Chương 5
“She knew you.”
The corridor seemed to narrow around them.
Marcus’s expression did not shift, but the skin beneath his eyes lost color. “Of course she knows me.”
“She looked at you.”
“I’ve been at Christmas dinner.”
“Twice.”
“I sent her birthday cards.”
“You sent your assistant to buy birthday cards.”
Alvarez moved closer. “Mr. Vale, do you have another Mason in your life?”
Marcus gave her a patient smile. “Half the country has another Mason.”
Daniel did not blink.
Marcus’s smile disappeared.
Alvarez looked between them. “Who?”
“My son,” Marcus said.
Daniel’s coffee cup slipped from his hand.
It hit the floor without spilling because it was empty.
“Mason Vale is twenty-two,” Marcus continued. “He was not at that party.”
“You said the guest list had a Mason Reed.”
“It does.”
“You didn’t mention your son.”
“Because my son wasn’t there.”
Daniel’s voice fell so low that Alvarez leaned closer to hear it. “How do you know?”
Marcus looked at him.
“How do you know, Marcus?”
“He was home.”
“Where is home?”
“My house.”
“With you?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Security system. He entered at eight fifty and didn’t leave.”
“Show me.”
Marcus took out his phone, opened an app, and showed the entry log.
Front door unlocked: 8:51 p.m.
Front door unlocked: 6:02 a.m.
“No exit,” Marcus said.
Alvarez studied the screen. “Who else has access?”
“My wife. Housekeeper. Mason.”
“Cameras?”
“Interior system is off when family’s home.”
“Exterior?”
Marcus hesitated. “Maintenance issue.”
Alvarez looked at Daniel.
Most broken things are just broken.
Daniel picked up the empty cup and set it on the counter. “Where is Mason now?”
“Asleep, probably.”
“Call him.”
Marcus did not move.
“Call him,” Daniel repeated.
“Not with a detective standing here.”
Alvarez’s voice remained even. “Why not?”
“Because my son has rights.”
“So does mine,” Daniel said.
Marcus stared at him. “Don’t do this.”
“I’m asking you to call him.”
“You are looking for a name that starts with three letters.”
“She looked at you.”
“She’s injured.”
“You knew what was in the evidence bag.”
“What?”
“You texted me photographs of the three boys before I told you their names.”
Marcus’s mouth opened, then closed.
“I said find the fourth name,” Daniel continued. “I never gave you the first three.”
Alvarez took one step toward Marcus.
He looked down the hallway as if checking whether the building had shifted around him.
“The news showed the names,” he said.
“No,” Alvarez replied. “The names haven’t been released.”
Marcus rubbed one thumb against the side of his phone. It was a small habit Daniel had watched for thirty years. Marcus did it when he was deciding which truth would cost less.
“Daniel,” he said, “we need to talk alone.”
“Call Mason.”
“You’re not thinking.”
“Call him.”
Marcus’s voice sharpened. “You don’t give me orders about my family.”
The monitor inside Lily’s room chirped. Daniel looked through the glass at her pale face, then back at Marcus.
“I gave you one last night.”
Alvarez reached for her radio.
Marcus took two steps backward. “I’m leaving.”
“You’re free to go,” Alvarez said. “I’ll be in touch.”
Marcus looked at Daniel, waiting for something—permission, forgiveness, perhaps the old understanding that had once existed between men who survived by never asking each other certain questions.
Daniel gave him nothing.
Marcus walked away.
Dr. Park opened the trauma-room door. “They’re ready for her.”
The surgical team moved Lily’s bed into the corridor. Daniel walked beside it until the double doors, where a nurse stopped him.
Lily’s hand moved beneath the blanket.
Daniel caught it gently.
Her eyes found his.
“Mason Vale?” he asked.
One blink.
YES.
The doors opened. The team took her through.
Daniel remained with his hand suspended in the empty space where hers had been.
Alvarez stood behind him.
“I need your phone,” she said.
He turned.
“A judge is signing the warrant now,” she added. “You can make this easy, or we can do it the long way.”
Daniel unlocked the device and placed it in her hand.
“Find Mason before his father moves him,” he said.
“You don’t get to tell me how to conduct an investigation.”
“Then consider it the opinion of a man who knows Marcus Vale.”
“What will he do?”
Daniel looked at the closed surgical doors. “Anything he can still call protection.”
Alvarez handed his phone to the uniformed officer. “And what will you do?”
“I’ll sit here.”
She did not believe him.
Neither did Daniel.
He sat in the waiting room for twenty-three minutes.
At minute twenty-four, a Blackline employee named Priya Shah walked in carrying a laptop and a legal pad. She was thirty-six, small, precise, and visibly annoyed at having been summoned before dawn. She wore running shoes with a business suit and had wet hair from a shower she had not finished drying.
“Company counsel says I’m supposed to prevent you from committing felonies,” she said.
Daniel looked toward the surgical doors. “Marcus called you?”
“No. Detective Alvarez called company counsel after she seized your phone. Counsel called me because I’m the only executive who answers unknown numbers.”
“Where is Marcus?”
“He suspended his location sharing.”
“Can you find him?”
Priya sat beside Daniel and opened the laptop. “That would be a felony-shaped question.”
“He’s using company resources.”
“Is he?”
“You tell me.”
She watched him for a moment. “What happened to Lily?”
“Mason Vale was the fourth person.”
Priya’s fingers stopped over the keyboard. “Marcus’s Mason?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
“Lily identified him.”
Priya looked toward the surgical doors and swallowed. She had known Lily since the girl was fourteen and had once spent an entire company picnic helping her rescue a duckling from a storm drain. Marcus had stood on the grass offering useless advice.
“Jesus,” she said.
“Check the fleet.”
“That requires a reason.”
“Your operations director may be using company property to obstruct an assault investigation.”
May you like
“That is a reason.”
She logged into Blackline’s internal vehicle system. The page loaded slowly on the hospital network. Priya muttered at it, then connected through a secured hotspot.
