Chương 5
“She’ll see you for five minutes.”
Declan stood too quickly. Coffee spilled across his cuff.
Elaine watched him dab at it with a napkin.
“You don’t have to look presentable for this.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Inside, Sarah lay beneath a thin blanket with monitors attached to her chest. Her blonde hair had loosened from its bun. Pale strands clung to her neck. The hospital light made the dark circles beneath her eyes look bruised.
Her hand rested over her abdomen.
Declan stopped beside the door.
Sarah looked at the empty chair near the bed. “Sit down before you make the nurses nervous.”
He sat.
For a few seconds they listened to the monitor.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For which part?”
“The list is longer than five minutes.”
“Then choose the urgent one.”
He looked at her hand.
“I’m sorry you were afraid to tell me.”
Sarah’s eyes moved toward the window.
“I wasn’t afraid you’d hurt me.”
“That doesn’t improve it.”
“No.”
“Were you going to tell me?”
“I tried twice.”
“When?”
“Last Thursday. You took a call from Singapore and told me to move my personal issue to the afternoon.”
Declan remembered the phrasing. He had not looked up from his laptop.
“And the second time?”
“Tonight.”
“You brought the ultrasound.”
“I brought the toxicology report.”
“What did you intend to tell me first?”
“I hadn’t decided.”
Her voice was fading. He wanted to take her hand but did not.
“Is the baby mine?” he asked.
Sarah looked at him.
The question shamed him before she answered, but shame did not make it less necessary.
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“I haven’t been with anyone else in two years,” she said. “Not that you earned the detail.”
“No.”
“You don’t get to be relieved.”
“I’m not.”
“You look relieved.”
“I’m terrified.”
“That is not the same thing.”
He pressed his palms together.
“Why did you have the toxicology test?”
“My doctor thought the symptoms were stress at first. Then my hair started coming out in the shower. Not a little. I took a picture because I thought I might be imagining it.”
She touched the loose strands near her temple.
“She referred me to a specialist. The private lab called at eleven thirty. They told me to go to an emergency room. I came here first because the freight reports were on your desk and because I thought if I disappeared overnight, Thomas would remove them.”
“Why Thomas?”
“He began asking about my schedule three weeks ago. He wanted to know what days I came in before six. He started using the executive break room. He asked maintenance to replace the water filter, then canceled the request. Two days later the camera went offline.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did.”
“When?”
“Monday. I said Thomas was interfering with my access and watching my routine.”
“You said he was micromanaging.”
“I used the word watching.”
Declan remembered correcting her. Thomas did not watch people, he had said. Thomas anticipated them.
Sarah’s expression told him she remembered too.
“I dismissed you.”
“You defended him.”
“I was wrong.”
“You were loyal.”
The word landed harder.
He looked at the monitor instead of her face.
“What did you find in the freight reports?”
Sarah shifted, then winced. “Aster Marine Maintenance billed us for spill-response equipment in three ports where we had no reported spills. The charges matched transfers from a shipping cooperative that does not exist at its listed address.”
“Thomas approved them.”
“Thomas approved everything. But your signature is on the annual vendor renewal.”
Declan lifted his head.
“I signed the standard renewals in January.”
“Without reviewing the attached exceptions.”
“Thomas told me they were routine.”
“I know.”
“What does Aster do?”
“I don’t know. The records change depending on which system you open. In accounting, it handles environmental services. In operations, it leases storage containers. In the insurance files, it provides emergency remediation. It has one employee listed in Delaware and invoices from four states.”
“Why were you looking at it?”
“The Calder shipment had a demurrage charge that made no sense. I traced the payment. Then I found similar charges going back eleven years.”
Eleven years reached beyond Declan’s tenure as chief executive.
It reached into his father’s.
“Did you copy the records?”
“Some. Not enough.”
“Where?”
She hesitated.
“Sarah.”
“I don’t trust company devices.”
“That was not my question.”
“I sent copies to a private account.”
“Give the detective access.”
“I will decide what I give the detective.”
He almost argued. The impulse rose from habit—the assumption that information touching Hale Maritime belonged first to him.
He stopped.
“All right.”
Sarah watched him notice himself.
“The baby,” he said. “What do you want from me?”
“Today?”
“Yes.”
“Do not turn this into a decision you can make faster than I can.”
“I won’t.”
“Do not put security outside my room unless I approve it.”
“If someone tried to kill you—”
“I said unless I approve it.”
He held her gaze.
“All right.”
“And don’t tell the board about the pregnancy.”
“They’ll learn.”
“Not from you.”
Another monitor sounded in the corridor. A nurse hurried past the door.
Declan said, “What do you want me to tell them?”
“That one of their employees was poisoned after finding irregular records.”
“You are not merely an employee.”
“I was yesterday.”
He had no answer.
Sarah closed her eyes. “I’m tired.”
Declan stood.
“Five minutes,” she reminded him.
At the door, she spoke again.
“Take the ultrasound.”
He touched his pocket.
“You knew I had it?”
“You folded it twice while you were sitting there.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s a photograph, not the baby.”
He took it out and tried to smooth the bent corner against his palm.
Sarah watched him.
“Declan.”
“Yes?”
“I don’t know what happens to us.”
“Neither do I.”
May you like
“But if you protect the company before you protect the truth, I will never trust you with this child.”
He left the room carrying the photograph like evidence against himself.
