6. Erik
ERIK
Iclose the library door after Rowan finally gives in to sleep.
She refused the guest room and the sofa, then spent the last hour in the leather chair beside the fireplace with her father's sealed phone where she could see it.
At some point after five, she tipped her head against the chair back and stopped fighting the need for sleep.
The news alert remains on her phone when I take the stairs down to the security room.
Makari has three monitors running before I enter.
One shows the estate cameras, another holds the state police case portal through counsel's access, and the third displays financial records.
He pushes a printed sheet toward the empty chair beside him.
"Thirty-six hours. That's how long it took them to make a homicide inconvenient. "
I stay standing and read the assignment line first. Eight months ago, the state detective assigned to Aaron's case had his second mortgage paid in full.
The money came through a booster collective that appears twice in the Zaitsev Athletic Management records Liya brought yesterday. "What's the source?"
Makari opens the supporting file. "County recording, lender release, booster disbursement, and the shell account that funded it. Liya's team confirmed the last transfer."
I read the dates again. "He may have a legitimate explanation."
"He may." Makari turns to the case portal and brings up the scene log. "This will be harder to explain."
A second processing entry appears at two-eighteen this morning, more than two hours after my security team released the motor court to state police. The entry lists supplemental evidence recovery. No outside observer attended it. My independent examiner had already left with Aaron's body.
I move closer to the monitor. "What did they recover?"
Makari opens the preliminary classification. "Nothing's listed yet. They reprocessed your car, the trunk, the drive, and the gate. The working theory is staged suicide connected to an insurance claim."
I read the sentence twice before looking at him. "Aaron supposedly killed himself, then arranged to be placed in my trunk."
"The file doesn't explain the transportation problem." Makari points to the section where the witness summary should be. "It doesn't explain Rahil either."
I scroll through the narrative. "We gave them the footage."
"Counsel gave them the footage, and the portal acknowledges receipt." Makari closes the witness tab. "The narrative doesn't mention it."
Nobody erased Aaron's death. They gave it a case number, a detective, a report, and a theory designed to point nowhere useful.
The press received the same bare line Rowan read before dawn.
A body was recovered at a private residence in Ashford.
There's no name, no homicide classification, and no detail that gives a reporter a reason to ask why Aaron Whitaker died holding Jeremy Bennett's phone.
Makari brings the mortgage record back onto the center screen. "Somebody wants this documented and ignored."
"They're moving quickly." I look toward the library camera. Rowan is still asleep in the chair, one leg tucked beneath her.
Makari follows my attention. "Keeping her close serves the investigation."
"It does." I turn back to the mortgage record.
"It serves the other reason too." Makari settles farther into his chair. "You should decide which one you're answering before somebody else decides for you."
I pick up the printed mortgage sheet. "You're becoming repetitive."
"You're becoming predictable."
"I know why she's here."
Makari looks at me for a few seconds. "That wasn't what I said."
I leave him with the monitors.
Rowan is awake when I return to the library. Her shoes are back on, her bag sits beside the chair, and the alert is gone from her screen.
She looks at me before I reach the table. "Last night was my decision."
"I know."
"It was also bad judgment." Rowan gets up and folds the clean shirt I gave her over one arm. "Those facts can coexist."
I stop near the end of the table. "I know that too."
She studies me long enough to make sure I'm not going to turn the answer into an argument. "Good. I don't need you using regret as another reason to manage me."
"I won't."
Rowan puts the shirt in her bag. "Then I need a shower and coffee before I spend the day explaining why I stole evidence from a corpse."
"You removed evidence from a homicide scene."
She zips the bag. "I liked my version better."
I almost tell her the state no longer appears interested in calling it a homicide. Makari has records and a compromised detective. I want more before I hand her another institution to fight before breakfast.
By nine, Blackthorne has already found a way to make Aaron secondary to donor complaints.
Richard Caldwell is waiting in my office with two trustees on speaker and an athletics reopening proposal spread across my desk. Liya sits near the windows with her own folder. Peter has taken the chair closest to the door, which usually means he expects to leave angry.
Richard taps the reopening schedule. "Football can resume under restricted financial authority. Basketball follows by Monday. Spirit and the smaller programs can come back once compliance clears their operating accounts."
I take the page and set it aside. "This schedule follows donor pressure instead of the investigation."
One of the trustees speaks through the conference unit. "Every day the suspension continues creates contractual exposure."
"Reopening accounts tied to an active laundering investigation creates more." I sit behind the desk and turn toward Richard.
He shifts his attention to Liya. "The university has already isolated the questionable foundation transfers."
Liya opens her folder and places three pages in front of him. "You've labeled them questionable. I've traced them. Each page begins with a Danilov Foundation grant and ends inside a Zaitsev-managed route after passing through Blackthorne athletics."
Richard reads the first page, then reaches for the second. "We've seen these transfers."
"You saw the outgoing amounts." Liya indicates the receiving line. "These are the return paths. Zaitsev Athletic Management collected fees through the same intermediary account used by the donor collective."
Peter takes the third page. "Which gives us another reason to keep Bennett's daughter away from this room."
Richard settles back and lets him continue. I open the board portal on my laptop. "Rowan is joining the next meeting."
Peter puts the page down. "Her father signed the transactions. That's why she should be excluded."
"That's why she's joining."
Peter angles his chair toward me. "She removed evidence from a death scene last night. You're letting attraction turn a compromised witness into an investigator."
Liya looks at him. "You managed to insult three separate legal concepts in one sentence."
Peter ignores her. "You know what I mean."
"I do." I bring Aaron's case number onto my screen. "I also know Jeremy's phone was in Aaron's hand, and an official investigation is already omitting evidence we gave it."
Richard sits straighter. "That's an accusation."
I turn the screen enough for him to read the preliminary classification. "The state file calls Aaron's death a staged suicide tied to insurance. Rahil Antonov doesn't appear anywhere in the narrative despite footage showing him ninety seconds behind Aaron."
Richard reads the visible lines. "That's a law-enforcement determination."
"It's a preliminary theory." I close the case portal before he can turn the wording into cover.
Peter pushes out of his chair. "You're proving my point. She should stay out until we know which institution is compromised."
"If I keep her out, she investigates without us." I close the laptop. "I'd rather know what she has."
Liya looks at me over her folder. I don't invite the comment.
Evelyn Grant arrives at ten with Rowan beside her. Rowan changed into black trousers and a cream sweater before we left the estate. She carries the folder from last night and doesn't look at me until the office door closes.
Evelyn takes the chair across from my desk and sets a legal pad on her knee. Rowan sits beside her. "I was told this meeting concerns Jeremy Bennett's records and Aaron Whitaker's phone. Before anyone starts, I need to know whether university counsel represents Rowan."
"No."
Rowan glances at Richard before pulling her chair closer to the desk. "That's the first reassuring thing anyone has said today."
Richard doesn't appreciate the comment. Evelyn doesn't acknowledge it. "Then you need your own lawyer if this becomes an interview about criminal exposure. I can advise you as your professor about preservation and professional responsibility. I'm not acting as criminal counsel."
"I understand." Rowan settles the folder in her lap.
Evelyn opens her legal pad. "I need the full sequence from the moment you reached the estate."
Rowan gives it to her without trying to improve anything.
She photographed the gate before crossing, then documented the Bentley, Aaron's position, his hand, the phone, the plate, and the approach.
She recorded my instruction that nobody touch the body.
She also recorded herself before removing Jeremy's phone.
Evelyn stops writing. "You removed it yourself."
"Yes."
Evelyn checks the time beside her last note. "After state police had been called."
Rowan doesn't look away. "Yes."
"That was a bad decision." Evelyn rests her pen across the pad.
Rowan shifts the folder against her knee. "I knew that when I made it."
"Good. I don't need you pretending otherwise." Evelyn turns to a clean page. "I need everything that happened after you took possession."