No Shelter Left novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Pen

Jude Ransom had never been called into the ninth-floor conference room before nine in the morning.

The chair of the Starling board sat at the head of the table with a folder squared in front of her.

Two other board members sat beside her. Nobody offered him coffee.

"Sit," the chair said.

He stayed standing. "I'd like to play you something first."

"You'll get your turn."

She opened the folder and turned it toward him.

The top photograph showed a wet street at night. Jude stood at the foot of the stairs above a laundromat with his hand at Aisling's back.

The second was the same door, with a light on in her window.

"Colby Larkin sent these last night," the chair said. "With a statement from his sister's doctor, who has never examined her."

"Her doctor?"

"A concerned physician. Mr. Larkin is a thorough man."

Jude's jaw locked.

"The woman who accused your oldest friend of fraud is sleeping with you," the chair said.

She tapped the photograph.

"You signed her sister. You swore to this board that Kaitlyn wrote her own songs. Tell me what I am meant to think."

"That I was wrong, and I can prove it."

He put his phone on the table and pressed play.

Aisling's voice came out of it, tired and close to the microphone.

That's the whole thing, Colby. Please put my name on this one.

The room was quiet.

"That is a file," the chair said at last. "It shows a woman asked for credit."

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