Chương 10
Its battery had swollen inside the case. It would not turn on.
The digital recorder contained one file.
Marcus pressed play.
Nicholas’s voice emerged beneath the static, younger than Marcus remembered.
“Mara, it’s me. He won’t listen. I’m heading down now. If you change your mind, bring the ledger. Don’t call my grandfather’s office. Call me. And if something happens—”
A car horn sounded in the recording.
Nicholas swore.
Then the file ended.
Marcus remained at the desk until dawn.
The DNA result arrived forty-six hours later.
Probability of paternity: greater than 99.99 percent.
Daniel received it first, then Adrian.
Adrian read the report in his office while Luis sat across from him with a spreadsheet open.
The company occupied three rooms above a dry cleaner. The conference table doubled as a place to assemble test equipment. A red extension cord ran beneath the chairs because Luis refused to pay an electrician to install another outlet.
“Is it real?” Luis asked.
“Yes.”
Luis closed the spreadsheet.
He had known Adrian since trade school and had met Ruth before he met his own wife. He wore a wedding ring on a chain around his neck when working near electrical equipment.
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know.”
“Congratulations seems wrong.”
“It does.”
“Sorry also seems wrong.”
“Yes.”
Luis nodded.
They sat quietly.
A delivery truck reversed in the alley, producing the same high beep every three seconds.
Finally Luis said, “The partners don’t want to buy you out.”
Adrian looked at him.
“They want you to take leave until this stops being news.”
“That could be a while.”
“They know.”
“What do you want?”
Luis picked at a torn corner of the spreadsheet.
“I want my friend not to become a rich man who sues me.”
Adrian laughed before he could stop himself.
Luis smiled.
Then his face sobered.
“We lost two clients this morning.”
“Because of me?”
“Because they don’t want their building access discussed in articles about hidden heirs.”
“I never discussed a client system.”
“I know.”
Adrian looked at the DNA report again.
Under Alleged Father was the name Marcus Theodore Vale.
A person could spend his entire life without seeing the word alleged beside the thing he most feared becoming.
His phone rang.
Marcus.
Adrian let it ring four times before answering.
“I received the result,” Marcus said.
“So did I.”
A pause followed.
“I would like to meet.”
“We’ve met.”
“Without attorneys.”
“No.”
“Then bring Cho.”
Adrian looked at Luis.
“Where?”
“The penthouse.”
“No.”
Marcus’s breathing changed slightly.
“Why?”
“You locked it when I tried to enter.”
“I have unlocked it.”
“That doesn’t make it safe.”
“No,” Marcus said. “It makes it available.”
Adrian leaned back.
“What is in there?”
“Nicholas’s notebook.”
The delivery truck stopped beeping.
Adrian looked toward the window.
“You found it.”
“Yes.”
“And the ledger?”
“No.”
“What does the notebook say?”
“That he knew where you lived.”
“I know.”
Marcus was silent.
Adrian continued. “My mother had a ledger page. Nicholas wrote my address on it.”
“Ruth?”
“Yes. My mother.”
The distinction landed cleanly.
Marcus accepted it.
“I found a recording,” he said. “Nicholas was expecting Mara to bring him the original ledger the night he died.”
Adrian’s grip tightened around the phone.
“Did she?”
“I have not asked her.”
“Why not?”
“I wanted to speak to you first.”
“That’s not a reason.”
“No,” Marcus said. “It is a habit.”
They met that evening.
Daniel came with Adrian. Elena came separately and waited in the penthouse living room. Mara arrived ten minutes late carrying grocery-store reading glasses because she had misplaced the pair she usually wore.
Marcus placed Nicholas’s notebook on the desk.
Adrian did not touch it immediately.
The room felt less like a home than a model apartment preserved after the people meant to inhabit it had changed their minds. Rain no longer struck the windows. The city below appeared sharp and indifferent.
Marcus played the recording.
When Nicholas’s voice ended, Mara removed her glasses.
“I was supposed to meet him at eleven,” she said.
“Where?” Daniel asked.
“A diner on Eleventh Avenue.”
“Did you go?”
“Yes.”
“Did you bring the ledger?”
Mara looked at Marcus.
“Yes.”
Elena stood near the window with both arms folded.
“What happened?”
“Nicholas never arrived.”
“And the ledger?” Marcus asked.
“I returned it to the archive the next morning.”
“It is missing now.”
“I know.”
“Did my father know you took it?”
“He knew by noon.”
Marcus stared at her.
“What did he do?”
“He asked whether I had made copies.”
“Had you?”
“No.”
Mara looked down at the notebook.
“He told me Nicholas had died in an accident. Then he said grief made families imagine blame where none existed.”
Adrian walked to the desk.
“Was it an accident?”
No one answered immediately.
Marcus placed the old garage log beside the notebook.
“Nicholas left the hotel in a taxi,” he said. “The vehicle in the crash belonged to my father’s company.”
Daniel picked up the log.
“Who drove the company car?”
“We don’t know.”
“The body?”
“Nicholas was the passenger.”
“Was a second person found?”
“No.”
Daniel studied the page. “Then the report was wrong.”
“The report relied on the registration and witness assumptions,” Marcus said.
“Was there an investigation?”
“Yes.”
“Was your father interviewed?”
“Through counsel.”
Mara closed her eyes briefly.
Adrian looked at her.
“What aren’t you saying?”
“I know who used that car.”
Marcus turned toward her.
Mara’s voice weakened, though she kept it level.
“Silas’s driver. Paul Denning.”
“Why?” Marcus asked.
“Silas sent him to stop Nicholas from meeting me.”
Elena’s arms fell to her sides.
“Stop him how?”
“I don’t know.”
“That is not good enough,” Marcus said.
“It is the truth.”
“Did Denning survive?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“Florida, the last time I checked.”
“You checked?”
“Every year.”
Adrian stepped away from the desk.
May you like
The room seemed suddenly too warm.
“You spent twelve years checking on a driver,” he said, “but eighteen months deciding whether to call me.”
