22. Erik #2
He takes the address and puts it into his coat pocket. "The intermediary gave me nothing useful. Orell knows you're closing routes, and he thinks the restructuring proves weakness."
I reach for the first shipping agreement. "Good."
"You used to care whether enemies thought you were weak."
"I care whether they're wrong." I open the agreement again, ending the meeting. Peter gets to his feet, takes his coat, and leaves without asking which route goes first.
By four, all three have given me explanations that fit what we found. Vanessa invaded Rowan's privacy to build a favoritism case. Richard hid donor pressure to protect Blackthorne. Peter still treats secrecy as a family tool.
None fits the leak cleanly anymore.
I leave for Fenwick Hall with that problem unresolved.
Outside counsel scheduled a conflict-review meeting in a fourth-floor conference room, and Rowan is already there with Evelyn when I arrive.
Tyler Garcia's disciplinary preservation notice sits between them beside two law-school forms, while Rowan has her bag beneath her chair.
Evelyn points to the section covering law-school authority. "You need copies of the access limitations in your own file. Your relationship with Erik may create scrutiny, but scrutiny isn't misconduct. Neither a scandal nor a pregnancy erases your legal future when the underlying record is clean."
Rowan looks at her for less than a second before closing the folder. The reaction is small, yet I know her well enough now to catch it. "Pregnancy is an interesting hypothetical."
"You're twenty-four and involved with a forty-five-year-old man." Evelyn's tone stays dry. "It isn't clairvoyance."
Rowan gives her a look that contains more irritation than alarm, then turns toward me when I take the empty chair. I can't explain why the exchange bothers me. Pregnancy is only one more future topic I've started considering because Rowan exists in mine.
Outside counsel arrives before I can ask her anything. The meeting lasts forty minutes. I speak only to the boundaries of my recusal and leave Tyler's file untouched when counsel passes documents around the table. Rowan checks the footer dates on her copies before putting them away.
She catches me in the hallway after Evelyn returns to the clinic. Students move around us toward late classes, which keeps us near the wall instead of turning the corridor into another private meeting.
"You looked irritated." Rowan adjusts the strap of her bag and waits for two students to pass.
"I was."
She watches me. "At Evelyn?"
"At the entire building."
"That narrows nothing." She smiles and moves closer until we are standing within easy reach. "You're improving at legal answers."
"I'm surrounded by bad influences."
"I can provide references." Rowan glances toward the stairs, then back at me. "Are you coming home?"
"Yes. I have one appointment first." I touch her waist once, then let my arm drop.
Suspicion appears immediately. Rowan stops. "What kind?"
"Private."
She studies me more carefully. "That answer has a history."
"This one is harmless."
"I'll decide that later." She starts down the corridor, then turns long enough to add, "You should remember that I know where the safe is."
I watch her disappear into Fenwick's stairwell before heading home.
The jeweler arrives at seven carrying three black cases. After Makari checks his identification, he covers my desk with eight rings on dark velvet trays and starts describing stones before I finish looking at the first row. I choose the third.
The jeweler pauses with another case half open. "You may want to see the remaining five."
"I don't." I take the box from the tray and look at the ring again.
The setting is simple enough for Rowan to wear into a courtroom without resenting it by noon. The diamond is larger than she would choose, but it won't catch on files or make her look decorated for somebody else.
The jeweler starts explaining the stone's provenance and insurance structure. I close the lids on the other trays. "I'll take it."
He looks at me as if men who invite jewelers to private penthouses are supposed to enjoy the process more, then turns to the paperwork. It takes longer than choosing the ring. When he leaves, the box remains open beside the unsigned insurance rider.
Makari arrives nine minutes later carrying a printed access report. He closes the office door, looks at the ring, then looks at me. "You work quickly."
I shrug. "I had adequate information."
"That sounds romantic."
"It wasn't intended to be."
Makari puts the report beside the open box. His silence about the ring gets my attention faster than anything he could have said. "We have the folder forensics."
I turn the report toward me. "How close?"
"Eleven hours after Rowan first opened Jeremy's encrypted folder." Makari points to the timestamp and waits while I follow the access path. "Somebody copied it through university infrastructure."
The next line identifies the credential source and terminal group. I read it twice, then check the time against Rowan's original access log.
The copy came through the student legal clinic.
Evelyn has been inside every preservation discussion since Rowan brought the investigation back to campus.
She knew where the working files were kept, which systems Rowan used, and when the evidence moved off university servers.
None of that proves she copied Jeremy's folder, but the access path runs through the place she controls.
Makari doesn't say her name but doesn't have to.
The ring remains open beside the report while I read the access path again.