Chương 8
“The bottle tested positive.”
“That has not been publicly released.”
“Someone threatened her.”
“That is not public either.”
He handed the statement back. “No.”
Margaret’s voice sharpened. “You cannot conduct public relations as an act of confession.”
“I am not issuing a statement about Sarah without her consent.”
“You disclosed her pregnancy to the board.”
“I already failed once.”
Margaret stared at him, then lowered the pages.
“Silence will not protect her.”
“Neither will language that makes her disappear.”
At three fifteen, Sarah woke long enough to speak with Detective Moreno. Declan was not present. Elaine stayed at Sarah’s request, and the interview lasted twelve minutes.
Afterward, Moreno found Declan near a window overlooking the ambulance entrance.
“Ms. Mitchell gave us access to her private email archive,” she said. “She also identified a storage locker in Charlestown where she placed printed copies of several freight documents.”
Declan turned. “She rented a locker?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“Why?”
“She did not trust company servers.”
“What documents?”
“We’ll know after obtaining them.”
“Can I go with you?”
“No.”
“Can my counsel?”
“No.”
He looked through the glass at taxis gathering in the rain.
Moreno said, “She also told us you accused her of manipulating records.”
“I did.”
“Why?”
“Thomas said the discrepancies were caused by a software migration. Sarah insisted the original invoices had been altered.”
“Did you examine them?”
“I looked at summaries.”
“Prepared by?”
“Thomas.”
Moreno closed her notebook. “You keep describing the same decision.”
“What decision?”
“To know him instead of checking him.”
That evening, Thomas came to the hospital.
Hospital security called Declan before allowing him upstairs. Declan told them to send Thomas to a private waiting room and notify Detective Moreno.
Thomas arrived without his overcoat. He wore the charcoal suit from the night before and looked as though he had not slept. His attorney, a compact man named Robert Sloane, remained close enough to interrupt.
Declan stood by the window.
Thomas stopped several feet away.
“How is she?”
“Alive.”
“And the baby?”
“Alive.”
Thomas nodded. “Thank God.”
Declan watched his face.
“Did you know she was pregnant?”
“No.”
“Did you know we had been involved?”
Thomas glanced at Sloane.
“You can answer personal questions,” the attorney said, “but I advise caution.”
Thomas looked back at Declan. “I suspected.”
“How?”
“You stopped traveling with her. You stopped closing your office door. You became angry whenever anyone mentioned her name.”
“That told you she was pregnant?”
“No. It told me you had made a mess.”
Declan’s jaw tightened.
Thomas lowered his voice. “I did not poison her.”
“Why did you enter the break room?”
“I told you.”
“Stolen food.”
“Yes.”
“Eleven mornings.”
“The theft continued.”
“What was stolen?”
Thomas hesitated.
Sloane said, “My client is not required to reconstruct cafeteria inventory.”
Declan ignored him. “What was stolen?”
“Yogurt. Sandwiches. Prepared meals.”
“Whose?”
“Night dispatch staff.”
“Name one.”
Thomas’s mouth flattened. “This is absurd.”
“So was the answer.”
“You want me to be guilty because it would simplify your shame.”
The sentence was precise enough to hurt.
Declan stepped closer.
Thomas did not retreat.
“You think if I did this, then everything else disappears,” Thomas said. “The affair. The pregnancy. The way you treated her. Your signatures on documents you never read.”
“You know what she found.”
“I know she found irregular invoices.”
“Aster.”
Sloane touched Thomas’s arm. “Do not respond.”
Thomas looked at Declan with something that resembled pity.
“Your father used to say the dangerous day would come when you confused taking responsibility with accepting blame for everything.”
“My father is not here.”
“No. He left the difficult parts to us.”
“Who owns North Channel Holdings?”
Sloane stepped between them. “This conversation is over.”
Thomas remained where he was.
For a moment, Declan saw the man who had taught him to drive a truck on an empty dock, who had attended his college graduation when Malcolm Hale claimed a labor negotiation made travel impossible, who had sat outside the hospital when Declan’s mother died and smoked through an entire unopened pack of cigarettes because he had promised her he would quit.
Then Thomas said, “Tell Sarah I am sorry she is sick.”
Not sorry this happened.
Not sorry he had failed to protect her.
Sorry she was sick.
Declan heard the difference.
Thomas turned to leave.
“Why did you come here?” Declan asked.
Thomas stopped.
“To see you.”
“You knew I wouldn’t believe you.”
“I wanted to know whether you had already decided to destroy the company.”
“And?”
Thomas looked back.
“You haven’t decided yet.”
After he left, Detective Moreno emerged from the adjoining corridor. She had not listened to the conversation; hospital policy and Thomas’s attorney had prevented any covert arrangement. Still, she had seen enough through the glass.
“He came to measure you,” she said.
“He has done that my entire life.”
“What did he learn?”
Declan looked toward Sarah’s room.
“That I’m still predictable.”
The storage locker contained seven boxes.
Sarah had printed invoices, vendor agreements, port logs, insurance correspondence, internal maintenance records, and photographs of handwritten notes she had found in old operations binders. She had organized them by year with color-coded tabs.
The oldest file dated back nineteen years.
Aster Marine Maintenance had been paid millions for environmental response services associated with incidents that did not appear in Hale Maritime’s public records. Some invoices referred to “soil stabilization,” “water replacement,” and “community mitigation” at locations where the company officially reported no release of hazardous material.
One location appeared repeatedly: Blackwater Yard, a decommissioned freight property north of Boston.
The land had been sold to the city seven years earlier for redevelopment.
Margaret requested that outside counsel conduct an internal review before police interpreted the documents. The special board committee agreed, but Detective Moreno secured copies under warrant.
Declan was barred from the evidence review because his signatures appeared on six contracts.
May you like
He returned home for the first time in two days.
The penthouse overlooked the harbor from the opposite side of the city. Its windows were larger than the hospital’s and somehow showed less. A housekeeper had left soup in the refrigerator and a note asking whether she should cancel the florist for Thursday’s dinner.
