Chapter 14 - Mrs. Morrison Knew More Than She Said
Margaret asked me into the pantry one afternoon.
That was where she conducted disciplinary meetings because apparently my study gave me an unfair advantage.
“I saw the bruises before you.”
I stared.
“When?”
“Third day.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Harper is an adult.”
“She was being hurt.”
“I did not know by whom.”
“Did you ask?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“Old marriage.”
“And?”
“She said it was finished.”
Margaret kept folding linen napkins as if discussing weather.
“I told her if she needed a doctor, lawyer, schedule change, or different room, she could ask.”
“She didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why not call me?”
Margaret looked at me.
“Because you would have done exactly what you did.”
Private investigators.
I disliked how much everyone enjoyed that example.
“She was scared of powerful men deciding things.”
There.
“So you did nothing?”
“I hired her.”
That stopped me.
“What?”
“She came through a workforce program. Her reference said she needed live-in employment quickly because her lease had ended.”
“And Noah?”
“I made sure the staff apartment could legally accommodate him.”
“You knew Derek was police?”
“No.”
“Abuse?”
“I suspected something.”
“Why hire into this house?”
Margaret’s expression hardened.
“Because women who are frightened still need jobs, Gabriel.”
There.
Not rescue.
Employment.
She checked Harper’s skills.
References.
Background.
Then hired her.
No charity.
“What if Derek had been dangerous to the household?”
“He was not part of the application.”
“You could have warned security.”
“About a man whose name I did not know?”
Again.
Evidence edges.
Margaret then admitted her own mistake.
“When Harper asked me whether staff addresses appear on payroll forms, I answered carelessly.”
“What did you say?”
“That official records require accurate information.”
Reasonable.
“I did not ask why she was afraid.”
There.
Small missed opening.
Everyone had one.
The story did not need one failed hero.
Systems fail through small silences.
May you like
They also improve through small corrections.
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