Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
The first level of the Alder House garage held the afternoon cold. Concrete pillars divided the rows of parked cars, and every closing door sent a flat crack through the low space. Ryder pulled into a stall near the pedestrian entrance and shut off the engine.
He got out without trouble. Only the care he took turning away from the door showed that his ribs still hurt.
Nell joined him at the front of the Suburban.
Two days ago, he had come to her apartment with blood running from his shoulder and dirt ground into his legs.
Today the cut had closed into a narrow pink line, the swelling in his forearm was gone, and his stride had almost returned to normal.
They passed the garage elevators and pushed through a set of glass doors.
The enclosed connector stretched ahead of them, bright with overhead lights after the dim garage.
Their footsteps sounded sharp on the hard floor.
Through the doors at the other end, hotel guests crossed the lobby with suitcases rolling behind them.
They entered the Alder House. The front desk ran along the north wall, wide enough for three clerks and a row of small lamps. A seating area filled the space between the street entrance and the garage passage. Hunter sat in one of the low chairs with his phone in his hand.
He didn’t look up.
Nell and Ryder continued across the lobby.
The café occupied the east side, open to the hotel through a broad entrance broken by shelves and potted plants.
They stepped into the café. Daylight streamed over the small tables along the front windows.
The hiss of the espresso machine and the clatter of cups softened conversations into a steady murmur.
A short line curved away from the counter. Two people worked at laptops near the windows, and a couple shared a pastry at one of the central tables. Siren sat alone near the café opening with a laptop and a coffee in front of her. She looked past them like they were strangers.
At the north end of the café, the east-wall banquette ended beneath a screen of vertical oak slats.
Green vines spilled from planters along the top and wound down through the wood.
The table beneath them sat just outside the bright wash from the front windows, its dark surface crossed by the shadows of the leaves. She and Ryder sat there.
Tessa arrived a few minutes later. Nell recognized her from the Northline website.
She crossed from the lobby in dark office clothes with a work bag over her shoulder.
Her pace slowed when she saw Ryder, although Nell had warned her that she would bring someone.
Tessa checked the café opening, the counter, and the window tables before crossing to Nell.
“Hi, Tessa. This is Ryder. He’s the friend I told you about.”
Ryder offered his hand. “Good to meet you.”
Tessa shook it briefly. “You too.”
Nell gestured toward the table. “Have a seat.”
Tessa sat across from them and kept her voice low. “Did you tell anyone at Northline that I contacted you?”
“No.” Nell leaned forward. “Show me what you brought. Then tell me what happened after I sent the request.”
Tessa drew a brown envelope from her work bag and passed it across the table. Nell opened it and started to go through the documents. She found an original Northline project file. The remaining pages were printouts, with faint shadows along one edge where Tessa had scanned the records.
Nell found the first project reference and checked the equipment log beneath it. The excavator number matched the one she’d copied into her notes before Northline replaced the file. She checked one of the printouts. An entry Northline had moved sat exactly where Nell remembered it.
She didn’t need to check the rest. After losing access to the files, she’d gone over her notes again and again, looking for the mistake Northline claimed she’d made. There wasn’t one.
Nell looked up. “These match the records I reviewed.”
Nell returned the papers to the brown envelope, placed it inside her crossbody bag, and closed the zipper. “Who told you to replace the files?”
“My boss, Marla Pike. She’s on Northline’s board.”
“She gave you the instruction herself?”
“Yes. Your request went through the normal process at first. I pulled the current records for the first two projects and submitted the archive request for the third. Then Marla stopped it.” Tessa folded her hands on the table.
“A restricted folder appeared in the system after that. Marla told me to use the versions in it to complete your request. She said executive operations had corrected the files, but those versions had been created after your request came in.”
“What were you supposed to do with the originals?”
“Return the paper file to archive and delete the others from the working system. I kept the paper file and scanned the others before I replaced them. If the originals disappeared, I wanted proof they’d existed.”
Tessa held Nell’s gaze. “I’m sorry I sent you those files.”
Ryder rested his forearms on the table. “What changed now?”
“Yesterday, Marla ordered the offsite paper records, archived support, and backups destroyed.”
A barista called a guest’s name. A suitcase rattled across the lobby tile, then disappeared beneath the hiss of steaming milk.
“Where are the archives?” Nell asked.
Tessa gave them an address.
Ryder straightened. “That’s the property I followed the SUV to.”
“It’s Northline’s offsite storage property,” Tessa said.
“Does anyone at Northline know you kept copies?” Ryder asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You can’t go back to Northline,” Nell said.
Tessa stared at her. “If I don’t show up, they’ll know.”
“They may already know,” Ryder said. “Don’t go home alone either.”
Tessa looked from him to Nell. “Then where am I supposed to go?”
“Come with us,” Nell said. “The people protecting us will arrange somewhere safe for you.”
A burst from the grinder filled the silence. Beyond the café entrance, guests crossed the lobby.
“All right,” Tessa said.
She pushed back from the banquette and stood.
Ryder stood. “Let’s go.”
They left the café and started back toward the garage. Afternoon light lay across the floor near the street entrance, and the front-desk clerks continued checking in a family surrounded by luggage.
Ryder opened the hotel-side door to the connector; they crossed the distance, and then he pushed through the garage-side doors.
Cool air moved through the opening, carrying exhaust and the rubber smell of tires.
Nell and Tessa crossed the threshold behind him.
A man stepped out from beside the parked vehicles.
He walked straight toward Tessa. His hand went inside his jacket.