Chương 9
Neither man contradicted her.
Clara stared at the image over Nolan’s arm.
Something about the framing bothered her.
The photograph had been taken through a windshield, but the angle was wrong for a car parked across from the gate.
She moved closer.
“Zoom in.”
Nolan did.
“More.”
He enlarged the image until it pixelated.
Clara pointed at the lower corner.
“That reflection.”
A thin strip of yellow crossed the glass.
Nolan frowned.
“What about it?”
“I saw that sign this morning.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Where?”
“On the bus.”
She took the phone back and pinched the image wider.
“The coffee place near the stop has a yellow awning.”
Nolan looked at Adrian.
Clara’s heartbeat quickened.
“This wasn’t taken from across your road.”
She pulled up the route map from her transit app.
“I got off almost a kilometer away.”
Adrian’s face changed.
The meaning reached all three of them at once.
Nolan spoke first.
“He followed her from the bus stop.”
Clara stared at the photograph.
“No.”
She zoomed in again.
A blurred reflection behind her showed the bus shelter.
“He was already there.”
Adrian took the phone from her and looked at the image.
When he spoke, his voice was quieter than she had ever heard it.
“Morrow wasn’t watching my house.”
His eyes lifted to Clara.
“He was waiting for you.”
Clara looked at Adrian and felt the room narrow around his words.
“That makes no sense.”
Nolan was already typing.
“It may.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
Her voice rose despite herself.
“I didn’t know I was coming here until yesterday afternoon.”
Adrian looked at Nolan.
“The agency.”
Nolan nodded.
“I’m calling them.”
Clara reached for her phone.
“They close at five.”
“It’s four twenty-three.”
She looked at the clock.
The day had somehow become too long and too short at once.
Nolan stepped into the hallway to make the call.
Adrian stayed where he was.
Brutus moved closer to Clara, pressing his shoulder against her leg.
She rested one hand on his head automatically.
“How many people knew I was assigned here?”
Adrian asked.
“I don’t know.”
“At the agency.”
“I said I don’t know.”
“Who called you?”
“A woman named Marcy.”
“Last name?”
“I don’t remember.”
He waited.
Clara pulled out her phone again.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m failing an exam.”
“I’m not.”
“You have an exam face.”
For half a second, that almost reached him.
Then Nolan returned.
“The agency has no employee named Marcy.”
Clara stopped breathing.
“What?”
“I spoke to the supervisor.”
“You called the right office?”
Nolan gave her a look.
She hated herself for asking.
“Yes.”
He held up his phone.
“They have a Maria, a Margaret, and a Marcella.”
“Marcella.”
“What surname?”
Clara rubbed her forehead.
“I don’t know.”
Nolan checked his notes.
“Marcella Ruiz.”
“That might be her.”
“Description?”
“I never saw her.”
Adrian’s gaze sharpened.
“Everything was by phone?”
“Yes.”
“Did you interview?”
“Not really.”
Clara heard how bad it sounded only after saying it.
“The agency already had my file.”
Nolan looked at her.
“When did you last work through them?”
“Eight months ago.”
“And they contacted you out of nowhere?”
“I called them.”
“Why?”
She looked away.
Adrian noticed.
“So something happened.”
“I needed work.”
“That isn’t new.”
The words came out before he seemed to consider how they sounded.
Clara’s head turned slowly.
Adrian’s expression changed.
“I didn’t mean—”
“No, you did.”
She stepped away from Brutus.
“You ran my finances.”
“Clara.”
“You know how much I owe.”
“I know enough.”
“Apparently.”
She grabbed her bag.
Brutus rose.
Adrian moved forward, then stopped himself.
“I should not have said that.”
“No.”
She shoved the strap over her shoulder.
“You should not have known it.”
Nolan watched the argument with the expression of a man deciding whether intervention would make the fire larger.
Adrian lowered his voice.
“We screened you because you were entering my home.”
“You screened my criminal history.”
“Yes.”
“My debt is not a criminal history.”
“No.”
“My mother’s hospital bills are not a security threat.”
“No.”
“Then why do you know about them?”
Adrian had no answer that would help.
Clara saw that.
He saw that she saw it.
Nolan stepped in.
“Because people under financial pressure can be targeted.”
Clara turned on him.
“And people with money get to call that protection?”
Nolan’s face tightened.
“No.”
“Then don’t defend it.”
“I’m explaining it.”
“I don’t need the explanation.”
Brutus whined softly.
Clara closed her eyes.
The sound cut through her anger in a way neither man could.
She set the bag down again.
Not because Adrian wanted her to stay.
Because the dog was pacing now.
“Enough.”
She crouched.
“Come here.”
Brutus approached immediately.
Clara rubbed beneath his ear.
Her fingers were still shaking.
Adrian saw.
He stepped backward until there was more space between them.
“I’m sorry.”
The apology was quiet.
Clara kept looking at Brutus.
“You’re not used to saying that.”
“No.”
“That was obvious.”
“I’ll practice.”
She almost smiled.
She hated that too.
Nolan’s phone buzzed.
He looked at it.
“The agency supervisor is sending me the assignment record.”
“Does it show who entered my name?”
Clara asked.
“It should.”
They waited in silence.
Outside the sitting room, someone rolled a cart down the corridor.
A glass rattled faintly on a tray.
The ordinary sound made Clara feel briefly ridiculous.
There were probably people downstairs deciding what vegetables to serve with dinner while she sat on a rug beside a traumatized mastiff discussing why a stranger had photographed her at dawn.
Her stomach cramped.
She realized she had not finished lunch.
Brutus noticed her looking at the abandoned sandwich.
He noticed most things involving food.
Clara pointed at him.
“No.”
His ears lifted.
“You have your own dinner.”
Adrian looked toward the tray.
“Eat.”
She glanced up.
“That sounded like an order.”
“It was concern.”
“You have the same tone for both.”
May you like
“I’m beginning to understand that.”
Nolan looked at his phone.
