Chapter 6: What Jason Wanted
I showed Daniel the text.
He read it once.
Then he set the phone down on the counter, face-up, like he wanted to keep watching it.
"He's escalating," Daniel said.
"He's testing," I said.
"There's a difference.
He wants to know if I know.
Now he knows I know." I picked the phone back up.
"Which means we have less time than we thought."
I typed back: *Sure.
Name the place.*
Daniel looked at me.
"What are you doing?"
"Buying us time.
And information." I hit send.
"If he thinks I'm calm, he'll get comfortable.
Comfortable people talk too much."
The reply came in under a minute.
A restaurant name.
Saturday at seven.
*Just the four of us.
Casual.*
I put the phone in my pocket.
"Cancel whatever you have Saturday," I told Daniel.
He didn't argue.
I spent the next two days making calls Daniel didn't know about.
The first was to a lawyer named Patricia Howe, who a colleague had recommended two years ago for reasons I'd never needed until now.
I told her the outline.
She listened without interrupting.
"Voluntary disclosure is almost always better than being caught," she said when I finished.
"If your husband comes forward before any complaint is filed, the posture changes entirely.
It's not a guarantee, but it's a significant difference."
"How significant?"
"The difference between a negotiated resolution and a full investigation.
Possibly the difference between a fine and charges."
"What does he need to bring you?"
"Everything.
The emails, the original filings, the dates, the names of anyone else involved.
All of it."
"I'll have him call you," I said.
The second call was to a woman named Grace, who I had worked with briefly three years ago before she moved into corporate investigations.
I told her what I needed.
"You want to know if the emails Jason has are the only copies," Grace said.
"I want to know what Jason actually has.
What he can prove.
Whether he's been storing anything outside his work systems."
"That's going to take a few days."
"I have until Saturday."
"I'll see what I can do."
I didn't tell Daniel about either call.
Not because I was hiding things from him.
Because I needed to know what I was working with before I decided how much to hand him.
Saturday came.
The restaurant was quiet and expensive.
The kind of place where the tables are far apart and the staff are trained not to hear things.
Jason and Katherine were already seated when we arrived.
Jason stood when he saw us.
He had the relaxed posture of a man who believed he was in control of the evening.
"Daniel.
Emily." He shook Daniel's hand.
Held it a beat too long.
"Glad you could make it."
We sat.
We ordered.
For twenty minutes, the conversation was about nothing.
Old classmates.
The reunion.
A story Jason told about a golf trip that nobody asked about.
Then the waiter cleared the appetizer plates, and Jason leaned back in his chair and looked at Daniel.
"So," he said.
"I've been thinking it might be time to revisit our arrangement."
Daniel's hand tightened around his water glass.
"What arrangement is that?" I said.
Jason looked at me.
A small smile.
"Emily.
I didn't realize you were — involved in Daniel's business matters."
"I'm involved in everything that affects my husband," I said.
"So.
What arrangement?"
Jason glanced at Katherine.
She was looking at her plate.
"Daniel and I have an understanding," Jason said.
"I've been very loyal to the company.
Very discreet.
I think that loyalty deserves recognition.
A more senior role.
And a compensation adjustment."
"How much of an adjustment?" I asked.
He named a number.
It was nearly double his current salary.
Daniel said nothing.
"That's a significant increase," I said.
"What happens if the company can't accommodate that?"
Jason's smile didn't change.
"I'd hate for Daniel to have to deal with any unnecessary complications.
Especially now that the company is doing so well."
I looked at him for a long moment.
"Jason," I said.
"Do you remember what you said to me in the hallway outside Mr.
Peterson's classroom?
Junior year.
The day after the winter formal."
He blinked.
"What?"
"You told me I should stop eating lunch in the cafeteria because I was embarrassing you.
You said it in front of three other people." I picked up my wine glass.
"I remember it very clearly.
I remember most things very clearly."
Jason's smile had gone slightly uncertain.
"Emily, I don't see what that has to do with—"
"I'm just making conversation," I said pleasantly.
"You were saying something about complications."
Katherine looked up from her plate for the first time.
And under the table, my phone buzzed once.
A message from Grace.
May you like
I didn't look at it.
But I felt it.
