.
She stood and picked up her coat.
“I should go.”
Adrian turned back to her.
“Yes.”
The answer came too quickly.
Eve’s irritation returned.
“Good talk.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“It sounded like exactly what you meant.”
Daniel stared at the pastry case with renewed commitment.
Adrian lowered his voice.
“You should leave because you have no reason to be anywhere near this.”
“I wasn’t planning to chase Cole Bennett through Boston.”
“I know.”
“Then stop talking to me like I’m a civilian wandering toward a crime scene.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
“It is a little.”
He looked at her for a moment.
Then he exhaled.
“You’re right.”
Eve hated how often that worked.
It made fighting with him inconvenient.
She put on her coat.
“Goodbye, Adrian.”
“Eve.”
She stopped.
His expression had lost the corporate composure again.
“Don’t answer calls from numbers you don’t recognize today.”
That was specific enough to erase her annoyance.
“Why?”
“Because if Cole is trying to control the story, he may contact people who documented objections.”
Eve felt cold despite the café heat.
“Like me.”
“Yes.”
Daniel finally turned away from the pastries.
“We don’t know that he will.”
Adrian said, “No.”
Eve looked between them.
“And if he does?”
Daniel answered.
“Don’t engage.”
“Save the message?”
“Yes.”
“Tell Elena?”
“Yes.”
“Anything else?”
Daniel shook his head.
“No heroics.”
Eve almost smiled.
“You’ve known me for five minutes.”
“I have daughters.”
Apparently that explained everything.
Eve left the café with her scarf pulled high around her face.
Snow had softened into light flakes.
The sidewalks were slushy and crowded.
She walked back to the hotel instead of taking a car because movement was better than sitting still with the sentence Cole Bennett’s office was cleared out rattling around in her head.
Her phone buzzed halfway down the block.
Unknown number.
She stopped.
For one second, she considered answering just because Adrian had told her not to.
That was childish.
Recognizing that did not make the impulse disappear.
She let it ring out.
A voicemail appeared immediately.
Eve kept walking.
At the hotel entrance, she stepped beneath the awning and opened the voicemail transcript.
Hi, Ms. Mercer, this is Maya Torres.
Please call me.
Eve’s chest tightened.
May you like
Another line loaded.
I don’t know who else to talk to.
