Chapter 5: Someone Told Him
The drive home took forty minutes.
Valerie didn't remember most of it.
She parked in the driveway and sat with the engine running, staring at the front of the house she had shared with Daniel for six years.
The lights were off.
A neighbor's dog was barking somewhere down the street.
The porch light she had asked Daniel to fix three times was still flickering at the corner.
He had never fixed it.
She turned the engine off.
Inside, the family liaison officer — a woman named Paula, who had kind eyes and sensible shoes — was asleep in the armchair in the living room with a cup of cold tea on the side table.
Thomas was upstairs.
Valerie checked on him without waking him.
He was curled on his side with his school backpack on the floor beside the bed, as though he had fallen asleep before he could unpack it.
She stood in his doorway for a long moment.
Then she went downstairs, sat at the kitchen table, and opened her laptop.
Sandra Voss.
The name returned three results that seemed relevant.
A LinkedIn profile — a marketing consultant, mid-thirties, based in the city.
A Facebook account, mostly private.
And a photograph in the background of a charity fundraiser article from eighteen months ago, standing close to a man Valerie recognized.
Daniel.
His hand at the small of Sandra Voss's back.
Valerie looked at the date on the article.
Eighteen months ago.
They had still been married.
Thomas had still been in primary school.
Valerie had been working twelve-hour days to keep the restaurant solvent after a difficult year.
She closed the laptop.
Paula stirred in the armchair.
"Mrs.
Marsh?
Is everything all right?"
"Fine," Valerie said.
"Go back to sleep."
She sat in the kitchen until four in the morning.
---
The next day began with a phone call from her lawyer, a woman named Diane Okafor who had handled Valerie's business incorporation six years ago and who now spoke in the brisk, focused tones of someone who had already read everything and was three steps ahead.
"I've spoken to Grace Teller," Diane said.
"I've reviewed the freeze documentation and the initial charge sheet.
Here's where we are."
Valerie poured coffee and listened.
Daniel had been charged overnight with financial fraud, child endangerment, and making threats.
The fraud charges related to the business accounts.
The endangerment charges related to Thomas.
The threat charges related to the recording.
"Coyle filed a motion this morning to have the recording excluded," Diane said.
"He's arguing that Nick had no legal standing to record a private conversation."
"Can he succeed?"
"It's a stretch.
Nick was a participant in the conversation — Daniel was speaking directly to him.
Participant recording is generally permissible.
But Coyle will push it to the edge." A pause.
"What I need from you today is a full accounting of every business transaction you can identify as unauthorized.
I need dates, amounts, and any correspondence you have with Daniel about the business finances."
"I'll pull everything."
"Also—" Diane's voice shifted slightly.
"The woman.
Sandra Voss.
Do you know her?"
"I found a photograph.
She was at a charity event with Daniel eighteen months ago."
"She's been interviewed this morning.
She's claiming she knew nothing about the financial fraud.
She says Daniel told her he was separated from you and that the money he was moving was his own." A pause.
"She may be telling the truth.
Or she may be protecting herself.
Either way, she's not our primary concern right now."
"She called him," Valerie said.
"Six minutes before he walked into the restaurant."
"I know.
Grace told me." Diane was quiet for a moment.
"Valerie, I need to ask you something directly.
Is there anyone in your restaurant — a manager, a staff member, anyone with access to your schedule — who might have told Daniel that Thomas was there that afternoon?"
Valerie set her coffee down.
She had been turning this over since the elevator doors had opened the night before.
"My head server," she said slowly.
"Marcus.
He and Daniel were friendly.
Daniel used to come in for lunch, and Marcus always made a point of—" She stopped.
"Marcus knew Thomas was there.
I called ahead to say I was bringing Thomas for an early dinner."
Silence on the line.
"Don't confront him," Diane said.
"Don't say a word to him.
Let me pass this to Grace."
"He's on shift right now."
"I know.
Leave it alone for today.
Can you do that?"
Valerie looked at the kitchen wall.
At the calendar still hanging there with Daniel's handwriting on three of the dates — reminders he had written and she had never thought to question.
"Yes," she said.
"I can do that."
---
She arrived at the restaurant at noon.
Marcus was behind the bar, polishing glasses, and he looked up when she walked in with the easy smile he had worn for four years.
"Mrs.
Marsh.
How are you holding up?
Last night was—"
"Fine, Marcus.
Thank you." She kept walking.
She went to her office, closed the door, and sat at her desk.
Through the small window that looked out onto the restaurant floor, she watched him.
He set a glass down and picked up his phone.
Typed something.
Set the phone face-down on the bar.
Valerie turned to her computer and began pulling financial records.
She had been working for forty minutes when her office door opened without a knock.
Marcus stood in the doorway.
May you like
His easy smile was gone.
"We should talk," he said.
