31HarperWhite Noise
Harper
White Noise
Harper looked around the… she supposed it was a deck.
She wasn’t familiar with boat terminology, but in the movies, they called the boat’s floor the deck.
It was a huge boat. Harper thought it was possibly a yacht because it had three stories, with the top level being a separate room for the driver.
Currently, Harper, Stephanie, and Emma were on the main level.
Through the raindrops on the glass, Harper could see the gray Seattle skyline and harbor off to one side.
The room was heated, but chill tendrils of December air still crept about her ankles.
The boat traveled slowly across the harbor, and the lights on the Ferris wheel on the waterfront flicked between green and blue, making streaks of light in the rain.
Emma was nervously pacing while Stephanie reclined on the couch and poked at her phone. Through the back doors, Harper could see that the deck area was wet and slick with rain.
Harper was at the table. Emma kept clenching and unclenching her hands in the pockets of her trench coat, and Harper thought she was touching the gun she’d pointed at Harper earlier. The thought made Harper nervous. Emma looked too tense to be handling firearms.
Harper was not sure about kidnapping protocol, but she felt like she ought to be restrained. However, having gotten Harper on the boat, Stephanie and Emma seemed to think that was enough.
“This is a bad idea,” muttered Emma as she passed the back doors for the third time.
“Then you shouldn’t have gotten caught,” said Stephanie, without looking up from her phone.
Emma spun and glared at her sister.
“We don’t need her, and we shouldn’t have involved her at all,” said Emma, gesturing to Harper.
“You tried talking to him,” said Stephanie, allowing her phone to fall into her lap. “You said he was insistent that he liked her. We may just have to accept that they are dating.”
“I said he said he wouldn’t get back together with me! There’s no way he’s actually dating her!”
“She’s kind of cute, and she does have good taste in designers,” said Stephanie. “I mean, it’s a little vibrant for me, but he’s always been a little out there on color. Maybe that’s what does it for him.”
“The doorman says he never went anywhere with anyone! There is no way he had been dating her for months at Mason’s birthday party!” yelled Emma.
Harper felt a little bad. She knew what it was like to second-guess everything after a break-up. The intent had been to make Ash look stable, not make Emma feel insane.
“Actually,” said Harper, “we met in the elevator on the way to Mason’s birthday party. We just said we’d been dating for months because people were weird after your breakup.”
“Oh, thank God!” exclaimed Emma. “You see? You see? I told you so!”
“It doesn’t really matter,” said Stephanie without changing her expression. “He’s dating her now, and he’s not dating you. Which is fine. It just means we need to sort out the finances.”
“It’s not fine,” snapped Emma.
“Yes, it is. You know you were annoyed at him half the time anyway. He never wanted to fly anywhere fun. He wanted to work all the time with his weird little friends. He couldn’t be on time to save his life.
And the fact that he wanted to spend that much time with his family was bizarre.
I mean, really, that one time I met his mother made me grateful our mother sent us to boarding school.
I cannot imagine being stuck with that woman permanently. ”
“Your mother or Ash’s mother?” asked Harper.
Stephanie gave a sharp bark of laughter. “Either!”
“Both,” added Emma. “But specifically Ash’s mother. Honestly, everyone would have been better off if she’d just kept drinking. She was so inconvenient to take anywhere.”
“I like Rose,” said Harper.
“You would,” said Emma.
“There’s your problem right there,” said Stephanie, gesturing fatalistically at Harper. “She likes his mother. Boys are sentimental about that kind of thing. You can’t compete with that. But, like I said, it doesn’t matter. Now you can go date Ahmed.”
“He’s married,” said Emma.
“What’s that got to do with anything? You know he’s been after you for years. He’ll at least pay your rent and take you someplace worthwhile.”
“I’m twenty-nine,” said Emma. “I need to be thinking about getting married.”
“Well, of course! First marriages are very important. But you won’t meet anyone worthwhile if you don’t go someplace interesting. Dating Ahmed will get you there.”
Emma made an annoyed noise.
“Can’t you get a job?” asked Harper.
“I sit on the board of several companies,” said Emma loftily.
Harper paused to consider that. “Those aren’t paid positions, are they?” Emma looked annoyed. “So why not get a job?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Stephanie. “She’s a Van Lanken. Do you know how embarrassing that would be?”
“Apparently not. But I don’t understand why you didn’t just invest with some of Ash’s companies if you didn’t want to work.”
“I did, but those are long-term investments!” Emma seemed seconds from stamping her foot in frustration. “I can’t cash out until those companies go public, and if I sell my shares now, I’ll barely get what I put in!”
Harper nodded sympathetically. She felt the same about her 401k and Cooper’s stupid ring.
“And what good would that do the rest of the family?” demanded Stephanie, as if Harper was an idiot for even asking. “Since Daddy ran off to Aruba with our trust funds, the finances are a bit of a problem. It really was extremely inconvenient timing for a breakup, Emma.”
“So let me get this straight,” said Harper, reorganizing Stephanie’s rant into something that made sense.
“Emma had Ash paying all her bills and made some sensible long-term investments for her future, but you did not. And then your father stole all of your money. So… you made Emma steal proprietary information for you to sell?”
“Yes,” said Emma. “That’s exactly what happened.”
“No, it’s not,” said Stephanie. “We just had you ramp up the information pipeline Mason had used for years. You’re the idiot who got caught.”
“Oh,” said Harper. “Mason had already been doing it?”
“Of course. It’s not like he gets paid enough as a professor, but Ash hasn’t been using him as much recently. Daddy really put us in a bind, but it should have been an easy thing for Emma to do.”
“And it never occurred to you to ask Ash for a loan?” Harper was having a hard time wrapping her head around Stephanie’s logic.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Stephanie. “That should have been Mason’s money, to begin with. Mason practically built that company for Ash. And Ash really needs to recognize that. Recognize it and pay up.”
“What do you think Ash is going to do?” asked Harper, puzzled.
“He’s going to give us the files that ridiculous Russian is asking for and pay Mason the money he’s owed. Obviously. You’re here just to make sure he doesn’t get any funny ideas.”
“Oh,” said Harper, realizing with abrupt clarity why she was having such a problem. “You’re full shit.”
Emma burst out laughing.
Stephanie glared at the two of them. “You know what? I think maybe you can wait in the engine room.”
Stephanie stood up and grabbed Harper by the bicep.
Harper wondered if now was the point that she should fight, but Emma still had that gun, and it wasn’t like she wanted to spend more time with either of the women.
Stephanie marched her down a narrow hallway, opened a door and shoved Harper through, then slammed the door behind her.
Harper looked around the room; it pulsed with the thrum of engines in a continuous white noise.
She had expected someplace dark, dingy, and greasy.
Instead, the room was painted white, meticulously clean, and seemed to have been laid out by an engineer on his fifth Red Bull.
Every square inch of space had pipes, panels, and switches folded around on themselves.
Harper felt immensely relieved. She felt certain that somewhere in this room was a user’s manual. She just needed twenty minutes to herself, and she was quite sure she could sabotage the hell out of this thing.