Chương 10
“What involvement?”
“She used false identification to help him lease apartments and open accounts.”
“You threatened his wife with prosecution.”
“I told him there could be consequences.”
Noah stood.
“You’re a liar.”
Richard looked at him.
Noah’s face was red.
“You’re a liar!”
He grabbed his bowl and threw it.
Not at Richard.
At the floor.
Porcelain shattered.
Ellie woke crying.
Everything moved at once.
Helen crouched beside the broken pieces.
Margaret pulled Ellie close.
Noah backed away, horrified by what he had done.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right,” Margaret said.
“I didn’t mean—”
“It’s a bowl.”
“I’m sorry.”
Richard rose, then stopped because Noah recoiled.
He sat again.
Helen gathered the larger fragments with a napkin.
“Please don’t help,” she told Noah. “You’ll cut yourself.”
Noah’s breathing came fast.
Margaret held out one hand.
He came to her reluctantly.
She put her arm around him and Ellie together.
For several minutes there was no interrogation.
No confession.
No Redstone.
Just a frightened boy trying not to cry because his sister already was.
Margaret rubbed his back.
She had done the same for Daniel after nightmares when he was small.
The memory did not comfort her.
It hurt differently.
Eventually Noah whispered, “Dad really wanted to see you.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“I believe you.”
“He has pictures.”
“Of me?”
Noah nodded against her shoulder.
“In a box.”
Richard looked away.
Margaret did not.
She wanted him to see what his choices looked like when they had hair and cold fingers and needed dry socks.
Aspen Ridge Junction was thirty-two minutes away when Ava called again.
Daniel had been found.
Margaret gripped the phone.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
She sat down.
The word took the strength out of her legs.
“Alive.”
“Yes. A maintenance worker found him in a signal shed about two miles from Bellweather. He has a head injury and a dislocated shoulder. He’s conscious.”
Margaret covered her mouth.
Noah stared at her.
She nodded.
The boy’s entire body folded with relief.
He sat on the carpet.
Ellie began asking questions too quickly to understand.
“Daddy? Daddy? Daddy?”
“He’s alive,” Margaret told her.
Ellie hugged the rabbit.
Ava continued.
“He told the deputy that Mercer’s vehicle forced him off the access road after he left the children. He ran when two men approached his truck.”
Richard stood.
“Did he identify Martin personally?”
Ava’s tone cooled.
“He identified Mercer’s vehicle and says Mercer was present earlier. Law enforcement can handle the distinction.”
“Where is Daniel being taken?”
“A hospital.”
“Which?”
“I’m not telling you.”
Margaret said, “Ava.”
A pause.
“Not over Richard’s phone.”
Margaret understood.
“Can I speak with Daniel?”
“Not yet. The deputy says paramedics are evaluating him.”
“I need him to know the children are safe.”
“I told him.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“What did he say?”
Another pause.
“He cried.”
Noah put his head down.
Richard walked to the window.
Margaret had to look away from both of them.
Ava said, “There’s another problem.”
“Of course there is.”
“Maya is no longer answering.”
Noah’s head came up.
“When did you last speak to her?” Margaret asked.
“Four thirty-eight.”
“What was she doing?”
“Retrieving a laptop Daniel had left with a friend in Vail.”
Richard turned.
“What laptop?”
Margaret snapped, “Stop asking about the damned computer.”
Ava said, “Actually, he should ask.”
Margaret frowned.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel told me the laptop contains a duplicate archive. If Mercer knew about it, Maya could be at risk.”
Richard removed another device from inside his coat.
Margaret stared.
“How many phones do you have?”
“Two.”
“That seems excessive.”
“It is becoming the least interesting thing about me.”
He dialed.
“Who?”
“Mercer’s operations office.”
Margaret nearly stopped him, then didn’t.
A man answered.
Richard identified himself and demanded the current locations of Mercer’s assigned vehicles.
The man hesitated.
Richard’s tone changed into the one that had built an empire.
“Do not make me repeat the question.”
Margaret watched him work.
He had always been frighteningly good at extracting compliance.
Tonight, for the first time, that ability had a use she wanted.
The operations manager reported three security vehicles assigned in Colorado.
One was Mercer’s SUV, now traveling on the train’s service route.
One had returned to Denver.
The third, a gray Tahoe, had gone offline near Vail two hours earlier.
Richard hung up.
Ava had heard.
“I’m notifying the sheriff’s office.”
Richard said, “Tell them the vehicle plate ends in 7842.”
Ava paused.
“Thank you.”
It was the first civil thing anyone had said to him in an hour.
He looked almost startled by it.
The call ended.
Margaret watched Richard.
“You knew exactly where to look.”
“I know how Martin operates.”
“That sentence is not the defense you think it is.”
“I know.”
His answer was so quiet that she had nothing ready for it.
Aspen Ridge Junction emerged from the storm as a cluster of platform lights and low buildings.
The train slowed.
Police vehicles were waiting.
No flashing spectacle.
Just two county sheriff’s units and a railroad security vehicle.
Caldwell came back before the doors opened.
“Mrs. Whitmore, deputies would like to speak with everyone separately. Mr. Mercer and his associate will be removed first.”
“Good.”
Richard buttoned his overcoat.
Margaret said, “You are not leaving with Mercer.”
“I know.”
“You are not calling the company before you speak to the deputies.”
He looked at her.
“Margaret, I have counsel.”
“Then call counsel in front of them.”
“That is not how this works.”
“No. I suppose I’m learning.”
He almost said something else.
Then he looked at Noah.
“I am sorry.”
Noah’s expression closed.
Richard did not push.
That was perhaps the first useful thing he had learned all evening.
Mercer was escorted onto the platform.
He was not handcuffed.
Margaret appreciated that. She had no appetite for theatrical justice.
He spoke with a deputy, calm and composed, while snow collected on his coat.
The younger security man was taken aside separately.
May you like
Richard watched through the window.
“He’ll say he was protecting company property.”
