Chương 9
“Some of that is inference.”
“It’s enough to know what happened.”
“It’s enough to investigate.”
“And while you investigate, Marcus is cleaning the trail.”
“We issued an alert.”
“For Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“What charges?”
“Obstruction and evidence tampering are being reviewed. We need proof.”
“You have him at the hangar with Lily’s phone.”
“We have him carrying a bag.”
“Alvarez.”
“I know.”
Daniel heard fatigue in her voice. Not indifference. Fatigue.
“What do you need?” he asked.
The question surprised both of them.
“We need the phone opened,” she said. “Chen Digital says damage is severe. Maya may know the encryption key, but she won’t speak until her own attorney arrives.”
“Lydia is her attorney.”
“Maya says she never hired Lydia.”
Daniel looked toward the door.
“Where is Lydia now?”
“Interview room.”
“Does she know you found the phone?”
“Yes.”
“Then Marcus knows.”
“Possibly.”
“Move Lily.”
“We have an officer outside.”
“Move her.”
“Where?”
“Another floor. Different name. No digital transfer until she’s physically moved.”
“That’s a hospital decision.”
“Dr. Park will do it.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she understands the injuries were deliberate.”
Daniel ended the call and found Dr. Park at the nurses’ station.
She listened without interrupting.
“Changing her room won’t make her invisible,” she said.
“It buys confusion.”
“It also creates medical risk. She’s stable, but transport hurts. New staff need handoff. Medication timing can be disrupted.”
“How much risk?”
“Small.”
“How much protection?”
“I can’t measure that.”
Daniel nodded. “Then I’m asking as her father.”
Dr. Park studied him. “And what are you asking as the Ghost?”
“For the same thing.”
She looked toward Lily’s room. “That’s what worries me.”
Still, she arranged the transfer.
Lily was moved after midnight to a monitored room in the neurological wing under a restricted patient profile. Priya stayed with her while Daniel met Alvarez in a hospital conference room.
The detective placed photographs across the table.
The first showed the private room above the Gray Room: a couch, overturned table, dark stain on the carpet.
The second showed three plastic cups sealed in evidence bags.
The third showed a metal fixture mounted in one corner where a camera had been removed.
The fourth showed Claire’s locket beneath the couch.
Daniel touched the edge of the photograph.
“We found skin beneath Lily’s nails,” Alvarez said. “Lab work will take time.”
“Not if you compare it directly.”
“We need samples.”
“Get warrants.”
“We are.”
“From all four.”
“Mason first.”
“Why only him?”
“Because we have Lily’s identification, Marcus’s conduct, and Mason’s connection to the Gray Room.”
“What connection?”
Alvarez opened another folder. “The nonprofit that rented the venue is controlled through two shell entities. The final account receiving payments belongs to Vale Strategic Consulting.”
“Marcus’s company?”
“Mason’s. Registered six months ago.”
Daniel looked at the page.
“Marcus set it up,” he said.
“His lawyer did.”
“Lydia.”
“Yes.”
“What was the Gray Room used for?”
“We have accounts from two women who attended previous events. Both remember becoming severely impaired after one drink. One woke in a rideshare with no memory of leaving. The other woke in an apartment belonging to Ethan Cole.”
“Did she report it?”
“To campus administration. She was told there wasn’t enough evidence and advised not to speculate.”
“Police?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“She was afraid.”
Daniel looked at the photograph of the empty camera mount.
“Mason recorded them,” he said.
“Possibly.”
“For blackmail?”
“Possibly.”
“Or trade.”
Alvarez watched him. “Trade for what?”
“Access. Favors. Control. Boys like Cole and Hale don’t need money. They need certainty that other people will carry their shame.”
“You’ve seen that before?”
Daniel leaned back.
Alvarez waited.
“Men I worked for kept photographs,” he said. “Not because the photographs were useful every day. Because people behaved differently knowing they existed.”
“Did you keep them?”
“No.”
“Did you collect them?”
“Yes.”
The word remained between them.
Alvarez closed the folder. “Marcus searched Lily’s schedule because she contacted him.”
Daniel looked up.
“She emailed him five days ago,” Alvarez continued. “She said she needed to discuss a Blackline subcontractor and a security problem at the university.”
“Why Marcus?”
“Because Maya knew her father worked with him.”
“What did Marcus reply?”
“He asked Lily to meet at his office. She refused. She said she wanted everything in writing.”
Daniel almost smiled. Lily had inherited that from Claire.
“What happened next?” he asked.
“Marcus called her twice. She didn’t answer.”
“And four days later she was attacked.”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked through the conference-room window at a corridor where a vending-machine technician knelt beside an open panel. The man dropped a screw, muttered, found it beneath his shoe, and continued working. Ordinary frustration went on existing.
“Why didn’t Lily tell me?” Daniel asked.
Alvarez did not answer.
“She knew about Ghost,” he said.
“We don’t know when she learned.”
“She found something involving Blackline. She went to Marcus instead of me.”
“Maybe she thought he was safer.”
Daniel’s eyes returned to her.
Alvarez did not apologize.
“Your daughter made copies,” she said. “Whatever she found, she expected resistance.”
“Where?”
“Cloud storage. Maybe elsewhere.”
“Maya knows.”
“Yes.”
“Let me speak to her.”
“No.”
“She trusts Lily.”
“She may not trust you.”
Daniel looked down at his hands.
Alvarez gathered the photographs. “There’s something else. The driver who left Lily behind Harker Print was identified.”
“Who?”
“A woman named Renee Dalton. Thirty-eight. Works evenings as a cleaner at the Gray Room.”
“Where is she?”
“Missing.”
“Family?”
“Two children staying with their grandmother.”
“Marcus?”
“Blackline paid Renee Dalton twelve thousand dollars yesterday through an emergency contractor account.”
“Authorized by?”
“Marcus Vale.”
Daniel closed his eyes for a moment.
“He didn’t attack Lily,” he said. “He arranged the drop.”
“That is one possibility.”
“He paid a cleaner to move her. Then he went to the hangar with the phone. He was protecting Mason.”
Alvarez slid one photograph back across the table. It showed the bloodstained room.
“Or he was protecting you.”
May you like
Daniel stared at her.
“Lily contacted Marcus about a Blackline subcontractor,” Alvarez said. “The venue used Blackline-approved security personnel. Payments moved through accounts Marcus controlled. Your company’s name is in the chain.”
