Her voice low and controlled, walking through 11 months of financial documentation with the kind of organized precision that told Darius she had rehearsed this, had gone over it so many times in preparation for the board meeting that she could deliver it now at 2:00 in the morning barefoot in a charcoal blazer with a torn sleeve she hadn't mentioned without losing a single thread. She was extraordinary. He had known this in some objective way since the moment she stepped into the elevator. He was understanding it more specifically now. His phone buzzed.
He almost startled he had forgotten in the intensity of the past 2 hours that his phone might work again. He pulled it out and looked at the screen. Mrs. Pette, everything okay? Heard sirens near downtown.
Maya's still asleep. He typed back, "All fine, complicated night. Home before dawn. Thank you. " He stared at the message for a moment after he sent it. "Before dawn, Maya would still be asleep.
She would wake up and come into the kitchen, and he would be there making eggs, and she would say, "Dad, you look terrible the way she always did after his night calls. " Because Maya had her mother's capacity for bluntness and his capacity for seeing past the surface of things. And he would say, "Long night. " And she would say, "Did something break? " And he would say, "Yeah, something broke. " And she would accept that because she trusted him. That trust, the weight of it, the specific specific weight of being the person that a 12-year-old built her sense of safety around hit him now, the way it sometimes did when the danger was over and his body finally had room to feel things it had been deferring. He put the phone face down on the table and pressed his hands flat on the surface and breathed. Okaphor had moved on to clarifying something with Victoria.
Nobody was looking at Darius. He had exactly 45 seconds of not being needed and he used them the way he always used them quietly internally putting things back where they belonged. Then Okaphor came back. One more thing, Mr. Coleman.
The photograph you took of the transfer switch panel. Do you have it on your phone? Darius unlocked his phone and found it. Handed it across. Okapor looked at it, handed it to a uniformed officer with instructions Darius couldn't hear.
The officer moved away with it. We'll need that image transferred to our evidence system. Okapor said, "You'll get your phone back. That's fine. You understand you're a material witness in what is shaping up to be a significant criminal case.
I figured that means your availability over the coming weeks. I'll make myself available. Darius said whatever you need. Okapor studied him for a moment. Former emergency services.
Miss Hayes mentioned. Why'd you leave? Darius looked at the table for a half second. Single father needed to be home. Okapor was quiet for a moment.