Chương 4
So he reached out slowly.
“Can I put my arm around you?”
Owen leaned against him before he finished.
They sat that way while the silent woman on television scraped burned food into a trash can.
Claire came home after midnight.
The hospital had found no evidence of a major internal injury or dangerous amount of medication in her system, though the doctor told them there were limits to what the testing could establish and advised continued observation for symptoms.
Her ribs were badly bruised. Her nose was not broken. The swelling around her eyes would look worse before it looked better.
Ryan did not come home.
Neither did Margaret.
Ethan learned from Alvarez by phone that both had been arrested after additional statements and evidence collection. She would not discuss charges in detail that night and warned him not to treat the arrest as a conclusion.
Claire listened from the couch.
When he hung up, she asked, “Did she say anything about my phone?”
“They kept it.”
Claire nodded.
“Good.”
Ethan sat across from her.
The kitchen had been cleared of capsules. The floor had been photographed, then cleaned after officers released the scene.
One capsule had rolled beneath the baseboard heater near the hallway.
Ethan found it after everyone left.
He put a glass bowl over it because Alvarez had told him to call if he found anything additional rather than touching it.
Now the bowl sat upside down on the floor like a tiny museum display.
Claire noticed him looking at it.
“I hate that thing.”
“I’ll call them first thing.”
“I know.”
Owen was asleep in their bed upstairs.
He had refused his own room.
Ethan had not argued.
He looked at Claire.
“Why didn’t you tell me yesterday?”
She rubbed a thumb along the cuff of her hoodie.
“Because I knew what you’d say.”
The words were quiet.
He felt himself become defensive before he could stop it.
“You don’t know that.”
Claire looked at him.
That was all.
Ethan stared at the floor.
Two evenings earlier, she had asked him if Ryan had permission to move money between company accounts without documenting the transfers.
Ethan had been fixing the loose hinge on a cabinet.
He had barely looked up.
Ryan handled vendor payments. Their father had trusted him with that responsibility for years.
Claire had said, “These aren’t vendor payments.”
Ethan had answered, “Then ask Ryan.”
“I did.”
“And?”
“He got weird.”
“Ryan gets weird when anybody looks over his shoulder.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Ethan had put the screwdriver down harder than necessary.
“Claire, Donna’s been gone ten days. You don’t understand everything she and Ryan have set up.”
She had stared at him.
“I understand bank statements.”
He remembered the next sentence too.
He wished he did not.
“He’s my brother. Don’t make this into something before you know what it is.”
Claire had gone quiet.
Yesterday she had come home wearing sunglasses.
She said she had slipped on the basement stairs at a client’s house and hit the doorframe.
Ethan had believed her because believing her was easy.
“You were right,” he said.
Claire laughed once without humor.
“That doesn’t help as much as you think.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
He looked up.
She had tears in her eyes now, but they did not fall.
“I went to Ryan yesterday because you told me to ask him.”
Ethan’s face tightened.
“I didn’t tell you to go see him alone.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m not blaming you.”
“You’re already trying to change the shape of it.”
He sat back.
Claire turned her head.
For several seconds the refrigerator was the loudest thing in the room.
Then Ethan said, “Tell me what happened.”
She rubbed her palms against her sweatpants.
“I went to the shop.”
“The office?”
“Yes. He was there by himself.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
She gave him a tired look.
“Because I was trying not to make it into something.”
That landed exactly where she intended.
Ethan looked away.
Claire continued.
“I showed him three transfers. Same amount pattern, same vendor code, but there were no invoices attached. He said Donna handled them. I told him Donna hadn’t logged into the accounting system on two of those dates because I checked the activity record.”
Ethan frowned.
“You can see that?”
“If you’re an administrator.”
“Since when are you—”
“Donna gave me temporary admin access before she left. Ethan.”
“Right.”
“He told me I was snooping.”
“That sounds like Ryan.”
“He told me the money was for subcontractors who wanted cash.”
“That doesn’t—”
“I know.”
Claire’s hands tightened.
“I asked him to show me the contracts. Then he got close to me. Not yelling yet. Just close.”
Ethan felt a hard pressure behind his sternum.
“He said I had always thought I was smarter than your family. He said I liked making you choose sides.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“I know.”
“What happened?”
“I took my phone out. I told him I was calling you.”
She touched the bruise beneath her left eye.
“He grabbed my wrist. I pulled away. He shoved me.”
Ethan stopped rubbing his thumb against his finger.
Claire watched him.
“I hit the doorframe.”
“What did he do after?”
“He stared at me.”
“Did he help you?”
“No.”
“Did he apologize?”
“No.”
Her mouth tightened.
“He said, ‘Look what you made happen.’”
Ethan leaned back in the chair as though something had struck him.
Claire continued before he could speak.
“I left. He called your mother before I got to my car.”
“How do you know?”
“She called me four times on the drive home.”
“And you didn’t answer?”
“No.”
“Why didn’t you tell me when I got back?”
“You came home at eleven-thirty. You’d been on that Arlington job since six in the morning. Owen was asleep.”
“I would’ve stayed awake.”
“You were half asleep standing up.”
“Claire.”
“And I was ashamed.”
He stopped.
May you like
Her eyes dropped.
“That’s the part I couldn’t explain to myself. I knew he did it. I knew it wasn’t okay. But I also knew I had walked into his office because you told me not to make trouble. Then I made trouble and came home looking like this.”
