Chapter 15 - The Interview I Never Attended
The federal lab refused to call the ATM image conclusive.
My mother did not care.
“That’s Daniel,” she said. “I know how he stands.”
I wanted to believe her so badly it hurt.
I also remembered a casket we never opened because the crash had left Dad’s body badly burned.
Detective Ruiz requested the original identification file.
The dental confirmation had been submitted by a private contractor paid by Whitmore’s insurer.
The contractor no longer existed.
Ethan looked at Richard through the glass. “Did you see Daniel’s body?”
Richard shook his head.
“Graham?”
“No.”
Graham heard the question from the adjoining room and laughed once.
“You think Daniel Bennett survived?”
I walked to the doorway. “Did he?”
“I watched his car burn.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
His smile disappeared.
“Elaine got there before police.”
Ruiz stepped closer. “How do you know?”
Graham looked at the floor.
“Because she called me from the scene.”
“What did she say?”
He hesitated.
“She said I’d lost.”
My pulse hammered.
Ethan’s assistant entered holding my résumé folder.
I had forgotten it existed.
“HR found this in the executive screening archive,” she said. “It was pulled before Clara’s interview.”
Ethan took it and handed it to me.
My original résumé was inside, along with an interview evaluation form that had already been filled out.
Candidate: Clara Bennett.
Decision: REJECT.
Reason: RISK OF LEGACY EXPOSURE.
Approved by: Graham Mercer.
Below that, in another handwriting:
OVERRIDDEN.
The initials were E.M.
Elaine Mercer.
She had been inside Whitmore’s systems months before I applied.
She had protected my application long enough for me to reach the building.
Except I never reached it.
I met Lily instead.
Ethan looked at me. “You never got your interview.”
I almost laughed. “I think today covered it.”
For the first time since the station, he smiled.
It lasted less than a second.
His phone rang.
He answered, listened, and slowly turned toward me.
“What?” I asked.
He put the call on speaker.
A federal analyst said, “We opened the live account associated with the Bennett trust.”
Ruiz leaned over the desk. “Holder?”
“Daniel Bennett.”
My mother gripped my hand.
The analyst continued.
“Account was created three months ago using biometric verification.”
“That’s impossible,” I said.
“We thought so too.”
A new document appeared in Ruiz’s secure inbox.
Biometric match confidence: 99.4 percent.
Ethan stared at me.
“Clara.”
I could barely hear him.
The analyst spoke again.
“There was another withdrawal this morning.”
“Where?” Ruiz asked.
“Union Station.”
My chest locked.
The same station where Lily had grabbed my coat.
“Time?”
“7:43 a.m.”
One minute before Lily found me.
Then the analyst uploaded a still frame.
A man in an old denim jacket stood twenty feet behind me in the station crowd.
Watching.
May you like
My father had been there that morning.
And he had let me walk right past him.
