Kyle was still standing at the head of the table holding the two broken pieces when his brother Jonathan spoke up from the other end."Kyle," Jonathan said, leaning forward. "I know someone. An antique expert. He lives twenty minutes from here. Let me call him."Kyle looked at the pieces in his hands. "Call him," he said.Leslie had sat back down but she was not eating. She was looking at the broken jade on the table in front of Kyle with an expression that had not fully settled into anything yet. Stacy had her arms crossed and was looking at her phone. Raymond was very quietly refilling his own glass.Ava had not moved from her seat. She was looking at the door.Jonathan made the call from the table, speaking quietly for about two minutes, and then put his phone down. "He is coming," he said.Nobody suggested continuing the meal. The food sat where it was, going cool, and the table waited in the particular silence of people who all have something to say and have all decided not to sa

Logan was in the car with Mia when he called Alfred.Mia had fallen asleep against the door within minutes of leaving the Cooper house, her head resting on the window with her seatbelt still properly fastened. Logan drove with one hand and held the phone to his ear with the other.Alfred answered immediately. "Young Master. How was the evening?""It could have gone better," Logan said. "I need you to do something for me.""Of course," Alfred said. "What is it?""Raymond Soh," Logan said. "He is the son of a businessman named Gerald Soh. Raymond has been seeing Ava's sister and tonight he sat at a dinner table and took credit for something he had nothing to do with. His father backed him up on a phone call when I pushed." Logan kept his voice even. "I want Gerald Soh to understand that what his son did was not acceptable. I want Raymond to be told directly by his father to go back and correct it. Publicly.""Understood," Alfred said. "How soon?""Tonight," Logan said."Consider it done

Logan was in the living room when Ava came home. Mia was already asleep and the apartment was quiet. He had made tea and left a cup on the table for her without knowing exactly when she would arrive.Ava came through the door, set her bag down, and stood in the middle of the room looking at him."Raymond's father called him," she said."I know," Logan said.Ava looked at him. "You know.""Yes," Logan said.She came and sat down across from him. She picked up the cup of tea, looked at it, and set it back down. "Raymond admitted in front of everyone that he had nothing to do with the contract. That neither he nor his father made any calls." She paused. "Which means someone else did.""Yes," Logan said."Logan." She said his name in the particular way she used when she wanted him to stop making her work for the answer. "Did you have something to do with what happened to that contract? With the client and the way he changed?"Logan looked at her directly. "Yes," he said.Ava sat with that

The security room on the tenth floor was larger than most people in the building knew existed. It had its own front desk, a row of monitors along one wall showing feeds from cameras across the building, and a separate area at the back where confiscated and found items were logged and stored.Logan stepped off the elevator and found the room without asking anyone for directions. He pushed the door open and walked to the front desk where a broad man with a short beard was sitting behind a monitor. The man looked up when Logan came in."I found a briefcase in the lobby," Logan said, setting it on the desk. "Left unattended by the elevator bank. The attendant downstairs told me to bring it up here directly."The head of security looked at the briefcase. He stood up and came around the desk, examining it from the outside first before unclipping the latches and opening it. Inside were stacked bundles of cash, neatly arranged in rows. He looked at it for a moment, then looked at Logan."This

Jared's office was on the executive floor, large enough to have a sitting area separate from the desk. He directed Logan and the finance man to chairs and sat across from them without going behind his desk. He looked at the briefcase the finance man had set on the table between them."Start from the beginning," Jared said, looking at Logan. "Everything."Logan told him. He kept it short and factual. He found the briefcase in the lobby by the elevator bank. He asked a nearby guard to take it to security and the guard refused. He carried it up himself and handed it to the head of security, who opened it and claimed money was missing, and then the finance man arrived and the accusation followed.Jared listened without interrupting. When Logan finished, Jared looked at the finance man."Is that accurate?" Jared said.The finance man had received Francis's message. He was sitting with his hands on his knees and the careful posture of someone trying to take up as little space as possible. "