Chương 3
Reed continued. “You watched the exits. You moved your glasses because the chandeliers reflected off them. You declined champagne twice, accepted water once, and changed tables after a waiter blocked your view of the north service door.”
“You had someone watching me.”
“I was watching you.”
“From where?”
“The mezzanine.”
“And you came down only after Nolan grabbed me.”
“I came down when he approached you.”
“You walk slowly.”
Ethan looked at the floor, perhaps to conceal a reaction.
Reed did not. “Would you have preferred that I run?”
“I would have preferred not to be used as part of an audition.”
“I did not tell Nolan to touch you.”
“You let an intoxicated man with a history of aggression remain in the room.”
That landed.
Reed’s gaze shifted, briefly, to Ethan.
Claire saw the exchange and understood that the history had been known but disputed.
She set her clutch on the unused table. “This interview is over.”
Ethan seemed startled. Reed did not.
“What would make it continue?” he asked.
“The truth.”
“About which part?”
“The part that put a cup beside your tea service and a board member’s hand around my throat within twelve minutes of each other.”
Reed walked to the end of the table and placed both hands on the back of a chair. The silver chain across his vest caught the light.
“Three weeks ago, an internal audit identified payments routed through two vendors we do not use.”
“How much?”
“Just under eleven million dollars.”
Ethan’s eyes lifted toward Reed. Apparently the number was new to him.
“Where did the money go?” Claire asked.
“We don’t know yet.”
“Who approved it?”
“Credentials belonging to three executives. All three deny it.”
“Do you believe them?”
“One of them is my chief financial officer.”
“That wasn’t an answer.”
“No,” Reed said. “I don’t believe all three.”
“Why involve security?”
“Because the auditor who found the payments was struck by a car forty-eight hours after requesting a private meeting with me.”
Claire waited.
Ethan said, “The police classified it as a hit-and-run.”
“Was it?”
“We don’t know,” Reed replied.
“Is the auditor alive?”
“Yes. Serious injuries. No memory of the collision.”
Claire pressed her tongue against the back of her teeth, a habit she had never managed to lose. “Who knew about the meeting?”
“My assistant. My former head of security. Two members of the legal department. Possibly others.”
“Former?”
“Grant Heller resigned six days ago.”
“Why?”
“He said I had made his position impossible.”
“Had you?”
Reed’s eyes cooled. “You have a direct way of interviewing employers.”
“I’m not interviewing you. I’m deciding whether being near you is stupid.”
Ethan turned away, but this time Claire saw the brief movement at the corner of his mouth.
Reed pulled out the chair and sat.
For the first time since the attack, he looked tired.
“My board meets Monday morning,” he said. “Graham Voss intends to move for my temporary removal on grounds that I have concealed material risk from the company.”
“Nolan’s brother.”
“Yes.”
“And you think tonight’s cup was intended to help him.”
“I think nothing yet.”
Claire looked at him for a long second.
“You think several things,” she said. “You just don’t trust me with them.”
“We met forty-eight minutes ago.”
“You invited me to protect your life.”
“I invited you to interview.”
“You don’t need a head of security for a missing eleven million dollars. You need one because somebody close enough to know your habits may have tried to drug you in a ballroom.”
The piano stopped outside.
A woman’s voice came over the hotel system, asking remaining guests to use the east elevators.
Reed folded his hands.
“I drink tea at every company event,” he said. “The staff knows. The board knows. Half the people in that ballroom know.”
“Who ordered the service?”
Ethan checked his phone. “My office requested it through the hotel three days ago.”
“Who in your office?”
“My calendar coordinator.”
“Name?”
“Dana Wilkes.”
“Where is she?”
“Home with the flu.”
“Did you speak to her?”
“This afternoon.”
“Video or phone?”
“Phone.”
“From her usual number?”
“Yes.”
Claire looked at Reed. “Give me forty-eight hours.”
Ethan frowned. “You just said the interview was over.”
“It is.”
“What is this?”
“A temporary assessment. I report what I find. Then I decide whether I want the job.”
Reed asked, “And if you find nothing?”
“I tell you that too.”
“Your fee?”
Claire named it.
Ethan’s eyebrows rose.
Reed said, “Agreed.”
“Not yet. I want direct access to the hotel records, your internal security logs, staff schedules, the guest list, the incident reports involving Nolan Voss, and every message related to tonight’s tea service.”
“You will have appropriate access.”
“No.”
Reed’s face became still.
Claire continued. “I will have access. You can decide what appropriate means after someone else takes your seat.”
The words hung between them.
Reed glanced at the closed door through which Nolan had vanished, then back to Claire.
“Agreed,” he said.
Ethan drew a breath through his nose. “I’ll prepare the authorization.”
“And Mr. Reed?”
“Yes?”
“No more tests.”
“I didn’t arrange tonight.”
“That is not what I said.”
Two detectives interviewed Claire in a smaller hotel office at ten thirty. Nolan had been taken to a hospital after complaining of chest pain. One of the officers had watched the video three times and still asked whether Claire had given Nolan any reason to believe she wanted physical contact.
The detective, a woman named Lena Ortiz, told him to get coffee.
When the door closed, Ortiz rubbed the bridge of her nose. “He transferred in from traffic last month.”
“I guessed.”
“I’m going to ask better questions, but some will still be irritating.”
“I’ve been interviewed by police before.”
Ortiz watched her. “As a witness?”
“Sometimes.”
May you like
That answer remained between them while Ortiz took notes.
Claire described the assault without embellishment. She explained the wrist control, the pivot, the chair, Nolan’s second hand. She did not call it a gun hand because she had never seen a weapon. She did not claim he had meant to strangle her because intent was not something fingers could prove by themselves.
