Chương 8
Ruth nodded.
“No.”
Eli looked furious.
Nathan continued.
“It proves Lucas met them. It proves Caroline lied about being there. It proves Daniel knew the camera existed.”
“And Ray’s letter.”
“Corroborates.”
“But?”
Nathan looked at him.
“But none of that proves who killed Lucas.”
Eli shoved his chair back.
“You always do this.”
“Do what?”
“Find reasons nothing counts.”
Nathan stood.
“I am trying to keep us from accusing people of murder based on grief.”
“My mom is sitting in jail!”
“And if I accuse the wrong person, she may stay there longer.”
Eli’s face reddened.
“You don’t care about her.”
“That isn’t true.”
“You didn’t know her name yesterday.”
Nathan went silent.
Eli grabbed his coat.
Tasha stopped him at the door.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“You don’t have a home right now.”
Eli stared at the floor.
Nobody said anything.
Tasha softened.
“Stay.”
He did.
Nathan watched.
He had spent years believing power meant deciding what happened in a room.
It turned out there were rooms where all his money did was make people distrust his chairs.
By noon, Ruth had confirmed Marissa Dawson’s case.
The evidence against her was strong on paper.
Access logs showed her badge entering Daniel’s office late at night.
Banking authentication files were recovered from a laptop in her apartment.
Two shell accounts had been opened using copies of her identification.
Money had passed through them.
Her attorney, an overworked public defender named Aaron Patel, had requested forensic review of the laptop.
The request had not yet been funded.
Nathan sat in Ruth’s conference room listening.
“How long could that take?”
Aaron answered over speakerphone.
“Months.”
Nathan looked at Ruth.
“Pay for it.”
Aaron immediately said, “No.”
Nathan frowned.
“No?”
“If you pay directly, the prosecution will ask why the alleged victim’s CEO is funding the defendant’s forensic expert.”
“Then how do I help?”
“You don’t. Not visibly.”
Nathan hated the answer.
Aaron continued.
“If you have exculpatory evidence, provide it through counsel.”
“We may.”
“May?”
“We’re verifying.”
Aaron sighed.
“Mr. Vale, my client has an eleven-year-old son staying on a friend’s couch. If you have something relevant, I’d appreciate fewer billionaire mystery games.”
“I’m not a billionaire.”
Ruth covered her face.
Aaron said, “I cannot express how little that matters.”
Eli, sitting near the wall, smiled for the first time.
Nathan noticed.
At four that afternoon, Vale Meridian’s internal audit team called Nathan.
Daniel had reported him missing.
Caroline had called hospitals.
The board chair wanted to know whether Nathan was safe.
Ruth advised him to send one message.
Nathan typed:
I was in a vehicle accident. I’m safe. I will contact everyone tomorrow.
He stared at Caroline’s name.
She had called fourteen times.
Daniel nine.
Nathan put the phone face down.
That evening, Ruth’s investigator found traffic-camera footage.
Nathan’s SUV left Caroline’s street at 11:22 p.m.
Nathan was driving.
At 11:51, it exited the highway.
At 12:08, a private security camera outside a warehouse captured the SUV stopping near the underpass.
Another vehicle followed.
A silver sedan.
The image was poor.
The plate unreadable.
At 12:19, the silver sedan left.
Nathan’s SUV remained.
At 12:46, Eli arrived on foot.
Nathan looked at him.
“How did you know?”
Eli picked at the cuff of his shirt.
“Ray’s phone got a message.”
Tasha opened the prepaid phone.
A text had arrived at 11:37 p.m. from an unknown number.
Vale is moving tonight. Underpass by Mercer.
Nathan stared.
“Who sent that?”
“No idea.”
Ruth frowned.
“Was Ray receiving messages from this number before he died?”
Tasha checked.
Three.
Each brief.
Check Northgate transfers.
C knows about the drive.
If anything happens to me, look at June 21 traffic.
Nathan felt the room narrow.
“June twenty-first.”
The night Lucas died.
Ruth looked at him.
“We need those records.”
Getting them took two days.
Those two days changed everything.
Nathan returned home under private security.
Eli refused to stay with him.
He stayed with Tasha instead.
Nathan tried to arrange a hotel.
Eli said no.
Nathan tried to arrange meals.
Eli said no.
Nathan sent groceries anyway.
Tasha returned half of them because, as she texted Ruth, nobody needed twelve avocados.
Nathan had never ordered the groceries himself.
He found that oddly humiliating.
On the second morning, Caroline came to his apartment.
Security called upstairs.
Nathan almost refused.
Instead he let her in.
She wore a cream sweater and no makeup.
Nathan had seen her look exhausted before.
He had never seen her look afraid of him.
“You’re alive.”
“I am.”
She stopped several feet away.
“I thought—”
Her voice broke.
Nathan watched.
Lucas’s recording replayed in his head.
Don’t trust Caroline just because she cries.
He hated his son for saying it.
Then hated himself.
Caroline wiped her face.
“What happened?”
“I don’t remember all of it.”
“Daniel said you’d been drinking.”
“I was.”
“You shouldn’t have driven.”
“No.”
Her answer came too quickly.
Nathan noticed.
“Did I seem drunk when I left?”
Caroline hesitated.
“Tired.”
“Drunk?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were watching.”
“Nathan, what is this?”
He looked at her hands.
No rings except her wedding band.
She still wore it.
He still wore his.
Marriage could survive in strange biological forms long after intimacy died.
“Where were you June eighteenth four years ago?”
Caroline stopped breathing.
Nathan knew before she answered.
“I don’t remember.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Nathan.”
“The lake house.”
Her face changed.
Very slightly.
Enough.
“You were there.”
Caroline sat down.
He remained standing.
“Why?”
She looked toward the windows.
“Lucas called me.”
Nathan felt his chest tighten.
“And?”
“He was upset.”
“About Daniel?”
She did not answer.
“Caroline.”
“He thought Daniel was stealing.”
“And was he?”
She closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Nathan stood motionless.
“How long did you know?”
“Not long.”
“How long?”
“Two months.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“You knew.”
“I was trying to fix it.”
“By helping him?”
“No.”
“Money went through your trust.”
“Our trust.”
May you like
“My father’s trust.”
“Daniel said he needed a temporary transfer.”
