Chapter 15 - THE ROOM WITH NO SIGNAL
Leah moved away from the door.
The police officers escorting Gerald were still in the hallway.
One answered the knock.
A hotel engineer stood outside with a security supervisor.
A local equipment failure had affected power and cell reception on two floors.
They were checking guests.
For a moment, everyone breathed again.
Then the security supervisor looked at me.
“Mr. Whitfield, a car arrived for Ms. Parker.”
Grace frowned.
“I didn’t order one.”
“The driver said your attorney did.”
Leah shook her head.
“Where is he?”
“In the loading area.”
The officer went downstairs with hotel security.
The driver left before they reached him.
They recovered a printed pickup instruction bearing Leah’s name and Grace’s room number.
Someone had known where she was staying.
I looked at Gerald’s phone.
Then at the man the officers were taking away.
“You gave them the hotel?”
He said nothing.
Grace sat slowly.
They had reached into her job, her mother’s care, her reputation, and now the place where we had promised she would be safe.
She looked at me.
“I can’t keep being the weak place in your life.”
“You aren’t.”
“They keep coming through me.”
“Because you saw what they wanted hidden.”
She shook her head.
“My mother is alone.”
Leah arranged for police in her mother’s town to check on her.
A family friend agreed to stay overnight.
Still, Grace packed her bag.
“I’m going somewhere they don’t know.”
I wanted to stop her.
I didn’t have that right.
The investigators arranged a safe location for her as a cooperating witness.
I wouldn’t be told the address.
At the elevator, she turned back.
“When I said don’t confuse hurt with certainty, I meant it.”
“I know.”
“Use what you can prove.”
She left.
The room felt empty afterward.
By dawn, the board had received a notice claiming I was withholding company information while conducting a personal vendetta.
Two directors withdrew their support.
The injunction hearing was delayed until after the scheduled vote.
Leah closed her laptop.
“We may not stop the vote in time.”
I stared at my father’s letter.
Slow the decision down.
There was something about the wedding forms I had missed.
I remembered signing at the kitchen counter.
My hands had been wet.
May you like
The pen stopped working.
And Elise had given me another page.
