Chương 8
He looked at her.
"How do you know?"
"Because the police report says your wallet was recovered from your desk."
Daniel said nothing.
A detail.
A tiny detail.
One he had forgotten.
The night everything happened, he had arrived at the office after receiving the alarm call.
His wallet had been there.
His phone had been there.
His laptop was missing.
He had assumed he dropped the wallet while searching.
But if the wallet was already inside.
If the card was used while it was there.
Then someone had not stolen his access.
They had taken advantage of it.
Evelyn shut the laptop.
"Someone wanted the records to show you entered your office."
Daniel looked through the conference room window at the empty offices beyond.
"And they wanted me to believe I was the one who opened the door."
Neither of them spoke.
Then Daniel's phone vibrated on the table.
A new message.
Unknown number.
This time there were no words.
Only a photograph.
Daniel opened it.
His face changed before he could stop it.
Evelyn saw.
"What?"
He turned the phone toward her.
The photograph showed a document sitting on a desk.
The signature at the bottom was his.
But the handwriting above it was not.
And in the corner of the image was a familiar object.
A coffee mug from his office.
The one he had kept there for twelve years.
The one with the faded logo from the law school where he and Ethan had first met.
Daniel zoomed in on the photograph until the image became a blur of pixels.
The mug remained recognizable.
A dark blue ceramic cup with a small crack near the handle.
He remembered buying it at a campus bookstore years ago because Ethan had joked that every lawyer needed something that made them look more serious than they actually were.
It had become a joke between them.
Then it had become part of the office.
Then it had become just another thing that belonged to the life Daniel assumed would remain unchanged.
Now it was evidence.
Or a message.
Or both.
"Where did this come from?" Evelyn asked.
Daniel looked at the number.
Still blocked.
"I don't know."
"Do not answer."
"I wasn't going to."
"You are staring at it like you are."
He put the phone down.
The photograph sat between them like a piece of a puzzle that refused to fit.
Evelyn leaned closer.
"Look at the background."
Daniel stared.
The image showed only part of a desk.
The mug.
The document.
A corner of a computer monitor.
Nothing else.
"Can you tell where it was taken?"
"No."
"Can you tell when?"
"No."
Evelyn nodded.
"Good."
Daniel looked at her.
"Good?"
"Because if we cannot verify it, we cannot let someone else control what it means."
He hated how often she brought him back to that.
Evidence.
Not emotion.
Not instinct.
Not fear.
Evidence.
But fear had already started filling the empty spaces.
"Someone has been inside my office."
"Possibly."
"They took a picture of something connected to the case."
"Possibly."
"They know about Ethan."
"Or they want you to think they know about Ethan."
Daniel stood and walked to the window.
Below them, employees arrived for work.
Some carried coffee.
Some laughed.
Some walked quickly while looking at their phones.
The ordinary movement made him feel disconnected from the world.
A person could lose everything while everyone else continued buying breakfast and answering emails.
"I need to go there," he said.
Evelyn immediately shook her head.
"No."
"My office."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because someone wants you there."
Daniel turned.
"You don't know that."
"I know enough."
She pointed at the phone.
"Someone sends you a picture of a place you cannot access, with an object connected to someone you suspect, right after you start asking questions."
She picked up her bag.
"That is not an invitation."
Daniel looked back at the photograph.
"It might be the only lead we have."
"It is a lead designed by someone else."
The distinction bothered him because it was true.
For the first time in weeks, he had found something that felt like movement.
But movement was not the same as progress.
Evelyn gathered the documents.
"We are going to do this correctly."
Daniel almost smiled.
"That sounds like something you say when you know I am about to do something stupid."
"It is something I say because I have watched you mistake urgency for necessity."
He looked at her.
"Was that supposed to be comforting?"
"No."
The honesty surprised him.
Then, despite everything, he laughed quietly.
It was brief.
Almost accidental.
Evelyn looked relieved for half a second.
Then her expression returned to professional focus.
"Call Claire."
Daniel's face changed.
"Why?"
"Because she is your wife."
"She knows."
"She knows you are stressed."
"Same thing."
"No."
Evelyn picked up her coat.
"She knows you are scared."
Daniel looked away.
He did not want to admit that.
Fear felt too vulnerable.
Anger was easier.
Anger had direction.
Fear just sat inside him.
He called Claire from the hallway.
She answered quickly.
"Are you okay?"
The question came before hello.
Daniel noticed.
She had been waiting for his call.
"I found something."
Silence.
"What?"
He explained the photograph.
He explained the message.
He explained the possibility that someone had staged the break-in.
Claire listened without interrupting.
When he finished, she asked, "Where are you?"
"The office."
"Daniel."
"I am with Evelyn."
"That was not what I asked."
He leaned against the wall.
"I am fine."
"That was also not what I asked."
He closed his eyes.
She knew him too well.
"I am at the firm."
"Are you going to your office?"
He did not answer quickly enough.
"Daniel."
"I was thinking about it."
"No."
The firmness in her voice surprised him.
Not because she disagreed.
Because she sounded afraid.
"Claire."
"No."
A pause.
Then softer.
"Please don't."
He looked through the glass toward the elevators.
May you like
"Why?"
"Because every time something happens, you move closer to the fire."
