Chapter 4 - A Marriage With New Rules
By noon, the hospital security cameras had produced three useful things.
A height.
A coat.
And nothing resembling a face.
The man in the brown shoes knew exactly where cameras were positioned.
Every time he passed one, he turned.
When he entered an elevator, he lowered his head.
When he crossed the parking garage, he walked beside a family pushing a stroller.
Professional.
Or experienced.
Neither possibility comforted Thea.
Lachlan's security chief, Marcus Hale, spread photographs across a private conference table on the hospital's administrative floor.
“Six feet to six-two,” Marcus said. “Male. Probably forty to sixty. No visible limp. Right-handed.”
“How do you know?” Thea asked.
“He uses his right hand to open doors.”
Lachlan sat beside her wearing the dark glasses.
Inside the locked room, he removed them.
“Shoes?”
“Bellamy & Croft. We checked the model. Limited run.”
“How limited?”
“Eighty-six pairs sold domestically.”
Thea stared.
“That sounds promising.”
“Thirty-one went to customers connected to Voss Meridian.”
“Less promising.”
Lachlan examined the photographs.
His finger stopped on one frame.
“What?”
Thea leaned over.
The man's wrist showed beneath his coat sleeve.
A watch.
Nothing extraordinary to her.
But Lachlan stared.
“I know that watch.”
Marcus leaned closer.
“Brand?”
“Vacheron Constantin.”
Thea blinked.
“That helps?”
“Six figures.”
She looked at him.
“For a watch?”
“Yes.”
“That's obscene.”
“Probably.”
“You own one?”
“Two.”
She stared.
“One was a gift.”
“That doesn't improve your situation.”
Marcus coughed.
Thea suspected he was hiding laughter.
Lachlan zoomed in.
“The bracelet is custom.”
“Can you identify it?” Marcus asked.
“Maybe.”
Thea leaned back.
“Your world has eighty-six-pair shoes and custom hundred-thousand-dollar watches. Meanwhile, my mother saves restaurant napkins.”
Lachlan looked at her.
“Your mother sounds more sensible than most of my board.”
“That is the first intelligent thing you've said today.”
The atmosphere relaxed for half a second.
Then Marcus placed another file on the table.
“We checked access to Mrs. Lindquist's medical chart.”
Thea straightened.
“Who changed it?”
“User credentials belonged to Dr. Thomas Keene.”
“He's never treated my mother.”
“He wasn't in the hospital when the change occurred.”
“So someone stole his login.”
“Or he allowed access.”
Lachlan closed the file.
“Protect Dr. Keene.”
Thea frowned.
“Protect him?”
“If someone used his identity, he may be next.”
Marcus nodded and left.
Thea watched the door close.
“You think like someone who expects everybody to become a corpse.”
“I learned.”
The bitterness in his voice softened her anger for one second.
Only one.
“Tell me about Elena.”
Lachlan remained quiet.
“You keep telling me pieces,” Thea said. “I want the person, not the case.”
He looked surprised.
“Why?”
“Because Sophie lost a mother. You lost a sister. And somebody keeps reducing her to bank records and car crashes.”
Lachlan removed the glasses completely.
“Elena hated pears.”
Thea blinked.
“What?”
“She thought they had the texture of wet sand.”
A laugh escaped Thea before she could stop it.
“She sounds dramatic.”
“She was.”
“What else?”
“She could beat me at poker.”
“Could?”
“Every time.”
“You're a billionaire CEO who lost at poker to his sister?”
“Repeatedly.”
“I like her already.”
A small smile appeared.
Then disappeared.
“She raised Sophie mostly alone.”
“The father?”
“Daniel Mercer. Elena's ex-husband.”
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
Thea stopped.
“How?”
“Drug overdose eight months before Elena's crash.”
“That family had a terrible year.”
“Yes.”
“Did you like him?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“He lied.”
Thea raised an eyebrow.
Lachlan caught it.
“I appreciate the irony.”
“Good.”
“He gambled. Borrowed money. Elena finally left.”
“Could he have been connected to the stolen company funds?”
“We investigated. No.”
“Could his debts have put Elena in danger?”
“No evidence.”
“Does Sophie remember him?”
“Barely.”
Thea looked through the glass wall toward the hallway.
Sophie sat beside Emil coloring a picture.
“She trusts you.”
“Sometimes.”
“She hid behind your chair last night.”
“She has done that since Elena died.”
“Why?”
“When strangers enter a room, she wants something solid between herself and them.”
Thea's throat tightened.
“Has she seen a therapist?”
“Three.”
“And?”
“She stopped speaking to the first. Hid from the second. Bit the third.”
Thea laughed.
Lachlan looked offended.
“It's not funny.”
“It's a little funny.”
“She drew blood.”
“Okay. Slightly less funny.”
He almost smiled again.
Then Thea saw the wedding ring on his hand.
She had forgotten he was wearing it.
Her own remained in her pocket.
The entire situation was absurd.
Married yesterday.
Investigating attempted murder today.
Sleeping in separate rooms.
Protecting a child.
Arguing about expensive watches.
“What are we doing?” she asked suddenly.
Lachlan's expression became serious.
“Right now?”
“In general.”
He knew what she meant.
“Our marriage.”
“Yes.”
“The contract amendment gives you complete freedom.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“What do you want?”
The question caught her.
No one had asked that in months.
Doctors asked what treatment her mother wanted.
Insurance companies asked what they could afford.
Employers asked what shifts Thea could work.
Astrid asked whether she would marry Lachlan.
Nobody asked what Thea wanted.
“I don't know.”
“Then we don't decide today.”
She studied him.
“You're very comfortable postponing difficult conversations.”
“I built an international company. Postponement is called strategic scheduling.”
“No. It's called being emotionally constipated.”
Lachlan stared at her.
Marcus, returning through the doorway, abruptly turned around.
“I'll come back.”
“Stay,” Lachlan said dryly.
Marcus entered, fighting a smile.
“New information.”
“What?”
“The hospital photo was transmitted through a prepaid phone.”
“Location?”
“Discarded in a trash bin four blocks away.”
“Prints?”
“Wiped.”
Thea sighed.
“Anything useful?”
“One thing.”
Marcus placed a list in front of Lachlan.
“The Bellamy & Croft customer records.”
Lachlan read.
His face changed.
Thea noticed immediately.
“You know someone.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
He slid the list toward her.
Thirty-one names.
Several meant nothing.
One she recognized from television coverage of the wedding.
Julian Voss.
“Your cousin.”
“Yes.”
“He's on your board.”
“Yes.”
“Does he want control?”
“Yes.”
“Would he kill Elena?”
Lachlan's answer came immediately.
“I don't know.”
“You don't sound shocked.”
“Julian and Elena fought shortly before she died.”
“About what?”
“He claimed she was interfering in corporate matters outside her role.”
“Was she?”
“Elena considered boundaries an invitation.”
Thea smiled faintly.
“I really do like her.”
A noise came from the corridor.
They turned.
Sophie had dropped her crayons.
Her face had gone white.
“What is it?” Thea asked.
The child stared at the list.
One photograph appeared beside each board member's name.
Sophie pointed.
Not at Julian.
At another man.
An older executive with silver hair.
“That's him.”
Lachlan stood.
“Who?”
“The lake house man.”
Thea looked at the name.
Graham Vale — Chief Financial Officer.
Lachlan went very still.
“Are you sure?”
Sophie nodded.
“He yelled at Mommy.”
Thea turned toward Lachlan.
“Your CFO.”
“Yes.”
“Does he wear Bellamy & Croft shoes?”
Lachlan looked at Marcus.
Marcus checked the records.
“Yes.”
“Custom watch?”
Another check.
Marcus's expression changed.
“Yes.”
Thea's pulse accelerated.
“Then we found him.”
“No,” Lachlan said.
“What?”
“We found someone Sophie remembers.”
“That's more than you've had for three years.”
“Yes.”
“Call the police.”
“On what evidence?”
“Your niece saw him.”
“She was three years old.”
“The shoes.”
“Thirty other people own them.”
“The watch.”
“Not enough.”
“The financial records.”
“Don't name him.”
Thea stared.
“Why are you protecting him?”
“I am protecting Sophie from being placed at the center of a murder investigation before we know what Vale's role was.”
“He may have killed her mother.”
“And if he did, I want proof strong enough that no attorney on Earth can tear it apart.”
Thea hated that he was right again.
She hated even more that she was beginning to understand him.
Lachlan turned to Marcus.
“Don't approach Vale. Don't surveil him directly.”
Marcus nodded.
“We let him think nothing has changed.”
Thea crossed her arms.
“And what do we do?”
Lachlan looked at her.
“We go home.”
“To the house that was bugged?”
“Security will sweep it.”
“That still seems like a terrible plan.”
“You wanted access.”
“I did.”
“Tomorrow is Voss Meridian's quarterly board meeting.”
Thea stared.
“What does that have to do with me?”
“You're my wife.”
“Technically.”
“And the board wants to meet you.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Vale will be there.”
She paused.
Lachlan knew he'd won.
She pointed at him.
“Don't look smug.”
“I wasn't.”
“You were internally smug.”
“That may be true.”
“What exactly do you expect me to do?”
“Watch.”
The word hung between them.
The blind CEO's wife would enter a room filled with people who believed he couldn't see.
But Thea could.
And for the first time, she understood why Lachlan's lie had survived so long.
People behaved differently around someone they believed couldn't observe them.
They stared.
They signaled.
They exchanged glances.
They stopped hiding expressions.
Lachlan had spent three years listening.
Tomorrow, Thea would become his eyes.
She looked at the photograph of Graham Vale.
“If he's guilty, he'll know me.”
“Everyone knows you after yesterday.”
“No. I mean he'll know I'm a problem.”
“Yes.”
“Wonderful.”
Lachlan reached for his glasses.
Thea stopped him.
“One more condition.”
“What?”
“No secrets between us while we're doing this.”
His expression shifted.
“I can't promise there will never be information I need to protect.”
“Then I'm out.”
“Thea.”
“No.”
She leaned forward.
“If I am going into a boardroom with a man who may have murdered your sister, I will not walk in blind.”
The irony landed between them.
Lachlan slowly removed his hand from the glasses.
“All right.”
“All right what?”
“No secrets.”
“Say it properly.”
He looked at her.
“No secrets between us.”
Thea nodded.
For the first time since the wedding, they had made an agreement that wasn't written by lawyers.
Then Sophie's coloring book fell from the chair.
A folded piece of paper slipped from inside it.
Thea picked it up.
“What's this?”
Sophie frowned.
“I don't know.”
Thea unfolded it.
Three typed sentences.
MRS. VOSS, YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT WHEN HE GAVE YOU THE CHANCE.
ASK YOUR HUSBAND WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO HIS EYES.
HE HASN'T TOLD YOU EVERYTHING.
Thea slowly looked across the room.
Lachlan had promised her no more secrets less than thirty seconds earlier.
His face told her the note was right.
May you like
And suddenly the board meeting wasn't the only confrontation waiting for them.
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