Chương 3
“What did her face do?” she asked.
“She smiled.”
The line went quiet except for the rain and Leah’s keyboard.
“Pack a bag,” Leah said again. “You can argue with me in person.”
The person Leah sent was not a bodyguard. It was her younger brother, Daniel, who taught chemistry at a public high school and arrived wearing running shoes, wet hair, and the expression of a man who had been informed only that an attorney required extraction.
He looked at Nora’s eye, the stained blouse hanging from a cabinet knob, and the bag of frozen peas on the counter.
“Leah said not to ask questions.”
“That has never stopped anyone in your family.”
“She also said to bring you to her place.”
“I’m not going to her place.”
Daniel nodded as if Nora had confirmed something expected. He placed a paper grocery bag on the counter.
“I brought soup.”
“You brought leverage.”
“It’s lentil. Very manipulative.”
Nora almost laughed, and the movement pulled at her lip.
Daniel opened cabinets until he found bowls. He had been in the apartment only twice, both times for dinner parties at which Nora had spent more time refilling glasses than eating. He moved with the calm practical energy of someone accustomed to laboratories full of teenagers and unsecured flame.
“Take photographs yet?”
“Yes.”
“Packed?”
“No.”
He ladled soup.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” he said, “but Leah is using her courtroom voice in the kitchen. That usually means somebody has made a terrible decision and she hasn’t chosen who.”
“That describes most litigation.”
“Eat.”
Nora sat.
The first spoonful tasted of cumin and too much lemon. Daniel had cooked it himself. Leah would have ordered something expensive and forgotten utensils.
“What did she tell you?” Nora asked.
“That you were hurt, stubborn, and in possession of something people might want.”
“She was showing restraint.”
“She also said not to leave you alone.”
Nora ate another spoonful.
Daniel leaned against the counter. “You can stay at my place. Leah won’t think to look there.”
“Leah knows where you live.”
“I meant whoever else.”
His attempt at lightness faded when Nora did not respond.
“Is this Mercer?” he asked.
She looked at him.
“I read business news. Occasionally it gets between the sports and the weather.”
“You should not know anything.”
“Then I won’t. But not knowing and being useless aren’t the same thing.”
Nora had spent years around people who considered help a transaction. Daniel’s offer had no structure. That made it harder to accept.
She folded the paper napkin in half, then into quarters.
“I need to make two calls.”
“Make them.”
“Privately.”
He pointed at the hallway. “I’ll inspect your bookshelves for evidence of a personality.”
When he left the kitchen, Nora called Helen Price.
Helen had joined the Mercer Meridian board after running a regional bank through a consent order, a recession, and two attempted acquisitions. She was sixty-one, blunt, and too wealthy to be impressed by most forms of pressure. She was also the only independent director Nora believed had read every footnote in the board materials.
Helen answered with, “Are you represented?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Then this conversation may be short.”
“Did you receive the records?”
“I received a link from counsel, an index, and a message explaining that physical originals are in transit. I have not opened the link.”
“Why not?”
“Because four directors have been calling me every six minutes, Grant’s counsel has threatened an injunction, and Eleanor has informed me that you are unstable.”
Nora stared at the soup.
“How efficient.”
“She also said you stole privileged files and assaulted Grant.”
“He fell over furniture.”
“That sounds more like Grant.”
“Helen, the board needs to secure the servers before corporate security alters access.”
“The audit chair is arranging it.”
“Who?”
“Thomas Reed.”
“He approved the Riverbend financing.”
“Yes.”
“He cannot supervise preservation of evidence concerning his own committee.”
“I am aware.”
“Then why—”
“Because the board is not a rescue team, Nora. It is nine frightened people with conflicting duties, incomplete information, and lawyers telling them not to touch anything. You released a great deal of material without explaining what is authentic, what is copied, what is privileged, and what may have been obtained improperly.”
“The chain-of-custody memo is in the index.”
“I have not read it.”
“Then read it.”
Helen’s silence made Nora hear her own tone.
She rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not. You’re scared and trying to turn that into instructions.”
Nora watched Daniel remove a biography from the shelf and inspect the dust jacket.
Helen continued. “Where are you?”
“Home.”
“Alone?”
“No.”
“Good. Your employment access was suspended twenty minutes ago. Your company phone will be remotely disabled if it hasn’t been already. Do not attempt to access the network.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“The company has retained outside counsel. Grant is requesting an emergency board meeting for tomorrow morning. Eleanor wants the board to authorize litigation against you before the market opens.”
“Mercer Meridian isn’t publicly traded.”
“The lenders have markets. The bondholders have markets. The employees have mortgages.”
“I know that.”
“Do you?”
The question landed harder than Nora expected.
Helen lowered her voice. “I believe there is something here. I would not be speaking to you otherwise. But if you expect the board to move because you say the word evidence, you have misunderstood what happens next.”
“What happens next?”
“Everyone protects themselves.”
The line ended two minutes later with no promise beyond preservation of the records.
Nora remained at the table after the call. The soup cooled. Daniel returned the book to the wrong shelf and looked at her.
“Personality found?”
“Mostly footnotes.”
Her company phone lit beside the envelope.
ACCESS REVOKED.
A second message appeared on her personal phone, from an unknown number.
You have made this worse for everyone.
Nora read it twice.
Daniel noticed her face. “What?”
She showed him.
“Who sent it?”
May you like
“I don’t know.”
“Can they track this phone?”
