Chapter 13: Front Page

"Run what?" I said.

Leonard put the phone face down on the tablecloth.

"Go home, sweetheart. Get some sleep. Tomorrow's a big day for you."

"You said you'd tell me what my father signed."

"And I will." He picked up his knife and went back to his steak. "When it's over."

"When what's over?"

He chewed and swallowed and smiled.

"Your bus leaves at eight-ten. You don't want to miss it."

I hadn't told him which bus.

I stood there a second longer.

Then I walked out past the men in suits and the women in diamonds, and nobody looked up.

I rode home in the dark with my forehead against the cold window.

The envelope was gone from my lap.

My hands didn't know what to do without it.

I was asleep in cottage three by one.

At six my phone woke me.

It wasn't an alarm.

It was forty-one notifications.

The first one was from Chloe.

"Gen. Don't look at the news."

I looked at the news.

It was on the front page of a Boston paper's website, above the fold, with a photo of the Glasshouse lit up gold.

Bradbury & Mercer CEO Wired $2.6 Million to Shell Company Months After Partner's Death.

I read the first paragraph lying flat on my back.

Then I sat up and read the rest.

They had all eleven wires.

They had the dates.

They had the sticky note with 2.6 on it.

And they had a photo of one of the copies, blown up so you could read the margin.

My pencil.

My handwriting.

Who is H?

Paid off witness?

Under it, the caption said: "Notes written on the documents by a source inside the company."

I put my hand over my mouth.

I sat like that until the sky went grey.

At seven-thirty Kendrick's assistant texted me.

"Emergency board. Library. 8:30. He wants you to take the minutes."

He wanted me there.

I put on the black uniform because I didn't know what else to wear.