“Oh, no.”
Mark exhaled sharply.
“They’re work materials.”
Dana looked at him.
“Those aren’t presentation drives.”
“You don’t know what they are.”
“I know what our normal presentation drives look like.”
The transferred call connected, and another company employee introduced herself as being with compliance and security.
I explained again what had happened.
This time Mark interrupted.
“My wife is misunderstanding a routine equipment transfer.”
The person on the phone asked one question.
“Was the equipment placed in her personal luggage with her knowledge?”
Mark said nothing.
I answered for him.
“No.”
“And you personally saw him place it there?”
“At 5:42 this morning.”
Mark gave me a look I had never seen across our kitchen table.
Not anger exactly.
Calculation.
As if he was trying to determine how much I had noticed and how much he could still explain away.
The compliance employee asked me not to hand the devices to anyone and told us not to continue through security until she had verified the equipment information.
Mark laughed once, without humor.
“This is insane.
We’re going to miss the flight over two drives.”
Dana stared at him.
“Then tell us why they were in Claire’s suitcase.”
“I already told you.
Equipment transfer.”
“Why hers?”
He looked at Dana instead of me.
“You’re turning this into something it isn’t.”
Dana pointed toward her own black Samsonite.
“And why did you tell me to bring that suitcase?”
That was the moment the argument stopped being between husband and wife.
Mark’s shoulders stiffened.
I looked at Dana.
“What did he tell you?”
She hesitated, then answered.
“Two days ago he asked whether I still had the black Samsonite I used on the last company trip.
He said we might need to move some presentation equipment after we landed and identical luggage would make handling everything easier.”
Smoother.
There was that word again, even if she hadn’t used it.
“He told you that?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“What did you mean on the phone when you said, ‘I have mine with me.
He said it’s fine’?”
Dana glanced at Mark.
“He texted this morning asking whether I had brought the suitcase.
I said yes.
He told me everything was fine and that he’d handle the bags at the airport.”
Mark rubbed one hand across his mouth.
“It was logistics.”
Dana’s voice sharpened.
“Then why didn’t you tell me your wife was carrying company equipment?”
