Rachel told her they understood.
They were there to confirm dates and discuss preservation of records.
Nora said she had already received a written preservation request.
She opened a logbook and pointed to an entry from the previous evening.
Daniel had visited the facility shortly after midnight.
He had asked whether he could remove everything from the unit immediately.
Nora had refused because the office was closed and an account hold had been placed on the unit.
Daniel had argued for several minutes.
Then he had left without entering the building.
Mark asked whether Vanessa had visited recently.
Nora checked the records.
“She came last Thursday.”
Mark remembered Thursday.
Vanessa had told him she was having lunch with a friend from college.
Nora continued.
“She was here with a younger man.”
Rachel asked whether the visitor’s identity had been recorded.
Nora said the visitor had signed the guest sheet as Owen Mercer.
Mark looked at Rachel.
He had never heard that name.
Rachel asked Nora to preserve the guest sheet and any available camera footage.
Nora agreed to follow the facility’s established procedures.
As they stood to leave, Nora hesitated.
“There is something else.”
Rachel waited.
“The woman looked frightened when she left.”
Mark felt his stomach tighten.
Nora described Vanessa standing beside her car while the younger man spoke to her.
Nora had not heard their conversation.
She had only seen Vanessa wipe her face and turn away.
Rachel thanked her for the observation without treating it as evidence of a particular crime.
Outside, Mark stood under the awning while trucks passed on the wet road.
He had imagined Vanessa and Daniel as partners in a scheme.
Now another possibility had entered the picture.
Vanessa might have helped create the problem and then lost control of it.
Mark did not know whether that made him feel better or worse.
THE MAN WHO KNOCKED
Daniel called Mark that afternoon.
Mark let the call go to voicemail.
Daniel left a message asking for a private conversation.
He said Vanessa had misunderstood the arrangement and that everything could be resolved quietly.
Mark forwarded the recording to Rachel.
She advised him not to meet Daniel alone.
An hour later, Daniel appeared at the printing shop.
Mark was not there.
His longtime employee Luis Ortega was supervising a rush order for a local restaurant.
Daniel asked where Mark had gone.
Luis told him that Mark was unavailable.
Daniel placed a business card on the counter.
He said he could make Mark a generous offer if they met before the lender involved outside investigators.
Luis did not touch the card until Daniel left.
