Chương 6
“Can that thing record?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“No.”
“Audio?”
“No.”
“Video?”
“No.”
Cho looked faintly disappointed.
Morales said, “Probably better.”
Evelyn frowned.
“Why?”
“Because people think recordings solve everything.”
She closed her notebook.
“They usually create twelve new arguments.”
Evelyn liked her immediately.
Then distrusted herself for liking anyone immediately.
Morales noticed.
“You okay?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a better answer than most people give.”
Evelyn looked toward the door.
“Is he being arrested?”
“Not yet.”
Her stomach dropped.
Morales held up a hand.
“That doesn’t mean nothing happened. It means we have allegations involving unlawful restraint, possible evidence planting, and a financial transaction we haven’t independently verified.”
“My bag—”
“We have it.”
“The drive was inside it.”
“We have that too.”
“He put it there.”
“Maybe.”
Evelyn stared.
Morales’s voice remained calm.
“I believe you believe that. My job is to prove what happened.”
The distinction irritated Evelyn.
Then, slowly, it steadied her.
Damian had spent the evening deciding what was true and forcing everyone else to stand inside his version of it.
Morales was doing the opposite.
Evelyn nodded.
“Okay.”
“Do you know Caleb Martin?”
“Damian’s security director.”
“How well?”
“I’ve met him twice.”
“Did you see him touch your bag before the search?”
Evelyn tried to remember.
The temptation to say yes was immediate.
She hated Damian.
She wanted certainty.
She closed her eyes.
The room came back in fragments.
Vanessa near the fireplace.
Damian at the desk.
Caleb entering after Damian called him.
Evelyn putting her bag on the chair.
Or had it already been there?
She opened her eyes.
“I don’t know.”
Morales nodded.
“That answer helps.”
Evelyn almost laughed.
Nothing tonight felt like help.
When she returned to the main room, Damian was gone from view.
His attorney had arrived.
Vanessa sat near the windows with an officer.
Arthur stood by the bar, untouched bourbon in front of him.
Evelyn approached.
He started to speak.
She raised a hand.
“Not yet.”
He nodded.
She hated how relieved he looked.
Noah joined them.
“Car is downstairs.”
“Are they letting me leave?”
“Yes.”
“What about Vanessa?”
“She can leave after her statement.”
Evelyn looked across the room.
Vanessa caught her eye.
She stood, hesitated, then walked over.
Up close, her mascara had begun to smudge at the corners.
“I’m sorry.”
Evelyn said nothing.
Vanessa glanced at Arthur, then Noah.
“Can I talk to her alone?”
Arthur immediately said, “No.”
Evelyn looked at him.
He stopped.
“Sorry.”
She turned to Vanessa.
“We can talk here.”
Vanessa nodded.
Her hands trembled.
“I knew he wanted to meet you.”
Evelyn’s stomach tightened.
“How much did you know?”
“Not this.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Vanessa looked at the floor.
“He asked who from the Reed family attended museum events. I told him usually you.”
“Why?”
“I thought he liked you.”
“You hadn’t met me.”
“I’d seen pictures.”
“That’s worse.”
“I know.”
“No, you keep saying that.”
Vanessa’s eyes flashed.
“What do you want me to say?”
The anger surprised both of them.
Vanessa wiped beneath one eye with a careful finger.
“I was jealous, okay?”
Evelyn stared.
“Of what?”
“You.”
The answer was so ordinary that it hurt.
Vanessa looked embarrassed.
“I’d been seeing him for a year.”
Evelyn felt the room go quiet though it had not.
“What?”
Vanessa’s face crumpled, but she controlled it.
“Not officially. Whatever that means.”
Evelyn looked toward the hallway where Damian had disappeared with his attorney.
“He told me you were business friends.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“Of course he did.”
“You knew he was dating me.”
“I knew he was taking you to dinner.”
“And you kept seeing him.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn stared.
Vanessa did not ask forgiveness.
That was perhaps the first decent choice she made all night.
“He told me you were using him to get information for your father,” she said.
Evelyn’s mouth went dry.
“What information?”
“The Halcyon deal.”
Arthur looked away.
Evelyn saw.
Vanessa saw too.
“Oh.”
Evelyn turned toward her father.
“You knew?”
Arthur shook his head.
“No.”
“You knew Damian was concerned about information?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Arthur rubbed his forehead.
“I knew Cross Meridian was competing for a financing structure connected to Halcyon.”
“And you never thought maybe the man suddenly dating your daughter was relevant?”
Arthur’s face tightened.
“I did.”
Evelyn stepped back.
The hurt arrived so cleanly that for a moment it did not feel like pain.
“You did.”
“I asked Noah to look into him.”
She turned to Noah.
He did not deny it.
“How long?”
“After your third dinner.”
“You investigated Damian.”
“Yes.”
“And nobody told me.”
Arthur said, “We didn’t find anything that suggested danger.”
Evelyn laughed.
It sounded terrible.
“That is not the point.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“No.”
Arthur flinched.
She continued.
“You were trying to protect yourself from the possibility that I’d be angry.”
He opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Noah looked at the floor.
Evelyn pointed at him.
“And you.”
Noah met her eyes.
“I work for your father.”
“That’s convenient.”
“It’s also true.”
“You gave me the pendant.”
“Your father gave you the pendant.”
“You built the signal system.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Damian was being checked.”
“Yes.”
“And when I asked you last month whether Dad was worried about him, you said he worried about everyone.”
Noah nodded.
“I did.”
“That was a lie.”
“Yes.”
The word stopped her.
No defense.
No explanation.
Just yes.
She suddenly had nowhere to put her anger.
She grabbed her coat.
“I’m leaving.”
Arthur stepped forward.
“Evelyn—”
“Not with you.”
“Then Noah—”
“Not with Noah.”
Noah said, “That’s not safe.”
She turned on him.
“I just found out everyone in this room has been managing what I’m allowed to know.”
“Evelyn.”
“No.”
She took out her phone.
“I’m getting a hotel.”
Arthur stared at her.
“You have an apartment.”
“I don’t want anyone waiting outside it.”
Noah said, “There is already a team there.”
“Exactly.”
She walked toward the elevator.
Vanessa said softly, “Evelyn.”
May you like
She turned.
Vanessa took a small key from her clutch.
