12. Erik #3
I look at her longer than I should.
She catches me. "What?"
"Nothing."
"That's rarely true with you."
Peter makes a sound that I choose not to acknowledge.
The first camera footage arrives shortly before midnight. Makari casts it to the conference-room screen. The main fourth-floor elevator shows both facilities employees leaving at eight-forty. Richard's runner arrives six minutes later, enters the suite, and leaves carrying two boxes at eight-fifty.
After that, nobody enters through the main doors before nine-thirty.
Rowan moves closer to the screen. "Show the service corridor."
Makari switches feeds. The service camera covers the stairwell landing and most of the corridor, but not the secondary entrance to my suite. At eight-fifty-four, the image glitches for three seconds.
When it returns, the corridor is empty.
Peter sits forward. "Again."
Makari rewinds. Three seconds of digital distortion with nothing before or after it.
Liya studies the timestamp. "Two minutes after the proxy starts."
"Which means the camera interruption may be unrelated," Rowan says. "The user could already have been inside."
"Or someone entered through the secondary door during those three seconds," I say.
Makari enlarges the image. "No motion after the interruption."
Rowan moves beside him. "What about before it?"
He rewinds farther. At eight-fifty-one, a woman crosses the far end of the corridor. We see only part of her profile before she turns toward the stairwell.
Rowan leans closer. "Can you sharpen that?"
"Not enough to identify her."
The woman wears a dark dress and carries a university event credential. Half the women at the reception could match the image.
Liya, Harper, or Evelyn could. So could members of Richard's staff. The image gives us a shape, not a name.
Peter stands and walks to the window while Makari continues through the footage. He's been restless since he arrived, and I remember the shipping folder he removed from my office two days ago.
"Where's the folder?" I ask.
He looks back at me.
"The shipping audit you took from my penthouse?"
Rowan turns away from the screen.
Peter doesn't bother pretending he misunderstood. "Safe."
"That isn't an answer."
"It's the answer you're getting tonight."
I take one step toward him. "You removed material from an active investigation after I told you to put it back."
He stiffens. "I removed Danilov shipping records from a table where people outside the family could read them."
Rowan's posture changes.
Peter sees it and adds, "That wasn't directed at you."
"It included me." She stays beside the conference table. "I was the only person in that room who wasn't family."
Liya looks at Peter. "You should've left it."
Peter ignores her. "The routes predate this investigation by fifteen years. They have nothing to do with Bennett."
"Then why take them?" Rowan asks.
"Because some things belong to the family."
I've heard variations of that answer my entire life. It irritates me more tonight than it ever has before. "Bring the folder back tomorrow."
Peter's expression closes. "No."
Makari stops the video.
Nobody speaks for several seconds.
Rowan breaks the silence without looking at Peter. "Does the folder contain anything connected to Orell, Peter?"
"No."
She frowns. "Can you prove that without producing it?"
Peter looks at her. "I don't need to prove family business to you."
I step between them before Rowan can answer. "You need to prove it to me."
His attention settles on me.
I don't raise my voice. "You'll bring the folder back, or I'll have Makari pull every Danilov shipping record it references and reconstruct it without you."
Peter studies me long enough that Liya shifts in her chair. "You'd put our routes into an outside forensic review over her?"
"No, because you removed evidence from mine."
His expression tells me he doesn't believe the distinction. That's his problem.
Peter picks up his coat. "You've already decided where this ends."
"No. I've decided I won't let family loyalty decide where the investigation stops."
He leaves without another word.
Rowan watches the door close behind him. "That went well."
Liya rubs her temple. "Yeah, by Danilov standards. Nobody was shot."
Makari returns his attention to the camera feed. "I'll keep working on the woman in the corridor."
I look at the door Peter used, then at the access report on the table.
Someone entered my suite, searched for Rowan, confirmed my recusal, and opened Tyler's file under my credentials. Peter has removed shipping records from the same investigation and now refuses to return them.
Neither fact proves betrayal, but together, they're enough that I can't ignore my uncle anymore.
Rowan comes to stand beside me. "You think Peter could be involved."
"I think I need to know what's in that folder."
"That wasn't what I asked."
I look at her.
She waits.
"Yes. I think he could be."
Rowan glances toward the door again before returning her attention to me. "We'll find out."
She doesn't accuse me of protecting my family over the truth. For once, I'm not.