Chapter 2 - three days before daniel came home)
Emily Reeves had not planned to enter Erics office.
Three days before Daniel returned from his business trip, she had driven to Reeves Agricultural Supply because Sophie had left her lunch box in Daniels car.
Daniel had taken a company vehicle to the airport, leaving his SUV at the office.
Emily had a spare key.
She expected to be inside the building for less than five minutes.
The executive offices were almost empty.
It was shortly after six in the evening, and most employees had gone home.
Emily found Daniels keys inside his desk drawer.
As she turned to leave, she noticed light beneath Erics office door across the hall.
She assumed he was still working.
Then she heard voices.
One belonged to Eric.
The other belonged to Margaret.
Emily would have walked past if she had not heard her own name.
She stopped.
Margaret was saying, Daniel cannot find out what she knows.
Eric answered.
She knows nothing.
She is asking questions.
About expenses.
She always asks questions.
Emily stood motionless.
Margaret lowered her voice.
If she looks at the warehouse accounts, we have a problem.
Emily slowly moved closer to the door.
Eric said something she could not hear.
Then Margaret replied clearly.
Your father made the same mistake. He thought numbers would protect him.
Emilys skin went cold.
Arthur Reeves had been dead eleven years.
She knew almost nothing about the circumstances except what Daniel had told her.
His father had suffered a heart attack late at night while reviewing inventory.
Eric spoke again.
We moved everything after he died.
Not everything.
What is left.
The old camera archive.
Eric laughed.
Those drives were erased.
Your father never trusted digital archives. He kept copies.
A silence followed.
Then Eric said.
Where.
I do not know.
Emily stepped backward.
Her heel touched a metal waste bin.
It shifted.
The sound was small.
Inside the office, both voices stopped.
Emily moved quickly toward Daniels office.
A door opened behind her.
She slipped inside, closed it softly, and stood in darkness.
Footsteps passed.
She waited.
A minute later she heard the elevator doors open.
Then close.
Emily remained still another thirty seconds.
When she finally looked into the corridor, it was empty.
She should have left.
Instead, she did the thing Daniel would later both admire and wish she had never done.
She entered Erics office.
The computer was locked.
His desk drawers were not.
Emily opened the first.
Receipts.
The second.
Contracts.
The third was locked.
Emily searched the desktop.
There was a framed photograph of Eric shaking hands with a city official, several pens, a silver letter opener, and a small wooden box.
Inside the box was a key.
Emily used it on the locked drawer.
It opened.
At first, she saw nothing alarming.
Several folders.
A calculator.
A bundle of business cards.
Then she noticed a flash drive.
Beside it lay an old black memory card in a clear plastic sleeve.
A handwritten label was attached.
AR 11 14.
Arthur Reeves.
November 14.
The date of Daniels fathers death.
Emily stared at it.
She slipped the card into her pocket.
Then she opened the folder beneath it.
The first page contained a list of vendor payments.
More than two million dollars had been transferred during the previous eighteen months.
Emily recognized none of the companies.
She took photographs with her phone.
The next folder was worse.
It showed chemical inventories that did not match the companys legal submissions.
Thousands of units of restricted agricultural compounds were listed as destroyed.
Another internal sheet showed them transferred to a private warehouse.
Emily took more pictures.
Then the office light came on.
She spun around.
Eric stood in the doorway.
Neither of them spoke.
His gaze dropped to the folder.
Then to her phone.
Emily forced herself to remain calm.
I was looking for Daniels car keys.
Eric smiled.
In my locked drawer.
Emily put the folder down.
You should move.
He did not.
What did you photograph.
Nothing that belongs to you personally.
Eric closed the door.
Emily felt fear but refused to show it.
Move.
Eric took a step closer.
Emily held up her phone.
Daniel knows I am here.
It was a lie.
Eric studied her.
Then he stepped aside.
Emily walked past him.
When she reached the door, Eric said.
Emily.
She stopped.
You have a very comfortable life.
She turned.
Eric continued.
A beautiful home. A healthy daughter. A husband who would do anything for you.
Emily stared at him.
Is that a threat.
It is advice.
She left.
In the parking lot, her hands shook so badly she dropped the car keys twice.
When she reached home, Sophie was watching cartoons in the living room while Margaret prepared dinner.
Margaret had recently begun staying with them more often.
She claimed it was because Daniel traveled too much.
Emily had never asked her to.
That night, Emily copied the photographs from her phone to her laptop.
Then she examined the old memory card.
It contained dozens of files.
Most were warehouse security clips.
Some were corrupted.
One had a date matching Arthurs death.
Emily clicked it.
The video showed an office at the old warehouse.
Arthur Reeves entered frame.
He looked older than Daniel remembered him in photographs but healthy.
Margaret entered a minute later.
They argued.
There was no audio from the camera.
Arthur pointed at paperwork.
Margaret shook her head.
Then Eric appeared.
Twenty years old.
Thin.
Angry.
Arthur turned toward him.
The clip ended abruptly.
Emily searched the remaining files.
One was audio only.
She clicked it.
Arthurs voice filled the speakers.
If something happens to me, Daniel must know what they moved through Warehouse Four.
Emily stopped breathing.
A floorboard creaked behind her.
She turned.
Sophie stood in the doorway holding Bunny.
Mommy.
Emily closed the laptop.
Sophie climbed onto the bed.
Emily looked at the stuffed rabbit her daughter carried everywhere.
A ridiculous idea came to her.
Then footsteps sounded downstairs.
Margarets voice.
Emily.
Sophie smiled.
Grandmas here.
Emily removed the memory card.
She found a loose seam along the rabbits back where she had repaired it weeks earlier.
She slipped the card inside and closed the opening with several quick stitches from her sewing kit.
Sophie watched.
Why is Bunny eating the little card.
Emily tried to smile.
Bunny is keeping it safe for Daddy.
Sophie nodded solemnly.
Like a secret.
Exactly.
The bedroom door opened.
Margaret stood there.
Her eyes moved from Emily.
To the sewing kit.
To Bunny.
May you like
Then she smiled.
What are you two hiding.
