Chapter 9: The Hour He Missed

Ethan Ross did not ask questions he could not control the answer to.

It was how he had survived the funeral, and the lawyer's office, and the first board meeting in his father's chair.

He did not ask Maya why Evan's badge was suspended.

She had put the form on his desk on Friday with six others.

He had signed it between a lease and a tax filing.

Routine, she'd said. Audit.

He had not read it.

On Monday night the audit had a second page.

She brought it to his office after nine, when the floor was dark and the harbor was black in the glass.

"I hate this," Maya said.

She sat across from him with her hands in her lap, and her mascara had run a little.

"Then don't show me."

"I have to. You'd never forgive me if I hid it."

She slid a printout across the desk.

It was a list of times and addresses, in small grey type.

At 5:04 a.m. on Thursday, someone had logged into the Ross file servers from a Director account.

The account was Evan's.

The address belonged to the Harbor Crest tower.

"That's your building," Maya said gently. "It could be a coincidence, Ethan. I'd love it to be.

"But the wiper hit at five. He's the only one with a new account and no clearance who was awake at that hour."

"He was asleep."

"Was he?"

Ethan opened his mouth and found that he did not know.

He remembered the phone against his ear.

He remembered turning from the window and seeing the bed rumpled and empty, and thinking Evan had gone to the bathroom.

He remembered a line of light under the door of the guest room, at five fifteen, and the sound of keys.

He had not gone in.

He had told himself that Evan was entitled to his privacy.

*No questions about each other's private life.*

He had initialed that.

"It's a login," he said. "Anyone can fake a login."

"Of course. That's what the board will say too."

Maya gathered her hands.

"Which is why I think we should let them look at it themselves. The emergency session is Thursday.

"I'll present it quietly. If there's nothing there, no harm. If there is..."

She touched his sleeve.

"I'd rather you hear it from me."

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Married His Hometown Neighbor, Then Begged for a Second Chance from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.