Chương 12
“That sounds more like you.”
Richard moved closer.
Lucy remained between them.
He sat in the chair beside the bed.
Anna studied his face.
“You really came.”
“You sent her.”
“I didn’t know if you would.”
That offended him.
It also hurt.
“Why?”
Anna closed her eyes.
“Not now.”
Richard felt the old reflex.
Push.
She opened her eyes again.
“Please.”
He sat back.
“All right.”
Anna looked surprised.
Lucy noticed too.
“See?” she told her mother. “Mostly annoying.”
Anna laughed again, then pressed one hand to her ribs.
Richard said, “Don’t make her laugh.”
Lucy said, “You did.”
“I object to the implication.”
For a few seconds, the hospital room became ordinary.
Then Brooks entered.
Anna’s expression changed.
“You brought police.”
“They were already here,” Richard said.
“I didn’t ask you.”
“No. You didn’t.”
Brooks pulled a chair near the foot of the bed.
“Anna, I need to ask about Daniel Cole.”
Anna’s hand tightened around Lucy.
“He’s not the one in charge.”
“Who is?”
“Graham Voss.”
The name meant something to Brooks.
Richard saw it.
“Who?”
Brooks answered. “Halcyon deputy general counsel.”
Anna nodded.
“He authorized Northbridge to recover the data.”
“Recover or intimidate?”
“Both.”
“Proof?”
Anna looked at Richard.
He understood immediately.
“The recording.”
Her eyes widened.
“Rachel talked?”
“Yes.”
“She shouldn’t have.”
“She gave us almost nothing.”
“Good.”
Brooks said, “Where is the recording?”
Anna shook her head.
“I need federal counsel.”
“You need to tell us enough to keep you safe.”
“I did that once.”
“With whom?”
Anna looked away.
“A police lieutenant.”
Richard’s stomach tightened.
“Name.”
“Soren.”
Brooks went still.
Richard said, “Michael Soren?”
Anna nodded.
“I contacted him ten days ago.”
“Why him?”
“He used to oversee healthcare fraud coordination.”
Brooks said, “What did you give him?”
“Nothing. I told him enough to ask for protection.”
“What happened?”
“He called Cole within an hour.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Cole told me.”
Richard stood.
Brooks said, “Sit down.”
“Soren knows this investigation.”
“Yes.”
“He may know she’s here.”
“Security is restricted.”
“Restricted by whom? The department?”
Brooks’s face hardened.
She took out her phone and stepped into the hall.
Anna watched her go.
Richard looked at his daughter.
“You were right not to trust police.”
“No.”
He waited.
Anna said, “I was wrong to make Lucy afraid of all of them.”
Lucy looked up.
Anna brushed wet hair from her face.
“I was scared.”
“You said police help bad people.”
“Some do. Most don’t.”
“How do you know?”
“I don’t.”
Lucy frowned.
Anna kissed her forehead.
“Adults know less than we tell kids.”
Richard said, “Finally, something we agree on.”
Anna looked at him.
For a moment, the old version of her appeared.
“You always knew less than you told everybody.”
He accepted that too.
Federal agents arrived before sunset.
Brooks had contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office through a supervisor outside Soren’s chain of command. Lieutenant Soren was placed on administrative leave pending investigation after phone records confirmed recent contact with Cole.
Cole was arrested that night on state charges related to witness intimidation and unlawful restraint after hospital staff documented Anna’s injuries and investigators recovered partial security footage from her apartment building showing him forcing her back through a doorway.
The second man remained unidentified.
Graham Voss retained counsel and denied wrongdoing.
Halcyon announced an independent internal review.
Richard trusted those words approximately as much as Anna did.
The recording became the central problem.
Anna refused to reveal its location until she had a written agreement governing her cooperation and potential liability for taking company data.
Richard supported her.
Brooks did not.
Their argument took place outside Anna’s room.
“If the recording contains evidence of serious crimes, delay could allow destruction of related evidence,” Brooks said.
“If she hands over her leverage without counsel, she could be charged based on her own files.”
“She may be charged anyway.”
“Exactly.”
“Your daughter is not my client.”
“No. She’s the witness you need.”
Brooks folded her arms.
“You’re enjoying being back.”
Richard stared at her.
“This.”
“The fight. The leverage. The procedural edge. You’re scared out of your mind, and this is the part you know how to do, so you’re hiding in it.”
Richard’s first impulse was to tell her she had no idea what she was talking about.
His second was worse.
He almost explained himself.
Instead he looked through the narrow window in Anna’s door.
Lucy was asleep in the visitor’s chair, curled under Richard’s coat.
Anna watched her.
Richard said quietly, “What would you have me do?”
Brooks’s voice softened.
“Be her father for ten minutes.”
He looked at her.
“She has lawyers now.”
Richard entered the room.
Anna was awake.
“You were yelling.”
“I was not.”
“You always think volume is measured by whether security comes.”
He sat.
Lucy slept between them.
Anna looked at his coat over the child.
“She likes you.”
“She thinks I’m annoying.”
“That’s affection in our family.”
Silence settled.
Richard did not fill it.
Anna’s fingers moved over the edge of the blanket.
Finally she said, “Mom died thinking I was dead.”
Richard’s chest tightened.
“Yes.”
“I almost called.”
He looked at her.
“Three times.”
“When?”
“The first year after I left. Then after Evan died. Then when I found out she was sick.”
Richard did not trust himself to speak.
Anna continued.
“I drove to the house.”
“When?”
“Two weeks before she died.”
Richard stared.
“I sat across the street for an hour.”
“Why didn’t you come in?”
“Because you were there.”
It was not said cruelly.
That made it worse.
Richard looked down at his hands.
Anna whispered, “I blamed you for a long time.”
“You should have.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“I blame you for what you did. I blamed you for things you didn’t do because it was easier.”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
“Evan’s death?”
“Yes.”
“You thought I caused it?”
“For a while.”
The accusation should have enraged him.
Instead he felt tired.
May you like
“Did you ever investigate me?”
Anna looked embarrassed.
