Chương 6
Claire rubbed her forehead. “The payment went through Vale Advisory Services. I asked Graham about it. He said Vincent threatened to embarrass the family while Noah was in treatment.”
“I wasn’t in treatment.”
“You were seeing Dr. Kaplan.”
“Twice a week. That’s not treatment?”
“You know what I mean.”
“I know exactly what you mean.”
Claire leaned toward him. “Do not turn this into another argument about language. I’m telling you I signed something that may have paid the only witness to leave.”
“Did you keep a copy?”
“It’s in the board portal.”
“Can you access it?”
“Dad will see.”
“Can you access it?”
“Yes.”
The answer changed the table.
Claire picked up Elena’s phone and called her husband. She told him she would be late. When he asked why, she said only, “It’s Noah,” and listened while he spoke.
“No, he’s not drunk,” she replied. “I’m sitting with him.”
Another pause.
“I know what Dad said.”
Her eyes moved to Noah.
“No. I don’t know what I believe.”
She ended the call and opened her laptop. The board portal required a verification code sent to her work phone, then a second code generated by a security key she kept on her key ring. Noah watched the procedures with growing impatience.
Claire noticed. “This is what evidence looks like. It takes longer than breaking things.”
He lowered his eyes.
She regretted the remark at once but did not retract it. Instead she logged in and searched archived approvals.
The payment appeared under consulting liabilities. Vale Advisory Services had received two hundred thousand dollars for “risk assessment and vendor transition support.” The approval packet contained a redacted settlement. Vincent’s name was not visible, but the dates matched the week he left.
Claire downloaded the packet.
An alert appeared at the top of the portal.
ADMINISTRATOR NOTIFIED OF ARCHIVE ACCESS.
“Graham knows,” she said.
Elena looked toward the diner entrance.
“He is not going to send men into a restaurant,” Claire said.
“Your father just threatened to call a doctor to keep Noah in the house.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No,” Elena replied. “It is cleaner.”
Claire’s phone rang. Graham Vale’s name appeared.
She let it ring twice before answering.
“Hi, Graham.”
His voice was loud enough that Noah could hear its smooth cadence but not the words.
Claire looked at the settlement packet. “I needed an old approval.”
She listened.
“No, this is not about the Marlowe transaction.”
Another pause.
“I’m with Noah.”
Graham spoke for nearly thirty seconds.
Claire’s expression cooled. “Do not describe my brother that way.”
Noah looked at her.
“No,” she continued. “You can tell Dad I am bringing him home when we are finished.”
Noah shook his head.
Claire watched him while Graham responded. “I said when we are finished.”
She ended the call.
“What did he say?” Noah asked.
“That you were agitated, possibly intoxicated, and in possession of sensitive material.”
“You defended me.”
“Don’t make it sentimental.”
“It was sentimental for me.”
She closed the laptop. “We need the original drive.”
Caleb lived in a narrow fourth-floor apartment above a bakery in Queens. The stairwell smelled of warm sugar and old radiator heat. By the time they arrived, it was nearly midnight. Elena parked in a loading zone and remained in the car because there was nowhere legal to stop.
Claire followed Noah upstairs.
Caleb answered wearing plaid pajama pants and a T-shirt from a defunct record store. He was thirty, broad-shouldered, and perpetually looked as though someone had interrupted him while building something.
“You brought your sister,” he said.
“You know who I am?” Claire asked.
“You were in Noah’s emergency contacts before he replaced you with a pizza place.”
“It delivered after two in the morning,” Noah said.
Caleb stepped aside.
His apartment contained three computer monitors, shelves of obsolete electronics, a bicycle hanging above the couch, and a cat asleep inside an empty printer box. On the kitchen counter sat the encrypted drive in a clear evidence bag.
Claire stopped. “Why is that bag labeled?”
“Because I have watched television.”
“Did you alter the drive?”
“I made an image before doing anything.”
“Using what software?”
He named three programs. Claire asked for version numbers. Caleb gave them. Their exchange became technical enough that Noah stopped following it.
“You should have called a forensic firm,” Claire said.
“With whose money?” Noah asked.
Caleb pointed toward him. “He paid me in a bottle of whiskey his father gave him for graduating from rehab.”
“I did not go to rehab,” Noah said.
“I know. That was the joke.”
Claire looked at Noah. “Dad gave you whiskey after therapy?”
“He forgot why I had been gone.”
“He doesn’t forget things.”
“No. He just decides which version happened.”
Caleb woke one monitor and opened the recovery directory. The backup was incomplete. Hundreds of files were corrupted, while others had been overwritten by system updates before the phone was stored. The voicemail files retained original timestamps and metadata, though Caleb warned that metadata alone would not establish authenticity.
“There’s also a deleted audio note,” he said. “I couldn’t fully recover it.”
He played a damaged file.
Marianne’s voice surfaced between bursts of static.
“—keeps saying Noah caused—”
Noise swallowed several seconds.
“—Vincent warned Richard directly. He told me—”
The file skipped.
“—if anything happens, Claire needs the amendment before—”
Silence.
Noah leaned toward the speaker. “Can you recover the rest?”
“I’ve tried.”
“Try again.”
Caleb’s expression changed. “I have.”
“You recovered the messages.”
“Different file structure.”
“Then use a different program.”
“That is not how—”
“You said you could do this.”
“I said I could see what was recoverable.”
Noah put both hands on the desk. “There has to be more.”
Claire touched his shoulder. He jerked away.
Caleb stepped back. “Do not break my computer.”
The remark stopped him.
Noah looked at his hands. “I’m sorry.”
May you like
“Good. Because that monitor cost me six hundred dollars, and apparently your family cards are dead.”
Claire folded her arms. “Can you preserve the drive in its current state?”
