Chapter 9 - The Price of a Confession
I guided Claire toward the hospital entrance where cameras and security officers covered the doors.
The sedan remained parked across the lot.
“Talk to Nora,” I told her.
“Tell her everything you know.”
Claire shook her head.
“They said you'd lose your job.”
“I already did, for now.”
“They said they'd make you look dangerous.”
“They've tried.”
She started crying.
I felt an old reflex urging me to comfort her.
Fourteen years doesn't vanish because your trust does.
But I kept my hands at my sides.
“Claire, you chose to betray me before anyone threatened you.”
She didn't deny it.
“I was angry all the time,” she said.
“You wouldn't talk about the past, and I decided that meant you didn't love me.”
I looked away.
“Instead of asking, you found somebody who told you what you wanted to hear.”
Her silence was answer enough.
She explained that Price had approached Derek through a refinancing deal for the gym.
Price knew Claire was married to me.
He introduced himself as a lawyer who could help her protect her finances in a divorce.
Then came the questions about my paperwork.
Then the claim that I'd hidden assets.
Then the instruction to find a small drive.
“I thought it proved you had money overseas,” she whispered.
I closed my eyes.
“There wasn't any secret account.”
“I know that now.”
The sedan's engine started.
Its driver slowly moved toward us.
I stepped into the hospital and asked the front-desk security officer to call police.
The car kept rolling.
It didn't stop.
That frightened me more than a confrontation would have.
Whoever was watching wanted us to know they could.
Nora arrived within twenty minutes.
She explained that Claire needed her own legal counsel, especially if she had been involved in fraudulent acts.
Then she arranged for Claire's statement to be preserved voluntarily with counsel present.
Claire told us she'd last seen Derek carrying the USB drive toward a storage room at Apex.
“He said Price would collect it Saturday.”
“Did Price?” Nora asked.
“I don't know.”
Then she reached into her purse and handed over a torn corner of paper.
“I kept this when Gavin wasn't looking.”
Printed on it was a storage location and a date.
A private document vault near the waterfront.
The date was tomorrow.
Below it was a single instruction.
May you like
DESTROY ORIGINAL AFTER VERIFICATION.
