Chương 4
“Probably.”
Mercer nodded once.
“What about Claire Donovan?”
“Client. Friend. Sometimes investor.”
“Victor Kane?”
“Former employee.”
Mercer’s expression sharpened.
“Former?”
“Until eight months ago.”
“Why did he leave?”
Daniel hesitated again.
This time the answer felt worse.
“I fired him.”
Lily stopped drinking her juice.
Mercer asked, “For what?”
“Lying to me.”
Victor had not stolen money.
That would have been simpler.
Eight months earlier, Daniel had discovered that Victor had been running unauthorized background checks on several of their clients.
Victor claimed he had found evidence of an internal leak.
Daniel demanded proof.
Victor refused to identify his source.
They argued for three days.
On the fourth, Daniel terminated him.
Victor had accepted the decision with a strange calm.
“You’ll call me when you find it,” he had said.
Daniel had told him not to wait.
Now Victor was twenty feet away with half an airport wristband in his pocket.
And Lily had the other half around an injured wrist.
“What clients?” Mercer asked.
Daniel looked toward Claire.
“One of them was her.”
Claire Donovan had hired Daniel’s firm after her father died and left her control of Donovan Aeronautics, a privately held aircraft-components manufacturer with contracts scattered across commercial and government markets. She had received threats during a brutal board fight with her uncle. Daniel’s company had reviewed her residences, drivers, travel procedures, and digital exposure.
Victor had led much of that work.
“Was there a specific threat against Ms. Donovan?” Mercer asked.
“There were several.”
“Recent?”
“Not that I know of.”
Claire spoke from across the room.
“There was one.”
Everyone looked at her.
Mercer walked over.
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Daniel stared.
“You didn’t tell me.”
“I wasn’t certain it was credible.”
“That’s what you pay me to determine.”
Claire looked tired now.
Not frightened.
Tired.
“It mentioned Lily.”
Daniel went still.
“What?”
Claire looked at the little girl behind him and lowered her voice.
“The message said if I completed the acquisition, someone innocent would pay for it.”
“That doesn’t mention Lily.”
“There was a photograph attached.”
Daniel stood.
Claire continued before he could ask.
“It was Lily leaving school.”
The room seemed to contract around him.
“You had a photograph of my daughter being followed and you did not tell me?”
“I told Victor.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Victor doesn’t work for me.”
“He contacted me first.”
“About what?”
“The tracker inventory.”
Victor spoke from across the lounge.
“Claire.”
She turned on him.
“No. You’ve controlled enough of this conversation.”
Mercer told Victor to remain silent unless questioned.
Claire looked back at Daniel.
“Victor came to me six weeks ago. He said the internal leak he had been investigating before you fired him was connected to my company.”
Daniel felt an old anger return, now contaminated by uncertainty.
“He told me that too.”
“He showed me evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“Travel manifests. Security schedules. Private tail numbers. Information that should have existed only inside your company and mine.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That proves nothing about a leak.”
“He showed me records of the data being accessed under your credentials.”
Daniel stopped.
Mercer watched him.
“My credentials?”
Claire nodded.
Daniel almost dismissed it.
Then he remembered something embarrassingly ordinary.
A password reset.
Three months earlier.
He had been in Phoenix, exhausted after a delayed flight, and his security token had stopped authenticating. His IT director had reset access remotely.
Daniel had complained about it for ten minutes because he wanted dinner.
He had never asked why the token failed.
“Who knew?” Mercer asked.
Daniel looked at him.
“About your credentials.”
“My IT director. Maybe two administrators.”
“And Victor?”
“He shouldn’t have.”
Victor said, “I didn’t.”
Claire gave him a cold look.
Mercer sighed.
“One at a time.”
Local police arrived twelve minutes later.
The lounge changed when they did.
Airport security had kept the situation contained, almost discreet. Police brought forms, body cameras, questions, jurisdiction, and the uncomfortable recognition that nobody would be flying anywhere soon.
Daniel called Lily’s mother.
Rachel answered on the second ring.
“Are you boarding?”
“No.”
Something in his voice changed hers immediately.
“What happened?”
Daniel looked at Lily.
“Lily’s safe.”
Rachel was silent.
Daniel hated himself for starting with those words. Every parent knew they meant the opposite of reassurance.
“What happened?”
He told her the minimum.
Rachel interrupted twice.
Then she said, “Put Lily on.”
Daniel handed over the phone.
Lily listened.
“Mom, I’m okay.”
A pause.
“No.”
Another pause.
“No, Dad didn’t.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Apparently Rachel had asked whether he had punched Victor.
“I’m sitting down.”
Pause.
“I had apple juice.”
Longer pause.
“Okay.”
Lily handed the phone back.
Rachel said, “I’m coming.”
“You’re in Seattle.”
“I’m aware of where I am.”
“It’s after eleven.”
“I’m aware of time too, Daniel.”
He nearly told her not to come.
Then he stopped himself.
“Text me your flight.”
“I will.”
She hung up.
Daniel looked at Lily.
“What did she say?”
“She said not to let you do anything stupid.”
“That sounds like your mother.”
“She said especially because you think you're calm when you're mad.”
Daniel glanced toward Victor.
“Also sounds like your mother.”
Lily leaned against him again.
Detective Mara Ellis arrived just before midnight.
She was in her mid-forties, wore a rain-darkened coat, and seemed entirely unimpressed by the private terminal, the expensive clothes, or the people waiting to call attorneys.
She spoke to Lily first.
Not about Victor.
About school.
About her sneakers.
About whether the apple juice was any good.
Lily said it tasted weird.
Ellis tried it.
“You’re right.”
That earned the first genuine smile Daniel had seen from his daughter all night.
Only then did Ellis ask what happened.
Lily’s account was simple.
Daniel had gone downstairs.
Victor approached her and said Daniel had fallen near the plane and hurt his head.
Lily asked whether they should call him.
May you like
Victor said Daniel’s phone had broken.
He told her they needed to use a staff route because passengers were not allowed near the place where Daniel had fallen.
