Chương 6
“This is how he works,” Ethan said.
“This is how someone works.”
“You think Marcus broke his own window?”
“I think statements are not evidence.”
“He knew where the phone was.”
“So did you. So did Marcus. Possibly the other man at the warehouse.”
“Ray is chained to a column.”
Ruiz turned in the chair. “You chained a man to a column?”
“He had a gun.”
“Did you touch the gun?”
“With my boot.”
“Did you call it in?”
“Yes.”
“Under your name?”
“No.”
She closed her eyes briefly.
Ethan said, “You can arrest me later.”
“That may be sooner than you think.”
Her own phone rang. She looked at the display and stood.
“Stay here.”
She stepped into the hall.
Ethan could hear only fragments. A lieutenant. An armed man. No gun found. No caller at the scene. The safe had been forced open.
He looked through the office window at Marcus.
Marcus lifted his cuffed hands slightly, a question.
Ethan shook his head.
Ruiz returned.
“Officers reached the warehouse. They found Raymond Keller restrained as you described. They did not find a firearm beneath the pallet. They found a black safe, open and empty.”
“Grant took the ledger.”
“Or you did.”
“I have it.”
Ruiz stared at him.
Ethan removed the blue ledger from beneath his jacket.
For the first time that night, Detective Elena Ruiz looked afraid.
“Put that down,” she said.
He placed it on the security desk.
“Don’t touch it again.”
“I already touched it.”
“Of course you did.”
“It belonged to my wife.”
“How long have you had it?”
“Six years.”
“And you never turned it over?”
“I didn’t know what it was until tonight.”
“That book was in your safe for six years, and you never opened it?”
“I opened the safe. I never opened the ledger.”
Ruiz looked at the worn blue cover through the clear sleeve.
“Why?”
“Laura left a note.”
“What did it say?”
“Not until Violet is safe.”
Ruiz studied him as though deciding whether patience was still useful.
“Mr. Cole, if Detective Grant is involved in what you claim, withholding information now makes everyone less safe.”
“He was the detective who handed me Laura’s note.”
That stopped her.
Ethan took the birthday envelope from his pocket. The edge was torn, the ink blurred.
“He told me they found the safe key in her car. He said the note was with it. The note said, ‘Keep the blue book closed until Violet is old enough to choose.’”
“Choose what?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never asked why your dead wife left you a secret ledger?”
“I asked every day for six years.”
“But you didn’t open it.”
Ethan looked through the office window. Marcus had lowered his head. Beyond him, hospital staff moved stretchers through the corridor. A janitor stood beside a yellow caution sign, waiting for everyone to get out of the way so he could mop rainwater.
“Laura kept records for the port authority,” Ethan said. “The week before she died, she told me she might have found theft in a contract account. I was leaving for a training job in Virginia. We argued because I told her to report it and forget it. She said I treated every problem like it belonged to a chain of command.”
Ruiz waited.
“The night she died, she left me a voicemail. She said not to come home angry. I deleted it because I was angry.”
“You could have recovered it.”
“I tried. The carrier couldn’t.”
“And Grant investigated her death.”
“He said she fell asleep driving.”
Ruiz glanced at the ledger.
“Why wait for Violet to choose?”
“I thought Laura was protecting someone.”
“Nora?”
Ethan did not answer.
Ruiz’s gaze sharpened. “Where is Nora Bell?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said that too slowly.”
“She’s Laura’s sister. She’s been living with us since January.”
“Why?”
“She lost her apartment.”
“Why?”
“She stopped paying rent.”
“Why?”
“She says her employer cut her hours.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I believed enough.”
Ruiz folded her arms.
“Violet says Nora admitted the intruders. Marcus says Nora gave them access. You have a ledger your wife hid before a suspicious death investigated by the detective Marcus accuses. This is no longer a home invasion with a crooked cop attached. It may be the other way around.”
Ethan looked at the blue ledger.
A thin rubber band held it closed beneath the sleeve.
Ruiz called Internal Affairs from the security office. She asked for Lieutenant Daniel Cho by name and told the person who answered that she would not summarize the matter over an unsecured line. Then she called her captain, reported a potential conflict involving Grant, and requested that all Cole case materials be locked from remote access.
Her captain told her to return to headquarters.
Ruiz refused.
Ethan heard the raised voice through the phone.
When she finished, she said, “Internal Affairs will meet us in forty minutes.”
“Us?”
“You, me, the ledger, and Marcus.”
“Violet stays here.”
“With an officer I select.”
“No department officer.”
Ruiz’s mouth tightened. “You don’t get to appoint hospital security.”
“I’m not leaving her with anyone wearing the same badge as Grant.”
“You left her to chase a safe.”
The words were not loud. They did not need to be.
Ethan looked away first.
Ruiz said, “I’ll ask hospital security to keep the room private. Dr. Patel will control access. Your daughter can call you. That is the best I can offer.”
It was reasonable.
Ethan hated her for making reason sound like surrender.
He went upstairs to tell Violet.
She was sitting upright in bed, wearing her own school sweatshirt over the hospital gown. Someone had found her backpack. It rested on a chair, one strap torn loose.
Dr. Patel stood near the window reading a chart. She left when Ethan entered, closing the door behind her.
Violet looked at the mud on his boots.
“Are you getting arrested?”
“Possibly.”
“For what?”
May you like
“Handling things badly.”
“That’s not a crime.”
