Page 43 of Silent Watch
"Yes."
She was quiet for a moment, staring at the screen.Then she picked up her coffee and took a long drink.
"You called Diana," she said.
"Four a.m."
"You called a senior editor at a major outlet at four in the morning."
"She took the call."
"Of course, she took the call.She's Diana Reeves."Harper set the mug down."What did she say?"
"Send everything.She'll call by noon."
"And you sent it."
"Encrypted.Full documentation package.Everything I've built since I started tracking you."
Harper's mouth opened slightly, then closed."Since you started tracking me.Not since we started working together.Since you started tracking me."
He recognized the distinction she was drawing.The documentation package included two months of pattern analysis he'd conducted before they'd ever met—the digital archaeology of her erased articles, her disappeared sources, the negative space she'd left across the Gulf Coast media landscape.
"You built a file on me," she said.Not angry.Assessing.
"I built a file on your work.The file on you came later, and it was smaller than you'd think.You were very good at disappearing."
"Apparently not good enough."
"Nobody's that good.Not against someone who knows what to look for."
She studied him.He held still under the examination, the way he'd learned to hold still in interrogation rooms and debriefing chambers—not because he had something to hide, but because stillness was its own kind of honesty.He let her look.
"What did my file say?"she asked.
"Investigative journalist.Eleven years of published work, increasingly focused on corporate corruption in media and real estate.Source network spanning three states.Last known article published fourteen months ago under the name Sarah Keane in a Pensacola alternative weekly.Went dark after a source death that was ruled natural causes."He paused."Stubborn.Principled.Dangerous to the people she was investigating and not particularly careful with her own safety."
"That last part's subjective."
"That last part's an observation."
She held his gaze, and something passed between them that had nothing to do with shell companies, surveillance vehicles, or the time they were waiting for Diana Reeves to assess the evidence package.It was simpler than that, and more complicated, and he didn't have a name for it yet.
"I'm going to make eggs," she said."You're going to eat them.Then we're going to build this package."
She stood and moved to the stove.Caleb watched her crack eggs into a bowl with one hand, the other reaching for the salt without looking.She'd been here less than a week, and she already knew where he kept the salt.
"We need to make sure the package is complete," she said."Financial trail, supporting documentation, narrative framework.Diana's going to want the complete picture, not pieces."
"Right.I sent her the package.The complete package."
"And we need to talk about sourcing.Everything attributable goes in the package.Everything that traces back to a protected source gets quarantined."
"Already separated."
"Stop it.It makes me feel like I'm stating the obvious."
"You are.But that doesn't mean it's not worth saying."
