Chương 5
Only the system records remained.
Sophie looked at Priya.
“You think he kept it?”
“I think we shouldn’t assume anything.”
Evelyn gave Priya a quick look that said thank you for correcting yourself.
Mateo said, “There’s another possibility. The extra money could have been for silence after the deletion. Or unrelated.”
Sophie pushed back from the table.
“No.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“What?”
“Daniel kept something.”
“Sophie—”
“He did.”
“You don’t know that.”
“He was terrified the night it happened.”
“You told me that before.”
“No. I told you he looked uncomfortable.”
Sophie stood and walked to the window.
Below them, people crossed the street in small groups.
“He came into the hallway after my father locked the office.”
Nobody interrupted.
“He had his security badge in one hand. He kept turning it over. I remember because it made this little clicking sound against his ring.”
The memory arrived with the sound.
Click.
Click.
Click.
She had been standing beside the elevator with one shoe in her hand because the heel had broken.
Her wrist hurt.
Her father was still inside the executive office with Margaret.
Daniel had looked at Sophie’s face, then the closed office door.
He had said, Are you okay?
Sophie had laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because the question was absurd.
Then the elevator doors opened.
Daniel had stepped forward as if he wanted to say something else.
He hadn’t.
Sophie turned from the window.
“He asked me what time I left.”
Evelyn frowned.
“When?”
“The next morning. He called me.”
“You never told me that.”
“I forgot.”
“What exactly did he ask?”
“He said, ‘You left around nine-forty, right?’”
Priya began typing.
Sophie continued.
“I told him I didn’t know. Then he asked whether I’d gone straight home.”
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed.
“Why would security need to know that?”
“He said he was completing an incident log.”
“Was there an incident report?”
“No,” Priya said. “We subpoenaed them.”
Sophie looked at the screen.
“He was checking the timeline.”
Mateo said, “Or creating one.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Find his work phone records from that morning. We have authorization.”
Priya kept typing.
Michael Trent finally sat.
“There’s something else.”
Everyone looked at him.
He stared at his coffee.
“Daniel asked me last week what would happen if evidence surfaced after he had testified that it was destroyed.”
Evelyn’s expression changed.
“You didn’t tell me.”
“He was speaking hypothetically.”
“You’re his lawyer.”
“Yes.”
“And I am trying to keep my client from building a case around a witness who communicates in hypotheticals.”
Michael’s mouth tightened.
“He was afraid.”
“So is Sophie.”
“That doesn’t make Daniel your client.”
“No. But it makes your failure to tell me relevant.”
Michael set down his cup.
“He wanted immunity.”
“From whom?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
Evelyn stood.
“Then find him.”
Daniel called at 4:17 that afternoon.
Not Michael.
Sophie.
She was sitting at Evelyn’s kitchen table eating toast because Evelyn had informed her that coffee did not count as lunch.
Her phone showed BLOCKED.
She almost ignored it.
Then she answered.
“Hello?”
For two seconds, nothing.
Then Daniel said, “Are you alone?”
Sophie stood so abruptly the chair scraped backward.
Evelyn looked up from her laptop.
Sophie put the call on speaker.
“No.”
Daniel breathed out.
“Who’s there?”
“Evelyn.”
A pause.
“Okay.”
Evelyn came closer.
“Daniel, where are you?”
“I’m fine.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
“I can’t talk long.”
“Why not?”
“Because I made this worse.”
Sophie gripped the edge of the table.
“What did you do?”
Daniel was silent.
Evelyn said, “Your recorded statement played today.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“I saw it online.”
“The courtroom recording is sealed.”
“A reporter posted what I said.”
Evelyn’s jaw tightened.
“Where are you?”
Daniel ignored her.
“Sophie, I’m sorry.”
Her fingers went cold.
“For what?”
“I should’ve done something that night.”
She could hear traffic near him.
A horn.
Wind.
“You erased it.”
“Yes.”
“You took their money.”
“Yes.”
“Thirty thousand.”
Daniel stopped breathing for a moment.
Evelyn looked at Sophie.
Daniel said, “Who told you that?”
“Bank records.”
“Jesus.”
“So it was thirty.”
“Yes.”
“What was the extra ten for?”
Nothing.
Sophie closed her eyes.
“What did she buy?”
Daniel’s voice became quieter.
“She thought she bought everything.”
Evelyn reached for a legal pad.
“Daniel, do you still have a copy?”
The line went silent except for wind.
Sophie knew before he answered.
“Yes.”
Evelyn stopped writing.
“Where?”
“I can’t tell you over the phone.”
“Then tell Michael.”
“No.”
“He is your attorney.”
“I know.”
“Has someone threatened you?”
“No.”
“Has someone contacted you?”
Daniel’s breathing changed.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Daniel.”
“They knew about my son.”
Michael had told them Daniel’s son was seventeen and lived with his mother in New Jersey.
Evelyn’s voice hardened.
“What did they say?”
“That accidents happen to kids who drive too fast.”
Sophie sat down.
“Did you call the police?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because they also knew I took the money.”
“That doesn’t disqualify you from being threatened.”
“You say that because you’re not the one who took it.”
Evelyn went silent.
Daniel continued.
“I’m not pretending I’m a good guy here.”
Sophie stared at the toast on her plate.
The butter had gone translucent.
“Where is the video?”
Daniel said, “I copied it before I deleted the server.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not true.”
“I don’t know what answer makes me less disgusting.”
Sophie said nothing.
He sounded tired.
“I’d worked for your family eleven years. Your father paid for my wife’s surgery when our insurance denied half of it. Your grandmother sent flowers when my mother died. I liked them.”
Sophie’s throat tightened.
Daniel continued.
“And then that night I watched him put his hands on you, and I stood outside the door deciding whether I could afford to lose my job.”
Evelyn looked away.
“I hate that this is the answer,” Daniel said. “But it is.”
Sophie’s voice came out flat.
“What did you see?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Enough.”
May you like
“No. Tell me.”
“I saw him block the door. I saw him take your phone. I saw you try to get around him. I saw him grab you.”
