Chương 14
“Then one of the families tied to Nora’s attack has had your dead soldier on its payroll for almost a decade.”
David stood in the hallway until Bishop said his name.
“Do we have proof March is Mercer?”
“No.”
“Then he is Daniel March until we do.”
“Agreed.”
“And nobody approaches him.”
Bishop hesitated.
“Agreed.”
“That hesitation was too long.”
“I was thinking.”
“Try faster.”
“There he is.”
David almost asked who Bishop meant.
He did not need to.
“Send me everything you have through a channel Cole can eventually hand to his attorney or Bennett.”
“That exposes us.”
“Only the public-record work.”
“And the anonymous emails?”
“Preserve them untouched.”
Bishop was quiet.
“You’re building a clean wall.”
“I’m trying to keep Nora’s case from becoming a circus about me.”
“That may already be impossible.”
David watched a hospital employee replace an empty hand-sanitizer cartridge.
“Make it harder.”
He ended the call and went back into Nora’s room.
Mrs. Alvarez had fallen asleep in the visitor chair with her purse clutched against her stomach.
Nora was awake.
David sat beside her and held up the whiteboard before she could reach for it.
“Daniel March has done contract work for Holbrook Dynamics.”
Her eyes sharpened.
“We do not know that he’s Mercer.”
She pointed toward him.
“I know what I look like when I don’t believe myself.”
Nora nodded.
“Annoying.”
She wrote one word.
DANGEROUS?
David considered the answer.
“Maybe.”
She underlined it.
“Not to you if I can help it.”
Nora stared at him until he corrected himself.
“Not to you if we can help it.”
That satisfied her slightly more.
At 8:11 a.m., Detective Laura Bennett arrived.
She wore a charcoal suit under a raincoat and carried no visible impatience with her.
David disliked her immediately for reasons he knew were unfair.
She introduced herself to Nora first.
Then she turned to him.
“Mr. Miller.”
“David.”
“Detective Bennett.”
He waited.
“I understand you’ve been speaking with Detective Cole.”
“Yes.”
“He is no longer assigned.”
“I heard.”
Bennett looked at Nora.
“I’m going to need a statement from you when your doctors say it’s appropriate.”
Nora reached for the board.
Bennett raised a hand.
“Not now.”
That surprised David.
Bennett continued.
“You’re medicated, injured, exhausted, and facing surgery.”
Nora lowered the marker.
“I would rather wait six hours and get something usable than make you relive this because somebody wants a fast report.”
David’s opinion of Bennett changed by one degree.
She noticed.
“Please don’t start trusting me yet.”
Mrs. Alvarez woke with a snort.
Everyone looked at her.
“I was praying.”
Nora’s shoulders shook.
Mrs. Alvarez pointed at her without opening both eyes.
“No laughing.”
Bennett almost smiled.
Then she turned serious again.
“We obtained consent from Kayla Moreno to examine material she provided to local police.”
David kept his face still.
“She called.”
“I know.”
That answer bothered him.
Bennett saw it.
“Her aunt told responding officers Nora’s father had encouraged them to call.”
“Good.”
“Kayla preserved the screenshot.”
“Good.”
“And local police recovered the threatening text from her phone’s recently deleted message database.”
David nodded.
“Can it be attributed?”
“Not yet.”
Bennett paused.
“The number was prepaid.”
“Of course.”
“We also obtained Kayla’s consent regarding the USB drive.”
David looked at her sharply.
“It’s hers?”
“She identified the keychain and drive from photographs.”
Nora reached for the board.
Bennett let her.
Nora wrote.
WHAT’S ON IT?
“We don’t know yet.”
David asked, “Why?”
“Because the county lab found encrypted files.”
He almost laughed at the absurd consistency of bad news.
“Can they access them?”
“They’re working on it.”
Nora wrote again.
PASSWORD.
Bennett looked at her.
“You know it?”
Nora shook her head.
Then wrote.
KAYLA DOES.
Bennett’s phone was in her hand immediately.
David stopped her.
“Ask Kayla through her local officer.”
Bennett looked at him.
“Chain of communication.”
She nodded once.
“Correct.”
That earned him nothing more than professional acknowledgment.
He preferred it.
Twenty-three minutes later, Bennett returned from the hallway.
“Kayla gave them a passphrase.”
“What was it?”
“You don’t need it.”
David almost smiled.
“Good answer.”
Bennett ignored him.
“The lab opened the drive.”
Nora’s fingers tightened around the marker.
Bennett looked directly at her.
“There are exported email files, internal conduct notes, and access logs.”
Nora’s eyes widened.
“Someone copied records related to your complaint.”
David asked, “Who?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Bennett continued.
“There is also an audio file.”
Nobody spoke.
“Kayla says she didn’t put it there.”
Nora wrote.
WHAT AUDIO?
Bennett hesitated.
“A meeting.”
“With whom?”
Bennett looked at David before answering.
“Assistant Dean Marlene Pierce and a university administrator named Gregory Sloan.”
Nora wrote quickly.
MY COMPLAINT?
“Yes.”
David felt anger return, but this time it had structure.
“What do they say?”
Bennett chose her words carefully.
“They discuss delaying action.”
“Why?”
“One of them refers to the athletics project.”
Kensington.
Bennett continued.
“Another refers to a call from the appropriations office.”
Sterling.
“And?”
Bennett’s mouth tightened.
“They mention Holbrook Dynamics by name.”
David sat very still.
“Context?”
“A concern that opening multiple conduct investigations involving three sons from prominent families would create what Sloan called institutional instability.”
Mrs. Alvarez made a disgusted sound.
Bennett looked at her.
“What?”
“I am old enough to know what people mean when they use long words for cowardice.”
No one corrected her.
David asked, “Does the recording prove they knew about an assault?”
“No.”
“Does it prove Chad drugged Kayla?”
“No.”
“Does it prove the three attacked Nora?”
“No.”
Bennett nodded slightly.
“But it may establish motive for suppressing complaints and tampering with process.”
“May?”
“Yes.”
David respected the word.
Nora wrote.
WHO RECORDED IT?
Bennett answered, “We’re investigating.”
David thought of the anonymous sender.
March.
Mercer.
Someone else.
Then Bennett’s phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
“Excuse me.”
She stepped into the hallway.
David watched her through the glass.
Her posture changed halfway through the call.
Not fear.
Focus.
May you like
When she returned, she looked directly at him.
“Martin Vale has been arrested.”
