How to Tame a Silver Fox – Episode 42
Chris reached the corridor before Mark finished speaking. Nurses moved between rooms, visitors waited beside elevators, and no one resembled the younger man in Caroline’s photograph. Daniel Cross had spent years learning how to vanish in official spaces.
Hospital security reviewed the cameras. Cross appeared wearing a physician’s coat, entered the restricted floor, and spent four minutes near Mark’s medication cart before leaving through the service elevator.
Harper checked every line connected to her father. A nurse found one intravenous bag with a puncture near the seal. Mark had been minutes from receiving it.
The bag was removed for testing, and Mark was transferred to a guarded room. His anger at Chris disappeared beneath the realization that Caroline’s murderer—or someone who protected that murderer—had stood within reach.
“Cross arranged Evan’s protection,” Chris said. “He knew where every witness moved and which evidence survived.”
Evan joined by encrypted call. He confirmed Cross had delivered Sloane’s threats while pretending they came from federal supervisors. Each relocation had isolated Evan from Cole and kept him dependent.
Harper recognized the method. Cross protected people by making them lonely, then used that loneliness to control what they believed. Her father had done a gentler version of the same thing.
Caroline’s files contained the initials D.C. beside several unexplained payments. Until now, investigators assumed they referred to a district account. The photograph gave those letters a face.
Maria searched archived foundation events and found Cross attending as Sloane’s guest years before he entered federal service. His public biography had been carefully edited to remove that connection.
Christina supplied another detail from Sebastian’s phone: Cross expected a final payment after Sloane’s arrest. The transfer would occur through a university research grant the following afternoon.
Harper proposed allowing the payment to proceed while tracing the receiving account. Chris supported the idea but refused to use her as visible bait again.
“Cross has already tried to reach my father and my mother’s evidence,” she said. “He sees me as the weak link whether we invite him or not.”
Chris knew she was right, which did not make agreement easier. “Then we control the contact. Public place, full surveillance, and you leave the second the plan changes.”
Mark listened from his bed. This time he did not forbid Harper from participating. “Cross will try to make you distrust Chris,” he warned.
“He won’t have to try very hard if everyone keeps hiding things.” Harper’s reply was sharp, but it also established the condition that could protect them: no more strategic lies.
They released a false rumor that Harper possessed an unencrypted copy of Caroline’s files and had fallen out with Chris over his past. Campus gossip accounts spread the story within an hour.
Chris disliked seeing strangers celebrate their supposed breakup. Harper found his jealousy unexpectedly reassuring. The feelings between them did not disappear merely because they had agreed to wait.
She returned to campus with Maria and no visible security. Chris monitored from an unmarked vehicle while Christina watched the student center entrance.
A message reached Harper from an official federal address, requesting a private interview about Chris Collins. It instructed her to meet Agent Cross in the university chapel.
When Harper entered, the chapel was empty except for Bryan seated in the front pew. He smiled at her and said, “Cross sends his apologies. You get me instead.”