Chương 6
"I said she did."
Elena stared at Adrian.
Her face changed.
Not anger.
Disappointment.
"You knew."
The words were barely audible.
The officer looked confused.
Adrian understood before she explained.
"You wanted me to think you found the phone."
Elena swallowed.
"I wanted you to think someone else gave you the warning."
"Why?"
"Because if you knew it was me, you would have started watching me."
Adrian almost said that he already was.
He stopped.
Because the fact that she knew him well enough to predict that bothered him.
"You were protecting yourself."
Elena looked down.
"Yes."
The answer was immediate.
Not noble.
Not dramatic.
Just honest.
Claire stepped closer.
"Why would you risk warning him if you were afraid of him?"
Elena looked at her.
"Because being afraid of someone doesn't mean you want them dead."
Nobody answered.
The officer took notes.
The room felt smaller.
Adrian hated that Elena had become the most truthful person there.
People with power usually learned how to hide things.
People without power learned how to survive with them.
"Where is the phone now?" the officer asked.
Adrian held it up.
"I have it."
"Can I see it?"
He handed it over.
The officer looked through the screen.
The photograph.
The message.
The timestamp.
Then he looked at Adrian.
"Do you know anyone who would send this?"
Adrian thought about Marcus.
About the voice on the phone.
About the people who knew enough about his habits to build a trap around them.
"Yes."
The officer waited.
Adrian did not continue.
The officer noticed.
"Can you tell me who?"
"Not yet."
The answer was not what the officer wanted.
It was also not surprising.
People like Adrian rarely gave away information without knowing what they were trading for it.
"Mr. Voss, this is an active investigation."
"I understand."
"Do you?"
The officer looked toward the broken window.
"Because from where I'm standing, someone tried to intimidate you in a public place, and your first instinct is to protect the person who did it."
Adrian looked at him.
"That's not my first instinct."
"Then what is?"
Adrian glanced at Elena.
"Finding out why."
The officer studied him for a moment.
Then he returned the phone.
"Do not leave town."
Adrian almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because the request was impossible.
The officer walked away.
Claire waited until he was gone.
"You lied."
Adrian looked at her.
"About what?"
"You do know who called."
He did not respond.
She stepped closer.
"Was it him?"
The question hung there.
Adrian looked toward the exit door with the hidden wire.
Then toward the window where the bullet had entered.
Then at the woman who had been sitting across from him all night pretending she had no connection to any of this.
"Tell me what you know about Marcus."
Claire went still.
The reaction was immediate.
Too immediate.
And Adrian finally saw the thing that had been bothering him since she mentioned the call.
Claire was not surprised that Marcus might be alive.
She was surprised that Adrian knew.
The difference changed everything.
"You were looking for him," Adrian said.
Claire said nothing.
"You knew something."
Her silence became an answer.
And for the first time that night, Adrian felt the trap closing from a direction he had not considered.
Not from outside.
From someone standing close enough to share his table.
Claire looked away first.
That was the first time Adrian had ever seen her lose a battle of silence.
Usually she controlled pauses the way other people controlled conversations.
She knew when to wait, when to interrupt, when to let someone reveal more than they intended.
Now she was simply standing there, caught between the instinct to protect herself and the knowledge that Adrian had already noticed the truth.
"I wasn't looking for him," she said.
Adrian did not blink.
"You just admitted you knew something."
"I knew something about what happened."
"That is not the same thing."
"No."
Her voice softened.
"It isn't."
The restaurant continued moving around them.
Police officers spoke with witnesses.
Employees cleaned broken glass from the floor.
A few guests had already left, while others stayed because curiosity was stronger than fear.
Adrian hated that about people.
They wanted to see danger from a safe distance.
They wanted to be close enough to feel something but far enough away that it could not touch them.
Claire lowered her voice.
"I found a name in old records."
"Whose?"
She hesitated.
Adrian stepped closer.
"Claire."
"Marcus."
The name changed the air between them.
Even after all these years, it still carried weight.
Adrian had heard people mention his brother with sympathy, with fear, with curiosity.
Nobody said it casually.
Not unless they did not understand what they were saying.
"Where did you find it?"
"In financial documents connected to one of your old companies."
"My old companies have thousands of documents."
"This one was hidden."
"Hidden by who?"
"I don't know."
"You keep saying that."
"Because it's true."
Her frustration showed.
"You think every unknown thing is a lie."
"Usually it is."
"That must be a miserable way to live."
Adrian looked at her.
"Sometimes."
The answer caught her off guard.
He rarely admitted anything that sounded like weakness.
Not because he was afraid of appearing human.
Because people often used humanity as a place to insert a knife.
Claire studied him.
"What happened to Marcus?"
Adrian's expression hardened.
"You know enough to ask that question."
"I know enough to know the story you were given might not be the whole story."
"Who told you that?"
"No one."
"Then why believe it?"
Claire looked toward the broken window.
The police lights continued flashing against the walls.
"Because people who tell the truth usually don't spend years making sure nobody looks too closely."
Adrian felt something shift.
Not trust.
Something smaller.
Attention.
Claire had not been trying to manipulate him.
May you like
She had been investigating something.
The question was why she had hidden it.
