By eight that morning, Marlo Brennan had showered in a private employee locker room, changed into clean clothes Delphine had quietly arranged, and become the most uncomfortable person inside Whitlock Marine headquarters.
Not because she didn't belong there.
Because she once had.
August learned that when Delphine returned carrying a background report.
Marlo saw the folder.
Her expression hardened.
"You investigated me."
August sat behind his desk.
"Yes."
"That was fast."
"I'm good at finding people."
"Apparently not when they're outside your front gate."
Delphine looked away.
August accepted the blow.
"Sit down."
Marlo remained standing.
August opened the file.
"Marlo Brennan. Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. University of Washington."
Marlo's jaw tightened.
"Graduate research in industrial refrigeration systems."
Silence.
"Worked at Northstar Thermal Engineering for six years."
Marlo stared through the windows toward the harbor.
"Senior systems analyst."
"Stop."
August closed the folder.
"Why?"
"Because you already know what comes next."
"I know what the report says. I don't know what happened."
Marlo turned toward him.
For several seconds, anger fought embarrassment across her face.
Then she sat.
"My husband died."
August said nothing.
"Caleb. Car accident."
Her voice flattened in the way people spoke when grief had been repeated so many times that the words had lost their edges.
"Our daughter Juny was four."
August remembered the drawing tucked inside Marlo's folder.
A child's picture.
He had noticed it but hadn't asked.
Marlo continued.
"I missed work. Then I missed more work. Then Juny stopped sleeping. Then I stopped sleeping."
Northstar had eventually fired her.
Bills accumulated.
Rent.
Childcare.
Debt.
Marlo had tried contract work.
Then temporary work.
Then anything.
A landlord changed the locks.
Her sister Thea took Juny.
Marlo had intended the arrangement to last two weeks.
Two weeks became eleven months.
"Why didn't you stay with your sister?"
Marlo's expression closed.
"One-bedroom apartment. Her landlord already threatened eviction because Juny's not on the lease."
"You could have found a shelter."
"I did."
She looked at him.
"You ever slept in one?"
August didn't answer.
"Then don't tell me what I could have done."
Fair.
Again.
Marlo had discovered the warm wall behind Terminal 18 accidentally.
Then she'd noticed the compressor rhythm.
Engineering had once been the language through which she understood the world.
So she listened.
Measured.
Recorded.
And eventually realized the machine wasn't broken.
Someone was manipulating it.
August looked toward the clock behind his desk.
The minute hand was missing.
Marlo noticed.
"Your clock is broken."
"No."
"It's missing a hand."
"I know."
"Why?"
August's expression changed.
"My mother died at 6:17."
Marlo went quiet.
"I was seventeen. My father removed the minute hand the next morning."
"Why?"
"He said there were minutes a man didn't need to relive."
Marlo looked at the clock for a long moment.
"Did it work?"
"No."
Something passed between them.
Not romance.
Not yet.
Recognition.
Two people who had discovered that grief could take physical form.
A wall.
A clock.
A folder.
A child living somewhere else.
August stood.
"I want you working for me."
Marlo laughed.
"No."
"Salary. Housing. Full benefits."
"No."
"Name your terms."
"You still think everything is a transaction."
"Employment usually is."
Marlo stood.
"I gave you the information. Fix your company."
"And you?"
"I go back to my life."
"What life?"
The second the words left him, August regretted them.
Marlo's face changed.
She picked up her folder.
"Exactly."
She walked toward the door.
"Marlo."
She didn't stop.
August came around the desk.
"I shouldn't have said that."
"No."
She opened the door.
"You shouldn't have thought it."
That was worse.
She left.
Delphine entered ten minutes later.
"You handled that beautifully."
August glared at her.
"Don't."
"I'm sixty-one. You've been glaring at me since you were nine."
She put a file on his desk.
"Nolan Price didn't come in today."
August looked up.
"Phone?"
"Off."
"House?"
"Empty."
August stood.
"Find him."
Delphine didn't move.
"There's more."
She handed him a bank report.
Payments from the fake refrigeration subcontractor had moved through three shell companies.
The final recipient was unclear.
But one shell company shared an attorney with Harbor Shield Security.
Peter Lang's employer.
August's phone rang.
Grant.
"We found Lang's pickup."
"Where?"
"South Harbor Island."
"Lang?"
"Gone."
"Anything inside?"
A pause.
"Photographs."
"Of what?"
"Marlo."
August became still.
"How many?"
"Dozens."
Marlo at the recycling station.
Marlo sleeping near B4.
Marlo boarding a bus.
Marlo entering a park.
August's voice dropped.
"What park?"
Grant told him.
August remembered the child's drawing.
"There's a girl."
"Yeah."
"Find Marlo now."
He ended the call and grabbed his coat.
Marlo had reached the lobby.
August caught her near the revolving doors.
"Marlo."
She kept walking.
"Someone has photographs of Juny."
She stopped so abruptly that a man behind her nearly collided with her.
"What?"
August reached her.
"Peter Lang's truck."
All color left her face.
"No."
"Marlo—"
"No."
She ran.
August followed.
Outside, she pulled out an old phone.
Her hands shook so badly she dropped it.
August picked it up.
"Call your sister."
Marlo dialed.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Her breathing changed.
"Thea always answers."
"Where does she live?"
Marlo told him.
August called Grant.
Within minutes they were in the SUV.
Marlo sat forward, gripping the seat.
"Faster."
The driver accelerated.
August watched her.
"We'll get there."
"Don't promise me things you can't control."
He said nothing.
When they reached Thea's apartment building, Marlo was out before the SUV fully stopped.
She ran upstairs.
The apartment door stood open.
"Thea!"
Marlo rushed inside.
A chair had been knocked over.
A cup lay shattered on the kitchen floor.
"Juny!"
No answer.
Marlo ran toward the bedroom.
Empty.
She turned.
Her face broke.
August had seen men die without showing what Marlo showed in that moment.
Then a sound came from the hallway.
"Mommy?"
Marlo spun.
Juny stood beside an elderly neighbor.
Thea was behind them, holding groceries.
Marlo dropped to her knees.
Juny ran into her arms.
"What happened?" Thea asked.
The elderly neighbor explained that she'd heard someone testing Thea's doorknob, so she'd taken Juny upstairs while Thea was at the store.
August moved to the window.
A gray sedan pulled away.
Grant's SUV blocked it.
Two men jumped out.
One ran.
The other was caught.
Marlo held Juny so tightly the child protested.
"Mommy, I can't breathe."
Marlo loosened her arms and laughed through tears.
"I'm sorry."
Juny noticed August.
"Who's that?"
Marlo looked at him.
She seemed unsure how to answer.
August crouched several feet away.
"August."
Juny studied his suit.
"Are you Mom's boss?"
"No."
Marlo said, "Definitely not."
Juny nodded seriously.
"Good. Her last boss was mean."
August almost smiled.
Then Grant entered.
"We have one."
"Who?"
"Harbor Shield employee."
"Talk?"
"Not yet."
August stood.
Grant lowered his voice.
"He had something."
He handed August a photograph.
Marlo saw it.
The photograph showed Juny leaving school.
On the back was a handwritten message.
Brennan stops talking after tomorrow.
Marlo's face hardened.
August expected fear.
Instead, something else appeared.
Fury.
She stood slowly.
"You wanted me to work for you?"
August met her eyes.
"Yes."
"Offer still open?"
"Yes."
Marlo handed Juny to Thea.
Then she faced August.
"I have one condition."
"Name it."
"We don't just fix B4."
August waited.
"We find every person involved."
Her eyes moved to the photograph of her daughter.
"And we make sure they can never do this to another family."
August extended his hand.
Marlo looked at it.
Then shook it.
"Deal."
August nodded.
But Grant interrupted.
"Boss."
He held out his phone.
Nolan Price had just used a company access card.
Not at Terminal 18.
At Whitlock Marine headquarters.
Twenty-second floor.
August looked toward the city skyline.
His office.
Delphine was still there.
And Nolan had just entered it.