Nobody in the building’s ordinary security chain was informed.
Then he reviewed the cameras again.
The gray-suited man had entered the private elevator after tampering with the cup.
Four minutes later, he stepped onto the executive floor, placed the coffee on the usual morning service tray outside Edward’s office, and walked away.
He had known exactly where to go.
He had known Edward’s schedule.
He had known Edward’s coffee order.
And he had known which access credential would get him there.
That knowledge frightened Edward more than the bottle itself.
An outsider could hate him.
An outsider could threaten him.
But an outsider could not know those things without help.
Howard seemed to reach the same conclusion.
“This came from inside your operation,” he said.
Marcus looked between them.
“Should I get my mom?”
Edward’s face softened immediately.
“Yes.
But not yet by yourself.”
He asked Howard to send a trusted female officer to the thirty-eighth floor, quietly locate Marcus’s mother, and bring her directly upstairs without explaining the emergency over the phone.
Marcus stiffened.
“She’s going to be mad I left the break room.”
Edward almost laughed, but there was too much tension in the room.
“I’ll take responsibility.”
“She told me not to wander.”
“You didn’t wander,” Edward said.
“You noticed something everyone else missed.”
Ten minutes later, Marcus’s mother entered the office looking terrified.
She took one look at her son and rushed toward him.
“Marcus!”
“I’m okay, Mom.”
She pulled him against her anyway.
Then she turned to Edward.
“Mr.
Whitmore, I’m so sorry.
He was supposed to stay downstairs.
I promise this will never happen again.”
Edward looked at her for several seconds.
“Your son may have saved my life.”
The woman stopped breathing.
Marcus quietly explained.
By the time he finished, his mother had one hand pressed over her mouth.
“I saw that man too,” she whispered.
Howard moved closer.
“When?”
“This morning.
Near the service elevators.”
“What was he doing?”
“Talking to someone.”
Edward felt the room tighten around them.
“Who?”
She shook her head.
“I didn’t see.
The other person was around the corner.
I only heard part of it.”
“What did you hear?” Howard asked.
