Chương 9
Luis saw her enter and disappeared into the rear bay with remarkable speed.
Margaret stopped in front of Danny’s desk.
“You tested my grandson’s blood without speaking to me.”
“It was a cheek swab.”
Her eyes hardened. “That is your response?”
“It’s the accurate part.”
She placed her handbag on the desk but did not sit.
“Claire told you.”
“She told me this morning.”
“How did you find out before that?”
“Noah asked why she was taking him to his aunt’s last Thursday. Children understand more than Claire believes.”
Danny leaned back.
“What do you want?”
“I want to know what you intend to do.”
“I’m still figuring that out.”
“You’ve had eleven years.”
“I’ve had one week.”
Margaret’s mouth tightened.
Danny saw grief beneath the control. It did not make her less dangerous. It made her less predictable.
She removed a folded copy of the paternity report from her handbag.
“Claire sent this to me as though a laboratory number erases my son.”
“It doesn’t.”
“She says you told Noah that.”
“I did.”
“And yet you are already inserting yourself.”
“I met him once.”
“At a restaurant where you discussed Grant’s private actions with a grieving child.”
“He asked questions.”
“He is ten.”
“Almost eleven.”
Margaret looked briefly startled, and Danny understood that she recognized the correction as Grant’s habit. He had always specified birthdays that way.
She sat.
“What did my son say in the recording?”
“You haven’t heard it?”
“Claire refuses to send it to me.”
“Then ask her.”
“I am asking you.”
“It belongs to her.”
“It contains my son’s voice.”
“So do home videos. That doesn’t make them yours.”
Margaret’s gaze moved around the office. She took in the stained ceiling tile, the metal filing cabinet, the coffee machine.
“My family has sent work to this shop for nine years.”
Danny said nothing.
“Grant recommended you despite your personal history.”
“That sounds like him.”
“He believed a man’s livelihood should not suffer because of private failures.”
“Whose failure are we talking about?”
Margaret folded the report along its existing crease.
“The dealership is reviewing all outside service contracts. Yours included.”
There it was.
Danny felt anger first, then an unwelcome flicker of fear. The Bellamy dealerships supplied almost a third of the shop’s annual revenue, mostly inspection and repair work on used inventory. Losing the contract would not close Mercer Auto immediately, but it would force layoffs and likely end Danny’s plan to purchase the building.
“Is that a threat?” he asked.
“It is information.”
“You’re saying if I stay away from Noah, the contract stays.”
“I said nothing of the kind.”
“You’re better at this than Grant was.”
Margaret stood.
“My son raised that boy. He sat beside him through pneumonia. He coached teams he did not have time to coach. He slept on hospital floors. He taught him to swim. Whatever weakness caused Grant to conceal that report, he spent ten years making himself worthy of the title you received from a laboratory on Monday.”
“I didn’t ask for the title.”
“Good.”
She lifted her handbag.
“Then perhaps you understand why restraint would be an act of kindness.”
“To whom?”
“To Noah.”
“Or to you?”
Margaret’s face remained composed, but her thumb pressed hard against the handbag clasp.
“My son has been dead twenty-four days,” she said. “I will not help Claire replace him.”
“No one can.”
“You say that now.”
She walked out.
Luis waited until the sedan left before entering the office.
“What did the queen want?”
“To review our service contract.”
Luis leaned against the doorframe. “Because of the kid?”
Danny looked at him.
Luis raised both hands. “I have ears. Also, you left the paternity report on the printer yesterday.”
“Who else knows?”
“No one from me.”
“From anybody?”
“Carmen saw the report, but she thought it was medical stuff and put it on your desk.”
Carmen handled billing three mornings a week. She also attended church with two salespeople from the Bellamy dealership.
Danny swore.
Luis nodded. “That seems appropriate.”
“If we lose the account—”
“I know.”
“I can keep everybody through the next two months.”
“Don’t start firing people in your head yet.”
“I’m doing math.”
“You always call panic math.”
Danny opened the contract file on his computer. It could be terminated with thirty days’ notice.
Luis picked up the cracked handle of the bottom desk drawer and tried to fit it back into place.
“You going to see the boy again?”
“I don’t know.”
“That means yes.”
“You’ve become irritating.”
“I used to be irritating. You were distracted.”
Danny rubbed his forehead.
Luis said, “When my oldest found out I wasn’t her biological father, she was fourteen.”
Danny looked up.
“You never told me that.”
“It’s not a brake job.”
“What happened?”
“She threw a lamp at her mother. Missed. Broke my television.”
“And with you?”
“She didn’t speak to me for six weeks. Said I’d helped lie to her.”
“Had you?”
“Yes.”
Luis placed the broken drawer handle on the desk.
“Her mother’s ex was dangerous. We thought keeping him away was the same thing as protecting her. Sometimes it was. Sometimes we were protecting ourselves from a hard conversation.”
“What did you do?”
“Waited. Drove her to school. Made dinner. Left the bedroom door alone when she slammed it. Boring things.”
“And now?”
“She calls me when her car makes a noise.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
“It’s not supposed to be. Children don’t resolve on schedule.”
Luis returned to the rear bay.
That afternoon, the dealership canceled seven scheduled vehicles without explanation.
On Wednesday, Danny received formal notice that the service contract would end in thirty days.
He did not tell Claire.
He told himself the business conflict belonged to him. He had survived before the Bellamy account and could survive after it. He postponed ordering new alignment equipment, froze overtime, and spent an evening with spreadsheets until the numbers blurred.
May you like
On Friday, Noah texted him.
Claire had given the boy his number with permission to use it for questions. Danny had expected questions about family medical history or why he and Claire stopped speaking.
