Chương 10
“No.”
“Paid by you.”
“Yes.”
Daniel laughed.
“Does anybody in this room do anything without planning it except slap people?”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Daniel.”
He looked at her.
“That was cruel.”
“Yes.”
She breathed out.
“But not inaccurate.”
Daniel turned away.
By noon the storm had passed.
The mountains reappeared beneath a hard blue sky.
Daniel did not leave.
Instead, from a private meeting room at North Crown, he called an attorney named Sarah Mendoza whom he had known for twelve years and trusted precisely because she disliked his father.
Sarah listened without interrupting.
When Daniel finished, she said, “Do not call Charles again.”
Daniel looked toward the window.
“Too late.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Enough.”
“Wonderful.”
Her tone indicated the opposite.
She asked whether anyone had copied the documents.
Yes.
Whether originals were secured.
Mostly.
Whether Michael had signed his affidavit before independent counsel.
Yes.
Whether Evelyn was willing to give a statement.
Evelyn said yes.
Sarah told them to stop handling the physical evidence and wait for a courier from her investigator.
Daniel disliked being told what to do.
He obeyed.
At 2:30 Charles arrived at North Crown.
Not by helicopter.
He drove.
Daniel watched the black Mercedes pull under the porte cochere.
His father stepped out in a camel overcoat, seventy-two years old, tall, silver-haired, and moving with the confidence of someone who had spent decades arriving where people wished he would not.
Claire stood beside Daniel on the mezzanine.
“You told him not to come.”
“Yes.”
“He came.”
“Yes.”
“You’re surprised?”
“No.”
She looked at his cheek.
The redness was nearly gone.
“I’m sorry,” she said again.
Daniel did not answer immediately.
Then he said, “I believe you.”
Claire looked at him.
“That isn’t the same as being ready to forgive you.”
“I know.”
He turned slowly.
Claire pressed her lips together.
“Sorry.”
Against every reasonable instinct, Daniel laughed.
It lasted only a second.
Then Charles entered the lobby.
He saw them.
The laughter disappeared.
Charles took in Claire first, then Daniel.
His gaze stopped briefly at the fading mark on Daniel’s cheek.
He said nothing about it.
“Where is Michael?”
Daniel descended the stairs.
“In a room.”
“I want to speak with you alone.”
“No.”
Charles’s eyes flicked toward Claire.
“This is family business.”
“She’s my wife.”
Claire’s face changed.
Daniel noticed but did not look at her.
Charles lowered his voice.
“So was Rebecca.”
The cruelty of it was surgical.
Daniel stepped closer.
“Careful.”
Charles’s expression barely moved.
“I’m trying to be.”
“No. You’re trying to remind Claire she’s replaceable.”
Claire said, “It didn’t work.”
Charles looked at her.
For the first time, Daniel saw uncertainty in his father.
Small.
Real.
Then gone.
They returned to the private lounge.
Michael was already there with Evelyn.
Charles stopped when he saw the old vehicle log on the table.
His face did not collapse.
He did not confess.
He simply became very still.
Daniel had seen that stillness in negotiations.
His father used it whenever new information required the old strategy to be abandoned.
Charles looked at Evelyn.
“You kept it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You understand you violated company confidentiality.”
Evelyn’s expression hardened.
“North Crown is not your company.”
“You were under a confidentiality agreement connected to the financing conference.”
“Confidentiality agreements do not require me to destroy records.”
Charles looked at Michael.
“You did this.”
Michael stood.
“No.”
“You always did need an audience.”
Michael’s jaw clenched.
Daniel said, “Sit down.”
Charles looked at him.
Daniel pointed to a chair.
“I didn’t drive three hours to be ordered around by my son.”
“Then drive back.”
For a moment neither moved.
Then Charles sat.
It was the first victory Daniel had ever had over his father that felt completely joyless.
Michael remained standing.
Daniel looked at him.
“You too.”
Michael sat.
Claire stayed near the windows.
Daniel put Larkin’s photograph on the table.
Charles looked at it.
Nothing.
Then the ledger.
Then Rebecca’s letter.
That produced something.
Not fear.
Pain.
Daniel almost missed it.
His father touched the edge of the paper but did not pick it up.
“She shouldn’t have involved Michael.”
Michael laughed softly.
“There it is.”
Charles ignored him.
Daniel said, “What happened on the road?”
His father looked at him.
“I told you.”
“You told me there was context.”
“There is.”
“Then give it to me.”
Charles leaned back.
“Rebecca stole confidential financial documents.”
“She copied them.”
“She had no authorization.”
“She was company counsel.”
“She was counsel on a specific matter, not an investigator with unlimited access.”
Daniel felt anger rise.
“She was my wife.”
“That didn’t give her ownership of the company.”
“No. Apparently you thought it gave you ownership of her.”
Claire shifted behind him.
Charles’s eyes narrowed.
“Don’t perform.”
Daniel nearly struck him.
The impulse was immediate enough that he stepped back from the table.
He thought of Claire’s hand across his face.
Of the shock afterward.
He folded his arms instead.
“What happened?”
Charles looked at Rebecca’s letter.
“We argued after dinner.”
“About the payments.”
“Yes.”
“Were they fraudulent?”
“No.”
Michael made a sound.
Charles turned.
“If you know differently, produce audited evidence.”
Michael leaned forward.
“I can produce shell-company registrations tied to your accountant.”
“That proves administrative structure.”
“It proves you lied about not knowing the vendors.”
“It proves nothing of the kind.”
Daniel raised his voice.
“Stop.”
Both men looked at him.
“What happened after the argument?”
Charles’s eyes returned to Daniel.
“Rebecca left.”
“You followed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To get the documents.”
“She had them with her?”
“I thought she did.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
Daniel looked toward the room key in its evidence bag.
“They were in your office.”
Charles glanced at it.
For the first time, genuine surprise.
“You have that?”
Daniel said nothing.
Charles looked at Evelyn.
She remained composed.
Daniel repeated, “What happened on the road?”
His father’s mouth tightened.
May you like
“I caught up to her near the east switchback. I flashed my lights. She wouldn’t stop.”
“So you pulled beside her.”
