Chapter 6: His Initials

Noel stared at his nest on Fletcher's phone.

Somebody had stood in that doorway and photographed it carefully, from above, for good light.

"Clay took this," Noel said.

"Clay or one of the phones."

"Then everyone on the board has seen it."

"Everyone on the board, and by noon everyone in the pack."

Fletcher took the phone back and scrolled.

There was more under the photo. An attachment.

He went still in a way Noel was starting to know.

"Show me," Noel said.

"Noel."

"Show me, or I read it on the pack board with everyone else."

Fletcher handed it over.

The attachment was a scan of one typed page, yellow at the edges.

STAVELY PHARMACEUTICALS. HOUSE RULE 14. No omega works on a production or laboratory floor.

Under it, Fletcher's father's signature, from before Noel was born.

Under that, a renewal stamp, dated two years ago.

Next to the stamp, in blue ink, two initials.

F.S.

Clay had typed a note at the bottom.

The Alpha now keeps an omega at a private lab bench in his own home. This breaches the rule he personally renewed.

Noel read the initials three times.

They didn't change.

"That's your handwriting," he said.

"Yes."

"You renewed it."

"Yes."

"Two years ago. I'd been in that lab a year."

Fletcher didn't answer.

Noel went upstairs and packed his bag.

Then he came down to the kitchen, took off the coat and laid it over the back of a chair.

Maddie came down in pajamas at seven and found him at the counter with his bag packed.

She took one look at his face and turned the kettle on.

Fletcher came in behind her.

He'd put on a shirt with buttons.

"Let me explain it," he said.

"Okay. Explain it."

"My father wrote it in the eighties. It was in a binder of forty rules. Legal sent the binder up for renewal, and I initialed the binder."

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