He shook his head. “I don’t know. That long ago, it would have been one of my father’s projects.”
“Do you think West Corp still has the records on it?”
“Probably. We never throw anything away.”
“He got that from his father,” Suzanne said.
“Do you think I could have a look?” She held her breath.
“What’s your interest?”
It wasn’t an accusation. Just a natural question. She had to remember that. “I stumbled across it at work. The building came up with West Corp’s name attached to it. I got curious, but I’m having trouble finding records from that far back. I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask you.”
Suzanne watched Warren with as much focus as Celia did; her mother might have been holding her breath as well.
Warren took a drink of water. “Just curious?”
“Yeah.”
“No conflict of interest—you wanting to dig up something that’ll come back to bite the company later.”
Of all the … “It’s fifty-year-old data. It should be completely irrelevant.”
“Then why is it important to you?”
Whatever she said, she refused to bring up Sito and feed her father’s paranoid fantasies. Even if those fantasies might be correct.… Softly, she said, “I didn’t think it would be that big a deal.”
“Come on, now I’m curious. What’s so interesting about this building?”
“I won’t know that until I find those records, will I?”
Warren glared. He broke walls with that glare. “It’s not
like you’ve ever taken an interest in the company before.”
“You don’t trust me, do you? I can see the wheels in your brain inventing some plot that I must be hatching—”
“Oh, give me a break!”
“Warren—” Suzanne said, her voice a warning.
“If it’s so harmless, then tell me how you found out about this building.”
“It came up at work—”
“So now you’re using personal connections for professional gain.”
“You’d do the same thing!”
“I wouldn’t have to!”
“Warren! Celia! Both of you, sit down!”
Celia and her father were glowering at each other across the table. The temperature in the room was rising.
Warren didn’t sit down. Instead, he clenched his fists, and smashed one of them into the table. The wood laminate split, all the way through, across the entire length. The surface held together by mere splinters. The soda cans they’d been drinking from tipped over and spilled. Celia jumped back, her heart racing, and didn’t have the wits to even grab a towel. Suzanne just crossed her arms and frowned.
Warren marched out of the apartment. It was a small blessing that he didn’t slam the front door behind him.