Chương 6
“Yes.”
“What part are you struggling with?”
“The part where we still need proof.”
“He manipulated a seventy-two-year-old widow into authorizing forty-two million dollars.”
“Probably.”
“Claire.”
“Probably matters.”
“Not to me.”
“It will to the bank.”
Adrian stopped.
That was the first time his face showed something close to fear.
Not fear of the board.
Fear of consequences reaching his mother.
“What happens to her?”
“I don’t know.”
“She authorized it.”
“Yes.”
“Using credentials she knew belonged to a dead account holder.”
“Yes.”
“You sound like a deposition.”
“I’m trying not to lie to you.”
He looked away.
Claire softened.
“She was deceived. If what you told me is accurate, there’s evidence of that.”
“Cross spoke to her by phone.”
“Call logs exist.”
“They don’t record the conversation.”
“No.”
“He’ll deny it.”
“Maybe.”
“And the bank will say she authenticated the transfer.”
“Probably.”
“That word again.”
“I don’t have a better one.”
He pressed both hands against the edge of the desk.
“What if she gets charged?”
Claire remained silent long enough for him to look at her.
“I don’t know.”
Adrian nodded.
He appreciated the answer and hated it.
The office door opened without a knock.
Priya Patel entered first.
She was fifty-six, silver threaded through her black hair, dressed in charcoal wool and carrying a paper cup she looked ready to throw at someone.
Nathaniel Cross came behind her.
He stopped when he saw Adrian and Claire together.
For the smallest fraction of a second, Cross looked at the USB.
Then his face rearranged itself.
Claire saw it.
Adrian saw Claire see it.
Priya noticed both of them.
Cross closed the door.
“This is inappropriate,” he said.
Adrian sat slowly.
“Morning, Nathaniel.”
Cross ignored the greeting.
He looked at Claire.
“You should not be in this office before the board has reviewed your claimed voting authority.”
Claire folded her hands.
“Outside counsel already did.”
“Your counsel.”
“Two firms reviewed it.”
Cross turned to Priya.
“You allowed this?”
Priya took a sip of coffee.
“I allowed the majority voting holder to enter a company office.”
“She was terminated.”
“Last night.”
“She has no employee standing.”
“She has shareholder standing.”
Cross’s eyes returned to Adrian.
“You understand what she’s doing?”
Adrian leaned back.
“What is she doing?”
“Using a fabricated crisis to seize control.”
Claire said nothing.
Cross pointed toward the folder.
“Her grandfather spent decades accumulating influence quietly. Apparently the talent survived another generation.”
Adrian watched him.
“Did you call my mother last night?”
Cross stopped.
Priya lowered her cup.
Claire did not move.
Cross looked almost offended.
“Excuse me?”
“Did you call Eleanor?”
“I speak to your mother regularly.”
“Last night.”
Cross’s eyes narrowed.
“I may have.”
“You did.”
“If she confirmed that, why are you asking?”
Adrian felt something cold settle into place.
Because Cross was not surprised.
A man falsely accused of calling someone at the center of a forty-two-million-dollar theft would usually ask why the call mattered.
Cross had asked whether Eleanor confirmed it.
Claire spoke.
“What did you discuss?”
Cross turned toward her.
“Family business.”
“Which family?”
His mouth tightened.
“You have no authority to interrogate me.”
Claire glanced at the folder.
“That’s debatable.”
“Enough,” Priya said.
The room quieted.
Priya put her coffee on the corner of the desk.
“We have twenty-five minutes before seven directors walk into the conference room. I would prefer not to begin that meeting with half of us accusing the other half of felonies based on facial expressions.”
Cross looked at Adrian.
“What has she told you?”
Adrian picked up the black USB.
Cross’s eyes followed it again.
That was clue number two.
Adrian set it down.
“My father’s reserve moved forty-two million dollars last night.”
Cross stared at him.
This time the reaction looked convincing.
Too convincing, perhaps, but Adrian knew how dangerous that thought could become. Once suspicion hardened, everything looked like evidence.
“Thomas’s reserve?” Cross said.
“You remember it.”
“Of course.”
“Apparently.”
Priya watched him.
Cross stepped closer.
“How was it accessed?”
“My mother.”
For the first time, Cross lost color.
Only slightly.
“Eleanor?”
“She says you asked her to move the money.”
“That is absurd.”
Adrian’s pulse increased.
“Good.”
Cross frowned.
“Good?”
“Then we can clear this up.”
“There is nothing to clear up. I called Eleanor because she was upset about the board meeting.”
“At ten fifty last night?”
“She called me earlier. I returned it.”
Adrian’s voice stayed low.
“She says you told her I had accidentally pledged restricted estate assets and needed her to use my father’s credentials.”
Cross stared at him.
Then something unexpected happened.
He laughed.
Not loudly.
Not mockingly.
It sounded like disbelief.
“Adrian, listen to what you just said.”
“I have.”
“Your mother is grieving.”
“My father died four years ago.”
“Grief doesn’t have a timetable.”
“Did you ask her to access the reserve?”
“No.”
“Did you mention it?”
Cross hesitated.
There.
Claire’s eyes shifted to Priya.
Cross saw it.
“Yes,” he said. “Because she asked me about an old statement.”
“What statement?”
“I don’t know. Something arrived from the bank.”
Adrian looked at Claire.
Claire had not heard that part.
“Did you tell her the phrase ‘don’t mortgage Sunday’?”
Cross’s face went still.
Priya looked between them.
“What does that mean?”
Cross answered before Adrian could.
“Something Thomas used to say.”
“You told her I said it.”
“No.”
“My mother says you did.”
“Then she misunderstood me.”
Adrian stood.
Cross did not move.
They were nearly the same height, although Adrian was heavier through the shoulders. For years, Cross had been the only man in the company who could speak to Adrian as if Adrian were still twenty-eight and asking permission to use his father’s conference room.
Now that habit surfaced.
“Sit down,” Cross said.
Adrian looked at him.
Cross seemed to hear himself.
Too late.
Claire stood as well.
Priya did not.
“Everybody is going to stop,” she said.
No one did.
Adrian’s voice lowered.
“Where is Harrow North’s money?”
May you like
Cross’s eyes flickered.
Claire felt the room change.
