Chapter 9 - The Truck Behind the Warehouse
I arrived at the warehouse with Nina Park and two uniformed officers who had agreed to respond to our report of unauthorized removal of company records.
A truck idled beside the loading bay.
Patrick stood under the floodlights holding a banker box, his tie hanging loose.
"We were clearing obsolete files," he said.
"At ten thirty at night?" Nina asked.
He stared past her.
I watched the workers set their boxes down while the officers spoke to the property manager.
No one was arrested that night. The documents were logged, the activity stopped, and the company began preserving its systems.
Patrick followed me toward my car.
"Miles has people who will ruin you," he whispered.
"You could have told me before you helped him."
"He owns my debt. I had nowhere else to go."
"You had the truth."
Patrick's face crumpled.
"Celeste said the kid would be better off away from all this. She called him the final obstacle."
I thought of Oliver standing in that ballroom with cake in his eyelashes.
Patrick reached into his pocket, then stopped when Nina stepped closer.
"It's a receipt," he said quickly.
It showed a payment to a private surveillance firm for photographing my house and tracking Oliver's schedule.
The invoice was billed through a charitable foundation Celeste had promoted at the wedding.
At home, I locked the doors and checked on Oliver twice.
May you like
Just before dawn I got a call from an unfamiliar woman.
"My name is Lena Ortiz," she said. "I used to work for Celeste. I know why she went after your son at the cake table."
