Chương 2
“Then why did you copy them?”
Lily considered this.
“Because Mom got mad.”
“At the papers?”
“No. At the printer.”
Vincent felt the first true chill move through him.
Lily continued.
“It kept making noise when nobody was there. Mom came upstairs and said, ‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ and took some pages out. Then she got a phone call and went downstairs.”
“What did you do?”
“I looked.”
“Why?”
A tiny shrug.
“She said not to.”
One of the security men looked at the floor.
Under any other circumstance, Vincent might have smiled.
He didn’t.
“What made you think they were secret payments?”
Lily pointed at the notebook.
“It said confidential.”
Evan shifted again.
Vincent turned his head slowly.
“Did it?”
Evan’s throat moved.
“I don’t know what she saw.”
Lily opened the notebook farther and flattened the page with her palm.
“There were names and dollar signs. And Mom’s name was everywhere. Then Uncle Evan’s name was here.”
She pointed.
“And here.”
Another line.
“And here.”
Vincent looked.
The transaction references were too specific for a child to invent.
He recognized the internal structure of Carter Meridian Holdings’ payment identifiers. Four numbers, a regional abbreviation, vendor initials, then an authorization code.
His wife’s authorization code.
MRC-17.
Evan knew the code.
So did half a dozen employees in Finance.
That fact alone proved nothing.
Vincent turned another page.
Near the bottom, Lily had drawn a crooked box around a sequence of letters and numbers.
EB-ADM.
Evan Brooks, Administrative Authorization.
Vincent had seen that code ten thousand times.
He looked across the table.
Evan’s face had gone still in a different way now.
Not calm.
Contained.
Vincent said, “How did something from Carter Meridian print in Mara’s house?”
“I don’t know.”
“That was fast.”
“I genuinely don’t know.”
“Her printer is on a private residential network.”
“I understand that.”
“Do you?”
Evan leaned forward slightly.
“Vincent, we should not do this in front of Lily.”
Lily looked between them.
Vincent rested his hand near the notebook.
His silver watch reflected a line of chandelier light.
“No,” he said. “We shouldn’t.”
Evan relaxed almost imperceptibly.
Vincent turned to Lily.
“Would you go with Mr. Harris for a few minutes?”
Lily looked toward the nearest security man, Daniel Harris, who had been on Vincent’s detail long enough that Lily knew the names of his two daughters and had once asked him why his neck was “built like that.”
She looked back at Vincent.
“Are you mad at me?”
The question caught him in a place Evan could never have reached.
Vincent’s hand left the notebook.
He turned fully toward her.
“No.”
“You look mad.”
“I am.”
Her shoulders dropped.
“But not at you.”
She studied his face, deciding whether he was lying.
Children did that more accurately than adults.
“You promise?”
“Yes.”
“Even though I looked at Mom’s papers?”
Vincent paused.
“You shouldn’t read things Mom tells you not to read.”
Lily’s mouth tightened.
“But this time?”
“This time I’m glad you showed me.”
That satisfied her only partially.
She slid down from the chair.
Before leaving, she reached for the notebook.
Vincent put his hand gently over it.
“I need to keep this.”
Lily frowned.
“It’s mine.”
“I know.”
“There’s other stuff in it.”
“What stuff?”
“My dog list.”
Vincent nearly laughed.
The sound never came, but something in his face shifted.
“I’ll take care of the dog list.”
“And my pancake math.”
“That too.”
She hesitated.
Then she nodded solemnly.
“Don’t lose it.”
“I won’t.”
She walked toward Harris.
At the door, she stopped and looked back at Evan.
“Uncle Evan?”
He looked at her.
Her expression was not accusing.
That made it worse.
“Did Mom know you were doing it?”
Evan opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Harris guided Lily gently into the hall.
The door closed.
The silence afterward was different.
Vincent picked up the notebook.
Evan said, “You know this proves nothing.”
“I haven’t said what it proves.”
“You’re looking at me like you already decided.”
“I’m looking at you like you tried to ask where the evidence came from before you asked what it was.”
“That’s not evidence.”
“No.”
Vincent closed the notebook.
“It’s instinct.”
“Your instinct has been wrong before.”
The words landed harder than Evan intended.
Both men knew it.
Vincent’s face emptied.
Eight months earlier, Vincent’s instinct had told him that Mara was lying.
He had acted on it.
It had cost him his marriage.
Possibly more.
Evan glanced toward the closed door.
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No,” Vincent said. “You should have.”
He stood.
Evan did not.
Vincent was not especially tall, but he had spent twenty years making people feel as if rooms belonged to him. He buttoned his charcoal jacket with one hand.
“Harris.”
The door opened immediately.
Harris appeared.
“Sir.”
“Bring Lily to the lounge. Get her something to eat. Stay with her.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And ask Nolan to come in.”
Evan’s jaw flexed.
“Vincent.”
Vincent looked at him.
“You’re not seriously turning this into some kind of detention.”
“No.”
Nolan Pierce, Vincent’s head of corporate security, entered less than thirty seconds later.
Vincent said, “Evan will remain here until I decide whether we need to preserve anything in his possession.”
Evan stood abruptly.
Two security men moved their attention toward him.
Not their bodies.
Just their attention.
Evan noticed.
“Don’t do this.”
Vincent’s tone stayed level.
“You said you could explain.”
“I can.”
“Then you have plenty to do.”
“Take the theatrics down.”
“There are no theatrics.”
“You have men blocking the door.”
“They were already standing there.”
“That is not the point.”
Vincent looked at Nolan.
“No one touches him. No one searches him. If he wants to leave, he can leave.”
Evan’s shoulders loosened a fraction.
Vincent continued.
“If he leaves, note the time.”
Evan stared at him.
“And?”
“And nothing.”
May you like
The absence of a threat did more than a threat would have.
Vincent walked to the far end of the table and picked up his phone.
