Chương 8
They stopped six feet apart.
Michael looked at Daniel’s cheek.
“What happened?”
Daniel almost laughed.
“Don’t.”
Michael nodded.
“Okay.”
Claire stood near the elevators with Evelyn.
Daniel did not look at her.
“Breakfast,” Evelyn said.
Michael blinked.
Daniel stared at her.
“What?”
“You have all been awake all night. The kitchen has eggs, coffee, toast, and oatmeal. Nothing you discuss will become more intelligent because you are hungry.”
Michael looked at Daniel.
“She always like this?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn turned.
“I heard that.”
For reasons Daniel could not explain, he followed her.
They ate in a closed dining room overlooking the storm-buried valley.
Michael had coffee and nothing else.
Claire buttered toast, took one bite, and left it on her plate.
Daniel ate two eggs because Evelyn watched until he did.
Nobody spoke about Rebecca for nearly ten minutes.
Michael complained that his rental SUV had terrible tires. Claire told him he had selected the cheapest category. Michael said this was slander because he had selected the second-cheapest category.
Daniel found himself remembering summer vacations when Michael could make him laugh during punishments and their father would become more furious because neither boy could stop.
The memory hurt unexpectedly.
After breakfast, they returned to the private lounge.
The receipt still lay beside the silver dome.
Daniel picked it up, folded it, and handed it to Claire.
She took it carefully.
Michael looked from one to the other but had enough sense not to ask.
Daniel sat opposite his brother.
“Start with Rebecca’s letter.”
Michael rubbed both hands over his face.
“She sent it to my office by courier.”
“Why you?”
“Because she thought I hated Dad enough to believe her.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“Why not?”
“Because she and Dad had been fighting for months. I thought it was another fight.”
“About the company?”
“About you, mostly.”
Daniel frowned.
Michael looked uncomfortable.
“Dad thought she was changing you.”
“That sounds like him.”
“He thought she made you question decisions.”
“That sounds less terrible.”
“It depends on the decisions.”
Daniel waited.
Michael looked at the window.
“Rebecca found a set of vendor payments connected to Alpine Ridge. Five consulting firms. No employees she could identify. P.O. boxes. Invoices that all looked different but had the same mistakes.”
“What mistakes?”
“Same misspelling of ‘accommodation.’ Same spacing in the invoice numbers. Same bank.”
Daniel thought of the years of Alpine Ridge.
Charles had controlled finance then.
Daniel had controlled operations.
Michael had handled development until a drinking problem pulled him out for nearly a year.
“How much?”
“Over six years? About nine million.”
Claire’s eyes widened slightly.
Daniel did not move.
“What was Dad doing with it?”
Michael shook his head.
“I don’t know all of it. Some came back to accounts he controlled. Some went to people connected to zoning approvals and contractor selection.”
Daniel’s voice sharpened.
“Bribes?”
“I don’t know.”
“You just said—”
“I said connected. I’m trying not to turn guesses into facts anymore.”
Daniel leaned back.
That sounded like a sentence learned through pain.
“Rebecca confronted him.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Several times. The last time was here.”
Michael looked at Evelyn.
She nodded once.
“She had copies from his temporary office,” Michael said. “That’s why she borrowed the key.”
“How do you know?”
“She told me in the letter.”
Daniel picked up Rebecca’s handwritten page.
“You said you found green paint two days later.”
“Yes.”
“Walk me through that night.”
Michael stared into his coffee.
“I was at a bar in Denver.”
“Drinking?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“A lot.”
“Useful.”
“I know.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Michael continued.
“Dad called around midnight. Told me to drive to North Crown.”
“Why you?”
“He knew I’d come.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is.”
Daniel understood.
He wished he did not.
Michael had spent most of his adult life hoping their father would need him.
Even after all the contempt.
Perhaps especially because of it.
“I got here around one-forty. Roads were bad. Police had already cleared the main access point. Dad met me in the lower garage.”
“In the damaged Escalade.”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“That Rebecca had crashed.”
“You knew?”
“It was already on local radio.”
Daniel looked down.
Michael continued.
“Dad said he’d argued with her. Said she drove off angry. He followed because she had company records and he wanted them back.”
“Then?”
“He said he pulled beside her on the lower road and tried to make her stop.”
Daniel’s throat tightened.
“How?”
“He said he moved into her lane.”
Claire shut her eyes.
Michael’s voice became quieter.
“He said their cars touched.”
“Touched.”
“That was his word.”
Daniel stood.
Michael watched him.
“Did he say she went off the road because of him?”
“No.”
“What did he say?”
“He said she accelerated away. He said he lost sight of her around the bend. Then he saw the emergency vehicles later.”
“That’s his story.”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe it?”
Michael looked at Daniel.
“I believe he hit her car.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“No.”
The answer barely sounded.
Daniel walked to the fireplace.
“Why did you move the Escalade?”
“Because he told me to.”
Daniel turned.
“Still using that?”
Michael’s face hardened for the first time.
“No. I’m telling you what happened, not asking you to forgive it.”
“Good.”
“I was drunk, scared, and pathetic. Pick whichever one helps.”
“None.”
“I know.”
Daniel almost corrected him for using Claire’s phrase.
Instead he said, “Two days later.”
Michael nodded.
“I went to Larkin’s shop. Dad had already dropped the SUV there. Larkin removed the bumper. There was green paint beneath the left headlight and a fracture in the plastic.”
“What did you do?”
“I asked Dad again.”
“And he said Rebecca swerved into him.”
“Yes.”
“You believed him.”
“I wanted to.”
Daniel looked at the floor.
There it was.
The family disease.
Not belief.
Wanting to believe.
May you like
Michael continued.
“He told me if I went to the police, they’d turn it into a murder investigation. He said Mom would see it. The board would see it. Investors would leave. Thousands of employees would be hurt because Rebecca panicked on an icy road.”
