Chapter 2 - The Stranger at the GateDaniel did not confront Renee that night.
Every instinct told him to.
Instead, he called the police.
Claire protested until Detective Maya Ellis arrived at the hospital.
Ellis was in her early forties, calm-eyed and economical with words. She listened while Daniel described the security log, then asked Claire the question Daniel had been asking for hours.
“Who was the man?”
Claire stared at the floor.
“Marcus Reed.”
“What does Mr. Reed do?”
“He’s a licensed private investigator.”
Daniel felt something drop inside him.
“A private investigator?”
Claire nodded.
“How long have you known him?”
“Four months.”
Daniel stepped back.
Four months.
He had spent four months sharing a bed with a woman who had been meeting another man in secret.
Detective Ellis noticed his expression.
“What was Mr. Reed investigating?”
Claire hesitated.
“My husband’s company.”
Daniel looked at her.
Brooks Meridian Development was not merely his company. It was the business his father had built from a two-room contracting office thirty-one years earlier. Daniel had become CEO after his father’s death. Renee, six years older, served as chief operating officer.
Claire knew what that company meant to him.
“What did you think I was doing?” Daniel asked.
“I didn’t know.”
“You hired someone to investigate me?”
“I hired him to investigate transactions.”
“Mine?”
“Some carried your authorization.”
Daniel stared at her.
Detective Ellis interrupted.
“We need the specifics.”
Claire took a breath.
“Four months ago, I reviewed accounts for the Brooks Family Foundation. I’m on the finance committee. I found transfers I didn’t recognize.”
“How much?”
“Initially? Three hundred eighty thousand dollars.”
Daniel frowned.
“That foundation is audited.”
“I know.”
“Then why didn’t the auditors catch it?”
“Because the payments appeared legitimate.”
“To whom?”
“Consultants attached to Meridian redevelopment projects.”
Daniel’s anger shifted toward confusion.
“Which consultants?”
“Companies I couldn’t verify.”
Claire finally looked directly at him.
“So I asked questions.”
“And you decided I was stealing?”
“I decided somebody was.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Why Marcus?”
“He used to work financial crimes cases. My attorney recommended him.”
Detective Ellis wrote something down.
“And today?”
“He came because he had evidence he wouldn’t send electronically.”
“What evidence?”
Claire looked toward Daniel.
“I haven’t seen all of it.”
The detective’s expression hardened.
“Mrs. Brooks, your daughter was endangered during the period your cameras were disabled. If information Mr. Reed carried is connected, secrecy is now a safety issue.”
Claire rubbed her palms together.
“He said someone inside Brooks Meridian had created fake vendor companies. He believed the transactions were approaching seven million dollars.”
Daniel felt physically sick.
“That’s impossible.”
Claire said nothing.
“That amount doesn’t disappear.”
“It didn’t disappear all at once.”
Daniel remembered Renee telling the board that several developments had suffered cost overruns.
He remembered approving emergency budget revisions.
He remembered trusting his sister.
Detective Ellis leaned forward.
“Where is Mr. Reed now?”
“I don’t know.”
“You have his number?”
“Yes.”
Claire called.
It went directly to voicemail.
Again.
Voicemail.
Daniel’s anger returned.
“He stood there watching my daughter almost drown.”
“No,” Claire said.
“He didn’t move.”
“He was outside the locked gate.”
“He could have climbed it.”
“So could anyone.”
“You’re defending him.”
“I’m telling you what happened.”
“What happened,” Daniel said, struggling to keep his voice down, “is that I came home and found my child underwater while my wife was meeting a man she’d hidden from me for four months.”
Claire recoiled.
Emily stirred in the bed.
Both parents stopped.
Daniel lowered himself beside her.
“I’m sorry, baby.”
Emily’s eyes closed again.
Claire whispered, “I was watching her.”
Daniel turned.
“Then explain how she ended up underwater.”
“I turned away for less than a minute.”
“To talk to him.”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked at her for a long time.
Claire began crying.
“I know what that sounds like.”
“It sounds like you left an eight-year-old in a pool.”
“I was ten yards away.”
“And looking somewhere else.”
She closed her eyes.
Daniel hated the pain he saw on her face.
He hated that he still wanted to comfort her.
“I heard her splash,” Claire said. “I turned around and she was gone. I screamed. Marcus tried the gate, but it wouldn’t open from outside.”
“And whoever used Renee’s code?”
“I never saw them.”
Detective Ellis asked, “Who knows that access code?”
“Renee,” Daniel said. “Her husband. Maybe her assistant.”
“Would she have reason to enter your property?”
“She has dinner here sometimes.”
“At 4:06 today?”
“No.”
Ellis asked for Renee’s number.
Daniel gave it.
Before the detective could call, Daniel’s phone rang.
Renee.
He looked at Claire.
Then answered.
“Hey,” Renee said. “Why did a police detective just leave me a voicemail?”
Daniel kept his voice neutral.
“There was an incident at the house.”
“What kind?”
“Emily almost drowned.”
Silence.
Then Renee gasped.
“Oh my God. Is she okay?”
“She will be.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Daniel—”
“We’re at the hospital. She needs quiet.”
“Of course. God, Daniel, I’m so sorry.”
He stared at the security log on his screen.
“Where were you at four this afternoon?”
Another silence.
Short.
But noticeable.
“At the office.”
“All afternoon?”
“Yes.”
“Anyone with you?”
“Why are you asking?”
“Your gate code was used at my house.”
Renee laughed nervously.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“The system recorded it.”
“Then your system is wrong.”
“Maybe.”
“Daniel, what is happening?”
“I don’t know yet.”
He ended the call.
Claire looked at him.
“You heard the pause.”
He hated that she was right.
Later, while Claire went home with Detective Ellis to provide access to the property, Daniel remained with Emily.
Near midnight, Emily woke thirsty.
He helped her drink.
Then she asked, “Is Mommy mad?”
“No.”
“Are you?”
Daniel considered lying.
“A little.”
“At me?”
“Never.”
Emily looked toward the door.
“The man at the gate didn’t scare me.”
Daniel brushed a curl from her forehead.
“Why not?”
“Because Mommy knew him.”
Daniel’s chest tightened.
“She smiled at him before.”
“When?”
“Another day.”
Daniel went still.
“How many times have you seen him?”
Emily held up three fingers.
Three.
Claire had not merely met Marcus that afternoon.
He had been near their home before.
“Did he ever come inside?”
Emily thought.
“Once.”
Daniel felt jealousy rise hot and irrational.
“When?”
“You were in Chicago.”
Daniel remembered the conference.
Three weeks earlier.
“What did they do?”
“Talked in Mommy’s office.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
Emily yawned.
Then, almost asleep, she murmured, “Aunt Renee came that day too.”
Daniel’s hand stopped.
“What?”
Emily’s eyes were already closing.
“She was mad Mommy locked the office.”
Daniel sat motionless beside the hospital bed.
Three weeks earlier, while he had been traveling, Claire, Marcus and Renee had all been at his house.
Claire had told him none of it.
His phone vibrated.
A message from Detective Ellis.
WE FOUND SIGNS OF ENTRY IN CLAIRE’S STUDY.
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A second message appeared.
AND SOMETHING WAS TAKEN.
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