Chương 10
“What did the lab find?”
“The concentration was consistent with multiple therapeutic doses of a prescribed sedative.”
“Prescribed to whom?”
“Vivian Hale.”
“For anxiety?”
“That is protected medical information.”
“You just told me.”
“I told you the medication belonged to her.”
“Could it have killed Richard?”
“Combined with alcohol and his cardiac medication, it could have caused dangerous impairment. Final medical interpretation is pending.”
Evelyn stared at the enlarged image.
“What was the trust amendment?”
Morales folded her arms.
“How do you know about that?”
“Richard told me.”
The detective’s expression tightened.
“He was advised not to contact you.”
“He doesn’t seem accustomed to advice.”
“Tell me everything he said.”
Evelyn repeated the conversation.
When she finished, Morales slid another document across the table. It was a copy of the gala schedule.
At seven twenty, Richard was not scheduled to sign a trust amendment. He was scheduled for a private meeting with three Hale Meridian board members. The trust counsel had not arrived at the hotel until eight, after the confrontation.
“He lied,” Evelyn said.
“Or he misremembered under stress.”
“He said seven twenty.”
“Yes.”
“What was the board meeting?”
“The company is considering whether he remains medically fit to serve as chief executive.”
Evelyn looked again at the reflection.
“If he appeared drugged at the gala…”
“It might support someone’s argument that he was impaired.”
“Vivian’s?”
“Possibly.”
“Or his.”
Morales’s face remained unreadable.
Evelyn leaned forward.
“Martin said Richard needed an independent witness.”
“Martin is missing.”
The room seemed to lose sound.
“What?”
“He left his apartment last night. His phone was found in a taxi. He did not board a scheduled flight. His attorney says he is not cooperating further.”
“You think he ran.”
“I think he is not where he told people he would be.”
“Because he deleted the footage?”
“Because he may be involved in evidence tampering, because someone may be threatening him, because he panicked, or because he likes dramatic exits. Again, choose nothing.”
Evelyn looked at the watch in its bag.
“Why show me this?”
“Because someone is building narratives around you. Vivian says you acted under Richard’s direction. Richard says Vivian acted alone. Martin says different things depending on the minute. Your memory is now evidence, but you are also vulnerable to suggestion.”
“I know what I saw.”
“You know part of what you saw.”
The detective let that settle.
“Did Richard look at the glass before lifting it?”
Evelyn pictured his hand closing around the stem. He had been talking to a donor. Vivian stood near his shoulder. The glass was centered on the tray. Richard glanced down, then toward Vivian.
“Yes,” Evelyn said slowly.
“Did they make eye contact?”
“I think so.”
“Think or remember?”
“I remember him looking at her. I don’t know what it meant.”
“That distinction may save you.”
Morales returned the watch after copying its data. Evelyn fastened it around her wrist. The familiar weight brought no comfort.
Outside the precinct, reporters waited behind a metal barrier. Someone shouted whether she had been paid by Richard. Another asked whether she had a romantic relationship with Martin Kell. A third wanted to know why she had hacked the hotel’s cameras.
Evelyn kept walking.
A black car rolled beside the curb.
The rear window lowered, revealing Vivian.
She wore dark glasses and a cream coat. Without the burgundy gown and ballroom light, she looked smaller, though no less controlled.
“Get in,” she said.
Evelyn stopped.
Reporters surged against the barrier.
Vivian’s driver opened the rear door.
“You cannot be serious,” Evelyn said.
“Your detective is watching.”
Morales stood near the precinct entrance, phone at her ear. She met Evelyn’s gaze but did not move.
“That doesn’t make you safe,” Evelyn said.
“No,” Vivian replied. “It makes you visible.”
A reporter shouted that Vivian had attempted murder.
Vivian removed her glasses.
A bruise-colored shadow lay beneath each eye.
“Richard knew I was putting something in the glass,” she said.
Evelyn felt the camera lenses turn toward them.
“Then say it where they can hear.”
“He wants me to.”
“Why?”
“Because he believes public scandal is easier to survive than the truth.”
“What truth?”
Vivian glanced toward the reporters.
“Get in.”
Evelyn did not move.
Vivian leaned back.
“Your brother applied for a Hale emergency grant two weeks before he died.”
The street tilted.
“No.”
“He did.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I denied it.”
Evelyn approached the car before realizing she had moved.
“What did he ask for?”
“Get in, and I’ll show you.”
Morales crossed the sidewalk.
“Ms. Cross, do not enter that vehicle.”
Vivian’s mouth tightened. “Detective, unless you intend to arrest me, she may choose whom she speaks to.”
Morales looked at Evelyn.
“You do not owe her a conversation.”
Evelyn touched the watch.
The reporters shouted questions. Behind them, traffic crawled through the intersection. A delivery cyclist cursed at a cab blocking the bike lane. Ordinary impatience continued around the edge of catastrophe.
“I’ll speak to her inside the precinct,” Evelyn said.
Vivian refused.
So Evelyn walked away.
At the corner, Vivian called after her.
“Daniel wanted evidence against Richard.”
Evelyn stopped.
The name in Vivian’s voice felt obscene.
Morales took her arm before she could return to the car.
“Not here,” the detective said.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“She has records.”
“She says she has records.”
“My brother never mentioned the foundation.”
“He may not have wanted to.”
“He told me everything.”
Morales’s grip softened.
“No one tells anyone everything.”
Evelyn hated her for saying it because it was true.
Daniel’s application had used a different email address, one Evelyn recognized as an old account he kept for union matters. The foundation produced it under subpoena that evening.
He had not requested medical assistance.
May you like
He had requested whistleblower support.
Daniel wrote that during a private ambulance transfer nine months before his death, he treated a Hale Meridian accountant named Samuel Ortega after a suspected overdose at a corporate retreat. Ortega had regained consciousness long enough to say he had been drugged after refusing to alter internal charitable-fund records. Daniel reported the statement to his supervisor. The patient was transferred to a private facility, and the official record later described the incident as an accidental interaction between alcohol and prescription medication.
