Chương 6
"She was crying."
Daniel expected anger.
Instead, he felt confusion.
Laura had been the witness who helped put him in danger.
But the image of her standing alone in his office at midnight, crying, did not fit the story anyone had presented.
"Did she see you?"
"I don't think so."
Daniel nodded slowly.
"Thank you."
Tyler started walking back toward the entrance.
Then he stopped.
"Mr. Mercer."
Daniel turned.
"Your office door wasn't broken."
The words hit him harder than anything else Tyler had said.
"What?"
"I thought you knew."
"No."
Tyler looked uncomfortable.
"The lock was damaged, but the door wasn't forced."
Daniel stood still.
The memory returned.
The night he arrived after the alarm company called.
The open door.
The scattered papers.
The missing laptop.
He had assumed the damage meant someone had broken in.
He had never questioned it.
Because why would he?
He walked back inside without saying goodbye.
The elevator ride to the seventh floor felt longer than usual.
His office was still sealed with the temporary investigation notice on the door.
Daniel took out the access card he was no longer supposed to have.
It failed.
He tried again.
Nothing.
He almost laughed.
Even the building knew he was not welcome.
He called Evelyn.
She answered after one ring.
"Please tell me you slept."
"No."
A pause.
"That was not the answer I wanted."
"I found something."
Her voice changed.
"What?"
He told her about Tyler.
He told her about the door.
He told her about Laura.
When he finished, Evelyn remained silent.
"Say something."
"I am deciding whether this makes things better or worse."
"How could it make things worse?"
"Because now we know someone may have staged the break-in."
Daniel looked at the sealed office door.
"That helps me."
"No."
The certainty in her voice stopped him.
"It helps your argument that something happened to you."
"Exactly."
"But it creates a new problem."
"What?"
"If someone wanted to frame you, they needed access."
Daniel looked around the empty hallway.
"Meaning?"
"Meaning this was not random."
He leaned against the wall.
"Someone knew enough about your systems, your accounts, and your habits."
The hallway lights hummed above him.
A cleaning cart rolled past at the far end.
The worker nodded politely and continued moving.
Normal life.
Again.
Always continuing.
Daniel looked at the office door.
"Who had that kind of access?"
Evelyn did not answer immediately.
That meant she had already thought of someone.
"Tell me."
"I don't want to accuse someone without evidence."
"That has never stopped anyone else."
The silence that followed was uncomfortable.
Then Evelyn said, "Your partners."
Daniel closed his eyes.
Of course.
The firm had been built on trust.
But trust was also access.
Partners knew schedules.
Passwords were supposed to be protected, but people left notes.
People shared information.
People assumed tomorrow would look like today.
"All of them?"
"No."
The answer was immediate.
"Someone specific."
Daniel waited.
"Ethan Cole."
He looked toward the hallway.
Ethan had been his partner for eleven years.
They started at the firm together.
They had taken the worst cases nobody wanted.
They had celebrated their first major settlement over cheap whiskey in Daniel's apartment because neither of them had money for anything better.
Ethan had stood beside him when Daniel made partner.
He had been the first person Daniel called when Claire's father died.
"No."
It came out before he could stop it.
Evelyn was quiet.
"Daniel."
"No."
"I didn't say he did anything."
"You named him."
"Because he had access."
Daniel pushed away from the wall.
"Ethan wouldn't do this."
"How do you know?"
The question irritated him.
Because it sounded like doubt.
Because it sounded like court.
"I know him."
Evelyn sighed softly.
"You knew Laura."
The words stopped him.
Neither of them spoke.
Because there was no easy answer.
Daniel looked through the glass wall at the conference room where he and Ethan had spent hundreds of hours.
Arguments.
Victories.
Failures.
Plans.
A whole professional life built between those walls.
His phone buzzed.
A message appeared.
Unknown number.
Daniel opened it.
There was only one sentence.
Stop looking for the person who opened the door. Find the person who gave them the key.
He stared at the screen.
Evelyn noticed his expression.
"What is it?"
Daniel did not answer immediately.
Because for the first time, the person threatening him had not sounded like someone trying to hide.
They sounded like someone trying to warn him.
He turned the phone toward her.
Evelyn read the message.
Then she looked back at Daniel.
"Do not respond."
"I wasn't going to."
"Good."
A second message appeared.
Neither of them touched the phone.
Neither of them moved.
The screen lit the space between them.
You already know who had the key. You just don't want to admit it.
Daniel read the message again.
Then once more.
The words did not change.
That was the problem.
A threat could be dismissed as intimidation.
A threat could be someone angry, someone desperate, someone trying to make him afraid.
But this felt different.
It felt like someone standing behind him in a dark room, quietly pointing out something he had missed.
Evelyn closed the laptop.
"Give me your phone."
Daniel looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because if this person knows enough to send that message, they may know enough to make you respond emotionally."
"I am not going to respond."
"You already are."
He looked down at the screen.
She was right.
His fingers were tight around the phone.
His breathing had changed.
He hated that she could still read him so easily.
"Fine."
He handed it over.
Evelyn photographed the message with her own phone.
Then she placed Daniel's phone on the table between them.
"Do not delete anything."
"I know."
"I mean it."
Daniel looked at her.
"You think I am going to make a mistake?"
"I think you are angry."
The answer was immediate.
May you like
"Angry people do things they later explain."
Daniel almost argued.
