Chương 4
She had forgotten the moment until now.
“Did Daniel report it?”
Karen did not answer.
Mara stepped closer.
“Did he?”
“He tried.”
“To who?”
“Internally first.”
“And?”
“Nothing happened.”
“Then what?”
Karen’s lips compressed.
“He contacted outside counsel.”
Mara felt a pressure behind her ribs.
“His lawyer?”
“No.”
“Whose lawyer?”
“An attorney who handles whistleblower cases.”
The word made Louise look up.
Mara wished she had not heard it.
“What happened?”
“Daniel collected records.”
“Which records?”
“I don’t know everything he had.”
“You just said he collected them.”
“I knew he was collecting them.”
Karen looked at Louise.
“And apparently he made recordings too.”
Mara followed her gaze to the tablet.
The thing suddenly felt heavier than its size.
“What did he mean when he said I get everything?”
Karen’s face changed again.
Not fear this time.
Something closer to resignation.
“He created a dead-man release.”
The flight attendant frowned.
Mara did too.
“A what?”
“A package.”
Karen spoke slowly.
“If he stopped checking in with the attorney, the files were supposed to go to a designated person.”
Mara stared at her.
“Me.”
Karen shook her head.
“No.”
Louise’s fingers tightened around the tablet.
Mara saw it.
“Who?”
Karen looked at Louise.
Nobody moved.
Mara felt the cabin tilt though the plane remained level.
“No.”
Karen said nothing.
“She’s eight.”
“Daniel trusted her.”
“She was seven when he died.”
“I know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
Mara stepped between Karen and Louise.
“What would he possibly send to a child?”
“Not the actual records.”
Karen’s voice softened for the first time.
“A key.”
Mara thought of passwords.
Storage drives.
Safe-deposit boxes.
All the stupid television answers rushed through her mind and embarrassed her even as they came.
“What kind of key?”
Karen shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Louise spoke from behind Mara.
“I do.”
Mara turned slowly.
Louise opened the cover of her tablet case.
From a narrow compartment meant for a stylus, she slid out a small brass key.
Mara stared at it.
There was a strip of white tape around the head.
Daniel’s handwriting covered it in faded black ink.
Mara recognized the shape of his capital L before she could read the word.
LOUISE.
Karen stopped breathing for a second.
The flight attendant said, “I think I need to notify the captain.”
“No.”
Karen’s voice came out sharp.
Every head nearby turned openly now.
Karen lowered it.
“No, please.”
Mara looked at her.
“Why?”
Karen swallowed.
“Because if that key is what I think it is, you don’t want anyone meeting you at the gate before you know who sent them.”
Mara looked toward the flight attendant.
The woman’s hand had already moved to the handset mounted beside the galley partition.
“Please don’t,” Mara said.
The flight attendant stopped.
Karen gave Mara a quick, startled look.
Mara hated that look because it made them seem allied.
They were not.
“I’m not asking you to ignore a threat,” Mara said.
“I’m asking whether there actually is one.”
The flight attendant studied Karen.
“That’s what I’m trying to determine.”
Karen leaned forward, lowering her voice.
“If you tell the captain there may be evidence connected to a dead whistleblower on board, airline security could call airport police.”
“They may do that anyway.”
“And airport police may call whoever has jurisdiction back home.”
Mara’s stomach tightened.
“Who is whoever?”
Karen looked at her.
“That’s the problem.”
Louise slid the brass key back into the tablet case.
Mara immediately reached for it.
“Give me that.”
Louise obeyed this time.
The key was warmer than Mara expected from being held in her daughter’s hand.
The white tape had begun peeling at one corner.
Daniel had written Louise’s name with the same thick black marker he used to label freezer bags.
The ordinary handwriting made the object more frightening than any coded inscription could have.
“When did you get this?”
“Dad gave it to me.”
Mara looked at her sharply.
“When?”
“Before the hospital.”
Karen frowned.
“What hospital?”
Louise glanced at her mother.
Mara answered.
“Noah was born early.”
Only three weeks early, but enough for Daniel to spend four nights sleeping in a vinyl chair beside Mara’s bed and walking the neonatal hallway with the dazed reverence of someone who had not expected love to arrive looking so small.
“He gave it to me when you were sleeping,” Louise said.
“At the hospital?”
Louise nodded.
“What did he say?”
“He said it opened something boring.”
Mara almost smiled despite herself.
That sounded exactly like Daniel.
“He said if he forgot about it, I should keep forgetting too.”
Karen closed her eyes briefly.
“And if he didn’t come home?”
Louise’s face changed.
Mara saw the answer before she spoke.
“He said then I should show Mom.”
Mara gripped the key.
The flight attendant’s expression softened.
“Oh, honey.”
Louise looked irritated by the sympathy.
“He told me not to lose it.”
“You didn’t,” Mara said.
“I almost did.”
“When?”
“At Grandma’s.”
“What happened?”
“It fell behind the couch.”
Louise frowned.
“Her vacuum ate one of the pieces of tape.”
For one absurd second, Mara pictured her mother’s ancient vacuum cleaner consuming evidence of a corporate conspiracy.
A short laugh escaped her.
She covered her mouth.
Louise looked relieved.
Even Karen blinked.
Then Noah made a wet hiccup against Mara’s shoulder.
The world remained offensively normal.
Mara patted his back.
“Did your dad say what it opened?”
“No.”
“Did you ask?”
“He said a box.”
“What kind of box?”
Louise shrugged.
“A boring one.”
Karen rubbed both hands over her face.
“That could mean anything.”
Mara turned to her.
“You seem disappointed.”
“I’m trying to figure out whether Daniel did what he said he was going to do.”
“And what was that?”
Karen hesitated.
“Put copies somewhere nobody at the company could reach.”
The flight attendant spoke quietly.
“Mrs. Mercer, I can move you and your children to different seats for the remainder of the flight.”
May you like
Mara considered it.
Every instinct told her to get Louise away from Karen.
