26. Erik
ERIK
Peter's first recording begins with Orell's courier asking whether the shipping audit includes original account numbers.
Nobody speaks over the first minute.
We moved from the kitchen into the office because Peter's recordings require more screens than the island can hold without somebody knocking over Rowan's midnight pasta.
The remains of it are still in the refrigerator.
Peter sits at the end of the conference table in a clean shirt Makari found for him, although dried blood remains on the cuff of the coat hanging near the door.
Liya has Daniel Mercado's relocation file open beside her laptop.
Evelyn sits next to Rowan with a yellow legal pad, and Richard has spent most of the last hour looking offended that we ever considered him capable of working for Orell.
Makari controls the recording from the workstation near the windows.
The courier names two shell companies Peter identified weeks ago, then gives us a third account we've never seen.
He asks what Peter wants in exchange for the audit.
Peter's recorded answer comes through the speakers.
"I want to know whether Orell can still move money through Blackthorne without Jeremy Bennett's signature. "
The courier laughs.
Makari pauses the file and enlarges the audio verification on the second monitor. "The voice match is confirmed. Sergei Malkov handles northeastern financial routing for Zaitsev. Peter recorded forty-three minutes, and we've independently verified three account numbers."
Richard looks toward Peter. "You arranged this meeting without informing anyone."
Peter adjusts his glasses. "I informed Makari in the form Anatoly used for unsanctioned contact."
"You buried a phrase in a cargo note that he recognized after you were already gone." Liya closes Daniel's file. "That's not notification."
"It was enough."
Makari restarts the recording long enough for Malkov to name a second meeting location before he pauses it again. "Your method was idiotic. The result is useful."
Peter settles deeper into the chair. "I can live with that assessment."
Rowan has been quiet since we started. She sits across from me with one ankle tucked behind the other and a pen beside her notebook. I know better than to mistake silence from Rowan for agreement, especially after everything she asked me last night.
I look around the table. "Peter's recordings establish the courier, and his disappearance is no longer a live question. Richard's concealed donor communications are accounted for. Liya's transfer is accounted for. Vanessa's photographs and credential misuse have their own conduct process."
Richard shifts in his chair. "I continue to object to the phrase accounted for as though I was properly in this investigation."
"You concealed six weeks of donor pressure from your own board." Rowan writes one line in her notebook before looking up. "You were properly in it."
Richard turns toward her. "Not for laundering."
"No." Rowan closes her pen. "For self-preservation."
Evelyn glances toward Rowan, then returns her attention to me. "You said there was one question left."
I bring the access logs onto the main screen.
The copy of Jeremy's encrypted folder appeared eleven hours after Rowan first opened it. We already traced the download to university infrastructure, but Makari's new comparison narrows the origin farther. The session used credentials assigned to the student legal clinic.
Liya leans toward the screen. "Those are clinic credentials?"
"Yes." Makari stands beside the monitor and opens the session record. "The connection came from a clinic terminal. The credentials were active during the same window Rowan and Harper were working there."
Richard puts on his reading glasses and studies the device line. "Can you identify the workstation?"
"Terminal four." Makari replaces the session record with a floor assignment. "It's a shared research station near the rear offices."
Rowan looks at Evelyn.
Evelyn moves her pen to the margin of her pad instead of writing. "Who exactly are you counting as users?"
"Faculty, graduate assistants, clinic staff, and supervised students all appear on that workstation during the relevant month." Makari changes the display to the login history. "The credentials themselves were shared more widely than university policy permits."
Richard points toward the account designation. "The credential belongs to the clinic. That isn't a person."
"No." Makari rests one hand on the back of the empty chair beside him. "It gives us an access point."
Evelyn reads the dates for several seconds. "Harper used that terminal during the review."
Rowan turns fully toward her.
Evelyn doesn't react to the movement. "She was pulling student-advocacy records and comparing complaint dates. I remember asking why she was using the rear terminal instead of the station beside Rowan."
Rowan sets down her pen.
"Graduate assistants share credentials constantly in that clinic," Evelyn continues. "They shouldn't, but they do. Orell has also compromised university accounts twice that we know of. Harper using terminal four establishes that Harper used terminal four."
Every sentence is reasonable.
The problem is what comes next.
Richard folds his glasses and lays them over the papers in front of him. "Did Harper have access to the decrypted folder?"
"She worked on it with me." Rowan keeps her attention on him instead of Evelyn.
Liya shifts in her chair. "Did she know when you opened it?"
"Yes." Rowan's answer comes faster this time.
"Did she know where copies were stored?"
Rowan pushes her notebook away. "Everybody in this room knew enough to hurt us."
Evelyn puts her pen down. "That's the correct answer."
I should stop the conversation there. Instead, I look at the access history again.
Harper was present the first night the folder opened.
She has handled nearly every record since.
She knew Rowan's apartment, Laura's house, the safe houses, and the penthouse.
Rowan complains about her protection schedules to Harper often enough that Harper knows more about them than some of Makari's junior operators.
None of that proves anything, but it's still more proximity than I like.
Makari looks at me long enough to make it clear he knows exactly where my thoughts have gone.
Rowan knows too. She closes her notebook. "What happens next with Harper?" Rowan directs the question to Makari, not me.
Makari switches off the main screen before answering. "We preserve what we have. I can compare building access, network timing, and security footage already retained. I don't touch her phone, apartment, or personal accounts without a reason stronger than this."
Her eyes narrow. "That standard applies to everybody?"
"Yes." Makari looks toward Peter before returning to Rowan. "Everybody."
I turn to Evelyn. "Can the clinic preserve terminal four without changing the contents?"
"Yes." She reaches for her phone. "I can have building technology isolate it from the network and leave the drive untouched until outside counsel takes custody."
"You should do that."
Evelyn gets up and steps into the hall to make the call.
Rowan watches her leave before looking at me. "What are you thinking?"
I could give her the safe answer, but that would be another form of lying.
"I think Harper has access."
Her expression hardens. "So does Evelyn."
"Yes."
"Richard has access to half the university."
Richard opens his mouth, but Rowan stops him with a look.
"Liya has foundation access. Peter has shipping access. Vanessa got into places she shouldn't have been. You have access to everything." Rowan pushes her chair away from the table and stands. "We've spent weeks proving access isn't guilt."
I nod. "I didn't say Harper was guilty."
She scoffs. "You're treating her differently."
"I'm considering her differently because she's close to you."
Everyone gets quieter still. Richard looks down at his papers, Peter becomes interested in the recorder cable, and Liya closes her laptop with a quiet click.
Rowan stares at me. "That's not better."
"I didn't say it was."
"You're doing it again."
I stand because remaining seated while she is this angry makes the table feel like a barrier. "Doing what?"
"Using fear to create strategy."
I shake my head. "I'm looking at facts."
"No, Makari is looking at facts." Rowan points toward him. "He just told me what the facts justify. You're adding proximity because Harper matters to me."
Makari stays beside the workstation and wisely says nothing as I move around the end of the table but don't approach Rowan. "If Orell wanted access to you, Harper would be useful."
"So would my mother."
"Yes."
"Callie too."
I nod.
Rowan laughs once without humor. "Do you hear yourself?"
"I hear myself considering every route Orell could use."
"I hear you proving my point."
Evelyn returns before I can answer. She looks between us, then closes the office door behind her. "Technology is isolating the terminal now. Outside counsel will have physical custody within the hour."
Rowan reaches for her bag.
I look at it, then at her. "Where are you going?"
"I'm finished with this meeting."
I cross my arms." That isn't what I asked."
She turns toward me but isn't looking at me. She's pissed. "I'm going upstairs."
Richard gathers his papers first. "I think my presence has stopped being useful."
"Several minutes ago," Liya says as she stands.
Peter takes his recorder from Makari and places it back in the hard case. He stops near me on his way out. "You're arguing the wrong question."
I look at him. "I didn't ask for your opinion."
"No." He picks up his coat. "That has rarely prevented me from sharing wisdom." He leaves before I decide whether throwing him back into the elevator would improve my mood.
Liya follows Richard into the hall. Evelyn stays long enough to collect her legal pad, then pauses beside Rowan. "The terminal proves where the access occurred," she says. "Nothing more."