Chapter 3 - Arthur Had Seen Caleb Kneeling Too
Arthur admitted the rest only after Ellie spoke.
He had seen Caleb in the foyer.
Not beside Dominic.
Beside the empty rehabilitation chair where Dominic had rested earlier while speaking with two executives before the meeting.
Dominic sometimes removed pressure from his prosthetic during long days by sitting there for several minutes.
That afternoon, he had done exactly that.
Then Vincent called him toward the conference doors to review a security question.
For less than two minutes, the chair—and the prosthetic resting beside it—had been out of Dominic’s direct sight.
Arthur was walking down the hall when he saw Caleb crouched near it.
“What was he doing?” Dominic asked.
Arthur hesitated.
“He said he dropped a cuff link.”
Vincent looked disgusted.
“And you believed him?”
“At first.”
“What changed?”
“He stood too quickly when he saw me.”
Arthur also noticed that Caleb’s cuff links were both still in place.
He asked why Caleb was kneeling.
Caleb laughed.
Said he had mistaken a reflection on the marble for something he dropped.
Then walked into the conference room.
Arthur approached the rehabilitation chair.
The prosthetic casing looked slightly misaligned.
He touched it.
Opened the outer section.
Saw the foreign object.
Then made the catastrophic decision to close it again.
Dominic’s voice was icy.
“Why?”
Arthur met his eyes.
“Because Caleb was still ten feet away behind glass.”
That did not excuse anything.
But it explained Arthur’s fear.
He did not want to accuse one of Dominic’s most powerful executives while standing directly in front of that man with no idea what the hidden object was.
Arthur intended to get Vincent alone.
Then Dominic entered the foyer earlier than expected.
Ellie noticed the casing.
Everything exploded into the open before Arthur could act.
Vincent remained furious.
“You still should have said one word.”
“I know.”
“Dominic could have taken ten more steps.”
Arthur looked sick.
“I know.”
That was the first time Dominic believed his fear might be genuine.
Not innocence.
Fear.
Dominic turned toward Ellie.
“What did the shiny-watch man look like?”
Ellie thought.
“He had gray hair here.”
She touched one temple.
Caleb had begun graying at both temples.
“He had the shiny circle watch.”
Caleb wore a distinctive silver watch Dominic had given him fifteen years earlier.
Anything else?
Ellie frowned.
“He said, ‘Still giving you trouble?’”
Dominic froze.
“What?”
“The man said that to your leg.”
Clare corrected gently.
“To Dominic?”
Ellie shook her head.
“No. He looked at the leg.”
Dominic remembered the line.
Caleb had asked him earlier that morning:
“Still giving you trouble?”
Dominic assumed he meant pain.
Perhaps he did.
Perhaps the words had carried another meaning entirely.
Arthur looked toward Dominic.
“You said Caleb knew about today.”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“Yes.”
“What exactly did he know?”
Dominic did not answer immediately.
Because that question reached farther back than today.
May you like
Much farther.
To the night he lost his leg.
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