Chương 12
“At least you’re admitting it.”
“I had whole speeches.”
“I would’ve hated those.”
“I know.”
He looked at her.
She laughed softly.
“Sorry.”
They walked toward the exit.
At the coat check Daniel said, “Coffee?”
Elena stared.
“Coffee?”
“Yes.”
“Are you asking me on a date?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Would you have said yes?”
“No.”
He smiled.
“Good.”
They got coffee.
They talked for forty minutes.
Mostly about the dog.
Then about the lease.
Then about whether Daniel’s mother’s new apartment had enough light for the plants she kept killing.
Eventually Elena said, “My name change wasn’t only because of Richard.”
Daniel waited.
“My father left when Michael and I were kids. Reyes was his name. After Michael died, I couldn’t stand hearing it. Elena is my middle name. Ward was my mother’s name.”
“So Elena is real.”
“Yes.”
He stirred his coffee.
“Anna?”
“Also real.”
“Which one are you?”
She looked at him for a long time.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel nodded.
For once, uncertainty did not feel like deception.
It felt like an answer.
They began seeing each other once a week.
Not romantically.
That rule lasted about five weeks.
The first time Elena came back to the apartment, the dog knocked her against the wall.
She sat on the floor laughing while he licked her face.
Daniel stood in the kitchen doorway.
“You left him.”
“I know.”
“He waited by the door for three days.”
Her smile vanished.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
She looked at him.
“You’re right.”
He appreciated the correction more than he expected.
She slept on the couch.
At two in the morning Daniel found her in the kitchen drinking water.
Neither spoke.
He opened the refrigerator.
“You ate the leftover noodles.”
“I was hungry.”
“They were mine.”
“You labeled them?”
“No.”
“Then legally—”
“Do not involve lawyers.”
She laughed.
He leaned against the counter.
The refrigerator hummed.
Elena looked down at the glass in her hands.
“I miss you.”
Daniel swallowed.
“I miss you too.”
That was all.
She went back to the couch.
He went back to bed.
They did not kiss for another month.
When they finally did, it happened after an argument.
Not a romantic one.
Daniel had learned Elena had contacted Maya about releasing additional foundation records without telling him.
He became furious.
“You’re doing it again.”
“This has nothing to do with you.”
“That’s exactly what you always say right before it has everything to do with me.”
“I’m not asking permission.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I want not to learn about your life from lawyers.”
Elena stared at him.
“I don’t know how to do this.”
“Neither do I.”
“I spent ten years assuming information was dangerous.”
“And I spent thirty-three years assuming my family could make consequences disappear.”
They stood in the hallway breathing hard.
Then Elena said, “That’s depressing.”
Daniel laughed.
She did too.
Then they kissed.
It did not solve anything.
The next morning they argued about it.
That felt more honest.
In June, nearly a year after the auction, Claire received a call from the detective.
A former employee of Victor Dane had agreed to cooperate.
He did not confess to killing Michael.
He gave them something smaller and somehow worse.
Victor had ordered Michael followed.
The security contractor had confronted him.
The purpose, according to the witness, was to recover copied records and frighten him into silence.
The witness claimed no one had ordered a killing.
Investigators believed Michael drove away after the confrontation injured and frightened.
Less than an hour later he was struck by an unidentified vehicle.
Whether the collision was connected remained unresolved.
Claire listened without speaking.
After the call, she sat at her kitchen table for nearly an hour.
Then she called Elena.
Not Daniel.
Elena arrived first.
Daniel came later.
Judith brought soup no one ate.
Richard was not invited.
Claire told them what the detective had said.
“So that’s it?” she asked.
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
“What else is there?”
“I mean it doesn’t have to become a final answer.”
Claire became angry.
“Easy for you to say.”
Elena flinched.
Claire continued.
“You got your investigation. Your records. Your proof. I get maybe.”
Elena stood.
“You’re right.”
“Stop saying that.”
Elena sat again.
Claire covered her face.
“I don’t know who to blame.”
Judith whispered, “You don’t have to choose one person.”
Claire looked up.
“Oh, great. Group blame.”
Judith almost smiled.
“Yes.”
Claire laughed through tears.
“That’s terrible.”
“I know.”
Richard eventually came anyway.
He did not knock.
He stood outside the apartment building until Daniel went downstairs.
“You’re not coming up.”
Richard nodded.
“I know.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I heard about the detective.”
Daniel folded his arms.
Richard looked older than he had a year before.
Not ruined.
People like Richard Vale did not become ordinary simply because they lost titles.
But diminished.
More human, perhaps.
“I wanted to give Claire something.”
He held out an envelope.
Daniel did not take it.
“What?”
“Michael’s final performance review.”
Daniel stared.
Richard almost smiled.
“It isn’t what you think.”
“What do I think?”
“That I criticized him.”
“Didn’t you?”
“No.”
Daniel took the envelope.
Inside, Richard had written a review ten years earlier.
Exceptional analytical instincts. Difficult temperament when challenged. Occasionally works beyond assigned authority. High integrity. Recommend promotion with stronger supervision.
Daniel read it twice.
“Why give her this?”
“Because I told people afterward that he was unstable.”
Richard looked down the street.
“He wasn’t.”
Daniel folded the paper.
“Why did you lie?”
“Because dead employees cannot defend themselves.”
The cruelty of the sentence made Daniel stare.
Richard met his eyes.
“That is what I knew then.”
He paused.
“I know something else now.”
Daniel waited.
Richard said nothing more.
For once he did not turn regret into a speech.
Daniel went upstairs.
Claire read the review.
May you like
She cried harder over the words high integrity than she had over anything the detective said.
Then she folded the paper and put it in Michael’s old notebook.
