Chương 7
Alexander stared at the wall.
“I see it now.”
“Maybe.”
Nora stirred.
He lowered his voice instinctively.
“Why did Claire come back that night?”
Maya looked toward Lily before answering.
“She was scared that you might be involved.”
Alexander’s jaw moved.
“She thought I stole from my own company?”
“She thought somebody had used your approval. She didn’t know whether it was with permission.”
“So she slept with me to investigate me?”
“No.”
He looked at her.
Maya almost looked annoyed.
“People are allowed to make bad emotional decisions without secretly being masterminds. She missed you. You missed her. You fought. You slept together. Then she hated herself for confusing everything.”
That sounded like Claire.
Uncomfortably so.
“She told you?”
“She called me at six-thirty the next morning and said, and I quote only approximately, because I respect copyright, ‘I have made an extremely stupid decision involving a man with excellent shirts.’”
Alexander looked down at his white shirt.
Maya smiled faintly.
“Then she found out she was pregnant.”
“And still said nothing.”
“She was going to.”
“When?”
“When she knew whether telling you put the babies in danger.”
He flinched.
Maya saw it.
“Your world frightened her, Alex.”
“I’m not my uncle.”
“She didn’t know that.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Exactly.”
At 10:43 p.m., an unknown number called the hospital desk asking for Alexander Blackwood.
Ortiz answered on a recorded line after hospital security transferred it.
Martin Vale spoke calmly.
“I want to talk to Blackwood.”
Ortiz muted.
Alexander stood.
“Put him through.”
“No.”
“He called for me.”
“That doesn’t give you ownership of the conversation.”
“He has Claire.”
“Probably.”
Alexander looked at her.
“Detective.”
Ortiz studied him for several seconds.
Then she pointed at a chair.
“You say only what we agree.”
Alexander sat.
Marcus stood behind him.
Maya stayed with Lily and the babies down the hall.
Ortiz unmuted.
“This is Blackwood.”
Vale’s voice was rough but controlled.
“You made today complicated.”
“You kidnapped Claire.”
“You don’t know what happened.”
“I saw the video.”
A pause.
“She came willingly out of the building.”
“With two men after blood hit her kitchen floor.”
“You should tell your detective not to narrate evidence on a live call.”
Ortiz raised one eyebrow.
Alexander said, “Where is she?”
“Safe enough.”
“Let me hear her.”
“Not yet.”
“What do you want?”
“The locket.”
Alexander looked down at the silver oval on the table in an evidence bag. Ortiz had photographed and returned it because Lily had refused to surrender it permanently.
“What’s in it?”
Vale laughed once.
“You tell me.”
Alexander understood.
Vale didn’t know.
Claire had made him believe the locket mattered.
Maybe deliberately.
Maybe by accident.
“You followed a five-year-old into the snow for jewelry?”
“Claire said the answer was with the person in the picture.”
Alexander glanced at Ortiz.
The answer.
Not evidence.
Not drive.
Not key.
“She meant me.”
“Maybe.”
“You thought she meant the locket.”
Vale said nothing.
Alexander leaned forward.
“You don’t know what you’re looking for.”
“I know enough.”
“No, you know Graham is afraid of something Claire has.”
The silence changed.
Ortiz’s eyes sharpened.
Alexander continued.
“The records are already with investigators.”
Vale breathed into the phone.
“What records?”
“That’s the problem, Martin. Nobody told you what you were cleaning up.”
“Careful.”
“You were sent to frighten an accountant and ended up kidnapping the mother of three children.”
“She was supposed to hand something over.”
“What?”
No answer.
“You don’t know.”
Vale’s voice hardened.
“Bring me the locket.”
“In exchange for Claire?”
“In exchange for information.”
“Not good enough.”
“You’re not negotiating from strength.”
Alexander looked through the glass at Lily, who had appeared at the end of the hall holding Maya’s hand.
He lowered his voice.
“Neither are you.”
Vale hung up.
Ortiz swore under her breath.
Alexander leaned back.
Marcus spoke first.
“He sounded scared.”
“Not enough,” Ortiz said.
Alexander looked toward the evidence bag.
“No. But he’s not scared of us.”
“Graham?”
Alexander stared at the phone.
“I think he’s scared of being the only person left holding Graham’s problem.”
The next morning, the board demanded Alexander attend remotely.
He refused.
Then changed his mind twenty minutes later.
Not because Marcus persuaded him.
Marcus tried and failed.
Not because the attorneys demanded it.
They did.
He changed his mind because Lily heard him say he wasn’t going and asked, “Is that the meeting with the bad people?”
Alexander told her he did not know whether they were bad.
“Then how do you find out?”
He had no good answer.
At eleven, he sat in a hospital conference room facing twelve members of Blackwood Development’s board on a large screen.
Graham occupied the central square.
His silver hair was immaculate.
He wore a navy suit Alexander had seen dozens of times.
Normality, Alexander thought, was sometimes the most convincing disguise.
The board’s outside counsel opened with concerns about unauthorized disclosure, reputational harm, and Alexander’s judgment.
Alexander listened.
He did not interrupt.
That alone unsettled several people.
When asked why he had given investigators broad access to corporate records, he answered, “Because a former employee who raised concerns about those records was kidnapped by a contractor connected to this company.”
Graham leaned toward his camera.
“That characterization is irresponsible.”
Alexander looked at him.
“Which part?”
“Everything linking the company to a crime.”
“Vale Strategic used company credentials.”
“That does not establish authorization.”
“No.”
“Then stop speaking as if it does.”
Alexander nodded.
“Fair.”
Graham paused.
He had expected a fight.
Alexander continued.
“The access logs also show your proxy credentials were used for three payments later displayed under my identifier.”
Several faces on the screen changed.
Graham did not.
“That was during your incapacity.”
“The proxy use was legitimate. The later alteration was not.”
“You have no evidence I altered anything.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
“You implied it.”
Outside counsel interrupted.
“We should not litigate facts here.”
Alexander agreed.
“No. We shouldn’t.”
May you like
He placed a document on the table.
“I have authorized the compliance vendor to preserve every underlying record connected to those payments and to provide responsive material to investigators and counsel.”
