Chương 14
Then it disappeared.
“I’m sorry.”
Marcus looked at her for a long moment.
“Okay.”
She turned.
“That’s it?”
“What do you want?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then okay is probably enough.”
For some reason, that seemed harder for her to accept than anger would have been.
Tessa’s phone rang.
She answered.
Everyone watched her.
Her face changed halfway through the call.
“Where?”
She listened.
“Don’t touch it.”
Natalie stood.
“What happened?”
Tessa ended the call.
“Security found Graham’s car.”
Renner stepped forward.
“Here?”
“No.”
“Where?”
“Service road behind the old freight terminal.”
Natalie’s face drained.
Tessa continued.
“Driver’s door open.”
Marcus looked at her.
“And Graham?”
Tessa shook her head.
“No sign of him.”
Then she added, “But there’s blood on the steering wheel.”
Natalie did not move.
Renner did.
He turned toward the door so fast that the heel of his shoe clipped the chair behind him.
Tessa caught his arm.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“We have to go.”
“You have to stay out of an active evidence scene.”
“That is my client.”
“That is also potentially a crime scene.”
Natalie was still looking at nothing.
Marcus watched her face as the words found somewhere to land.
Then she picked up her phone.
“Call 911.”
Tessa nodded.
“I already did.”
Marcus looked toward the hangar floor.
“Where exactly is the old freight terminal?”
Garrison answered.
“South perimeter.”
“How far?”
“Half a mile.”
“Camera coverage?”
“Spotty.”
Tessa looked at him.
“You’re not going down there.”
Marcus shrugged.
“I asked a question.”
“You ask a lot of useful questions.”
“I’ve been told worse.”
Natalie finally moved.
She crossed to the window and put both hands on the sill.
Below them, the Sovereign sat open and powerless under the hangar lights.
For the first time all morning, the jet looked small.
Not expensive.
Not impressive.
Just vulnerable.
Renner said, “If Graham was attacked, this changes everything.”
Marcus looked at him.
“It changes some things.”
“Some?”
“It still doesn’t tell us whether he sabotaged the aircraft.”
Natalie turned.
“There’s blood in his car.”
“And a sabotage kit in his office.”
Her eyes flashed.
“You think he did it.”
“I think evidence can point in two directions at once.”
Tessa’s phone rang again.
She listened.
Then she looked toward Natalie.
“They found him.”
Natalie’s breath caught.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
The entire room seemed to release something.
“Where?”
“Inside the freight terminal.”
“Condition?”
“Conscious.”
Natalie closed her eyes.
Tessa continued.
“Head injury.”
Renner stepped forward.
“Can he talk?”
“Apparently.”
“Did he say what happened?”
Tessa listened again.
Her expression changed.
“Not over the radio.”
Marcus looked at her.
“That bad?”
“Complicated.”
Fifteen minutes later, the first city police units entered through the south gate.
An ambulance followed.
Tessa met the officers outside the executive corridor and gave them the short version without speculation.
Marcus stayed near the maintenance desk.
He had no reason to be part of the rest.
That became obvious when one officer began taking names.
Garrison stood beside him.
“You planning to disappear?”
“I’m considering it.”
“You can’t.”
Marcus looked at him.
“Pretty sure I can.”
“You found half of this.”
“That doesn’t make me an employee.”
Garrison rubbed his jaw.
“You really don’t like being needed, do you?”
Marcus glanced at him.
“That sounded dangerously insightful.”
“I have layers.”
“I hadn’t noticed.”
Garrison almost smiled.
Then the hangar doors opened and paramedics brought Graham Voss through on a stretcher.
Natalie came down the stairs.
Graham’s face was bloodless beneath a bandage wrapped around his forehead.
One eye had swollen nearly shut.
His left hand was cuffed loosely to the stretcher rail.
That detail stopped everyone.
Natalie stopped too.
Graham saw her.
The expression on his face was not fear.
It was shame.
“Natalie.”
She did not answer.
A detective beside the stretcher said, “Ms. Whitmore, we need to speak privately after he’s transported.”
Graham tried to sit up.
A paramedic pushed him gently back.
“I did it.”
The words carried farther than they needed to.
Renner stepped forward immediately.
“Do not make a statement.”
Graham laughed once, weakly.
“Paul, I think we’re past that.”
Natalie looked at him.
“You sabotaged my aircraft?”
Graham’s good eye closed.
“Yes.”
The hangar went silent.
Marcus felt no satisfaction.
Only fatigue.
Natalie’s voice became frighteningly calm.
“Why?”
Graham looked toward the ceiling.
“Because you were going to sign Shinsei.”
“That was the reason?”
“You were going to gut my division.”
“I was going to reorganize capital control.”
“You were going to take it.”
“It isn’t yours.”
“It was my life.”
Natalie flinched.
Graham saw it and looked away.
The detective lifted one hand.
“Mr. Voss, you need to stop.”
Graham ignored him.
“I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
Marcus looked at the damaged aircraft.
Graham noticed.
“You’re the contractor.”
Marcus said nothing.
“You found it.”
“Yes.”
Graham gave a bitter smile.
“Of course you did.”
Garrison frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Graham looked at Marcus more closely.
Then recognition finally appeared.
“Webb.”
Marcus felt the old name settle differently in the room.
Natalie looked from one man to the other.
“You know him?”
Graham’s mouth twisted.
“Everybody knew him.”
Marcus looked at the floor.
Not anymore.
Graham continued.
“Systems integration at Halcyon.”
Garrison stared at Marcus.
Marcus ignored him.
Graham laughed again and winced from the pain.
“The man who warned them about the VX electrical fault.”
Natalie’s expression changed.
Marcus looked at him sharply.
“Enough.”
“No.”
Graham looked almost relieved to hurt someone besides himself.
“He warned them, and they buried it.”
Renner frowned.
“Halcyon Aerospace?”
Marcus stepped forward.
“I said enough.”
Graham looked at Natalie.
“They blamed him when the test article failed.”
Natalie went very still.
Garrison’s face changed with understanding.
The disappeared career.
The contractor roster.
The way Marcus talked about evidence.
The way he distrusted conclusions.
Graham kept going.
“Two engineers got hurt.”
Marcus grabbed the side rail of the stretcher.
“Stop.”
For the first time, his voice shook.
The paramedic looked at the detective.
May you like
The detective looked at Graham.
Graham stopped.
