Chapter 2 - SOMEONE WAS WATCHING
Claire pressed the phone tighter against her ear.
“Who is this?”
Nothing.
Traffic.
A horn.
Then the line went dead.
She immediately called back.
No connection.
Ethan touched his cheek.
Walter looked at him.
“You all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“You're not fine.”
“I said I'm fine.”
Lily stood beside the cart with both hands wrapped around the straps of her backpack.
Walter noticed her.
That ended everything else.
“Lil, where's Mrs. Moreno?”
“Across the street.”
Her after-school caregiver was already hurrying toward them.
Good.
Walter crouched slightly.
“Go with her.”
Lily looked at Claire.
“Why did she hit Ethan?”
Claire heard.
Walter answered before the child had to carry any more of it.
“Adults acting badly.”
He handed Lily another hot dog.
“No charge.”
Mrs. Moreno arrived, saw the money on Claire's car, Ethan's red cheek and three people filming.
She took Lily away without asking questions there.
Claire watched them leave.
Then she looked at Walter.
“You spoke to someone about Bennett Tower.”
Walter's expression changed.
Barely.
That was enough.
Ethan looked at his grandfather.
“Walter?”
Claire caught that too.
“So he doesn't know?”
Walter said:
“Go inside the cart.”
“No.”
“Ethan.”
“No.”
Claire took one step closer.
Ethan moved automatically between them again.
This time Walter put an arm across his chest.
“Don't.”
Not to Claire.
To Ethan.
A patrol officer came up the sidewalk.
Someone had called 911 after the slap.
Claire closed her eyes.
Of course.
The officer separated them.
A second officer arrived.
Claire gave her name.
The first officer recognized it.
That did not help.
Claire Bennett.
Chief executive officer of Bennett Meridian Holdings.
Financial television interviews.
Real-estate conferences.
A photograph beside the mayor two years earlier.
Now standing beside a hot-dog cart with twenty thousand dollars partly scattered across her Mercedes.
The officers took statements.
Ethan said Claire slapped him.
Walter said she grabbed him by the collar.
Claire did not deny either.
Her attorney later would be grateful for that.
At the moment, it simply made everything worse.
No one was arrested on the sidewalk.
Ethan had no visible injury beyond redness and declined medical care.
The officers created a complaint report and told everyone follow-up might come through the precinct or prosecutor depending on review.
Claire's corporate security director arrived fifteen minutes later.
So did Bennett Meridian's general counsel.
Mara Sloan.
Fifty-one.
Excellent at keeping her voice low when everybody else's should be lower.
She looked at the envelope.
Then at Claire.
“Tell me that isn't company money.”
“It's mine.”
“That wasn't the part I was hoping you'd deny.”
Claire said nothing.
Mara turned toward Walter.
“Mr. Hayes, I'm counsel for Bennett Meridian. I am not asking you anything about whatever Ms. Bennett just said to you.”
Walter nodded.
Good lawyer.
Mara took Claire twenty feet away.
“What did he see?”
“Eight years ago.”
Mara went still.
“What eight years ago?”
“Bennett Tower.”
That did it.
Mara looked back toward Walter.
Then Ethan.
Then the corner behind the cart.
“You told me the tower issue was closed.”
“It was.”
“No. A file can be closed. An issue is closed only when nobody can reopen it.”
Claire stared.
“Walter saw my father with Jonah Carter the night Jonah died.”
Mara stopped.
“How do you know?”
“Because Walter told our investigator last week.”
“What investigator?”
Claire's silence lasted too long.
Mara's face changed.
“You put someone on him?”
“Background only.”
“Claire.”
“We're selling the building.”
“I know what we're selling.”
“The buyer asked about the old fatality.”
“So you hired someone to see whether witnesses were resurfacing.”
“Yes.”
“And then you brought cash.”
Claire looked toward the envelope.
She had done that herself.
No board order.
No lawyer instruction.
No father left to blame.
Mara said:
“You are done speaking to Walter Hayes.”
Claire's phone vibrated again.
Not the unknown number.
Bennett Meridian's chairman.
Mara looked at the screen.
“Don't answer yet.”
Claire stared at Walter.
He was back behind the cart now.
Serving a man in a blue suit.
As if Claire Bennett had already become less important than lunch.
Then Ethan came out holding his own phone.
He looked at Walter.
“I didn't tell you because I knew you'd stop me.”
Walter slowly turned.
Claire heard that.
“So you did talk.”
Ethan looked directly at her.
“Yes.”
Walter's face fell.
May you like
And Claire understood what the caller had meant.
Maybe Walter was not the witness she should have been afraid of.
