Chương 15
“Go to the airport.”
“I plan to.”
“And Penelope?”
“Yes?”
“Do not let family drama persuade you to become a witness voluntarily before you understand what you witnessed.”
I looked at Rachel’s photograph.
“That advice would have been useful twelve years ago.”
Helen laughed once.
“Probably.”
After the call, I checked the divorce disclosure packet.
Victor’s salary.
Bonuses.
Investment accounts.
Retirement.
Company stock.
No seventy-five-thousand-dollar payment.
I checked the dates.
The payment fell squarely inside the reporting period.
My first reaction was anger.
The second was almost relief.
Anger was familiar.
Paperwork was manageable.
Betrayal with a number attached could at least be handed to someone qualified.
At 8:02, Samantha called again.
I declined it.
She called twice more.
I declined both.
Then she sent a message.
Dad is gone.
I stared at the screen.
Gone where?
I typed before remembering Helen’s advice about texting.
Samantha called again.
This time I answered.
“What do you mean gone?”
“He left.”
“With whom?”
“Alone.”
“Where?”
“Nobody knows.”
“Did he take his car?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
“Then he is not gone.”
“Penelope.”
“He drove away.”
“He took the Crescent Ridge box.”
That changed it.
“The one from the basement?”
“Yes.”
“What about the papers he burned?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you photograph anything?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
“Helen told me not to play detective.”
“Who’s Helen?”
“My attorney.”
There was a pause.
“You called your attorney.”
“Yes.”
“Dad is going to lose his mind.”
“That would place me roughly tenth on the list of reasons.”
Samantha made a small, involuntary laugh.
Then she lowered her voice.
“Naomi is here.”
I straightened.
“At your parents’ house?”
“She showed up five minutes after Dad left.”
“What does she want?”
“She says she wants her money.”
My skin prickled.
“What money?”
“She won’t tell me.”
“Then why are you calling me?”
“Because she says you know.”
“I do not.”
“She says Victor told her you had seen the payment sheet.”
I closed my eyes.
Victor.
Of course.
“How did Victor know I had seen it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is he?”
“He left after Dad.”
“Wonderful.”
“Penelope, Naomi is scared.”
“People are often scared when secrets become expensive.”
“That sounds like Mom.”
“Please never say that again.”
Despite everything, Samantha laughed.
Then Naomi’s voice came faintly through the phone.
“Is that Penelope?”
I stiffened.
Samantha went quiet.
“Do not put me on speaker.”
“You’re not.”
“Good.”
Naomi said something else in the background.
Samantha answered her sharply.
Then she returned to me.
“She wants to talk.”
“No.”
“Okay.”
“I mean it.”
“I said okay.”
Another voice came through.
Miriam.
“What is happening?”
Samantha muttered something away from the phone.
The Reynolds house sounded like a train station during an evacuation.
I looked at the clock.
8:16.
The morning was disappearing.
“Listen to me.”
“I’m listening.”
“I am not coming over.”
“Understood.”
“If Naomi has information relevant to Crescent Ridge, she needs a lawyer.”
“I told her.”
“What did she say?”
“That lawyers are how she got into this.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“I have no idea.”
Naomi shouted again from the background.
This time I heard the words clearly.
“Ask Penelope where Victor put the money.”
Everything inside me went still.
“Samantha.”
“Yeah.”
“Ask her what money.”
I heard Samantha repeat the question.
Naomi answered immediately.
“The second payment.”
Samantha came back.
“What second payment?”
“That is exactly what I’m asking.”
I stood.
“Put her close enough that I can hear, but do not put me on speaker.”
There was movement.
Then Naomi’s voice came nearer.
“Penelope?”
“I’m here.”
She exhaled.
“I need you to listen.”
“You have thirty seconds.”
“Victor got another payment.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
“I saw his disclosures.”
“He hid it.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know it exists?”
“Because I delivered the authorization.”
The room seemed to narrow.
“To Victor?”
“To Walter.”
“What was it for?”
Naomi hesitated.
“Naomi.”
“For keeping Victor from asking questions about the remediation invoices.”
I closed my eyes.
“What remediation invoices?”
“The fake ones.”
There it was.
Not an affair.
Not a family secret.
Fraud.
I sat down slowly.
“How much are we talking about?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“You delivered authorizations and don’t know?”
“I know pieces.”
“That is not good enough.”
“I know.”
Hearing the phrase from her made me furious.
“Stop saying that.”
She inhaled shakily.
“Walter used vendors that billed for soil removal and groundwater treatment that didn’t happen at the level the invoices claimed.”
“And Daniel?”
“Vendor coordination.”
“Elliot?”
“Site access.”
“Martin Cole?”
“The environmental consultant.”
“And Victor?”
“He noticed numbers didn’t match.”
My mouth went dry.
“So Walter paid him.”
“Yes.”
“To stay quiet.”
“To stop asking.”
“That is the same thing.”
Naomi did not answer.
“What does any of this have to do with you?”
“I processed documents.”
“Knowingly?”
A long silence.
“Eventually.”
There was the answer.
“How much were you paid?”
“The first twenty-five.”
“And after?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s why you want money.”
“No.”
“You just told Samantha you wanted your money.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“Walter promised me a hundred thousand if I kept the report from Halden’s board until the sale closed.”
My stomach tightened.
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
“He never paid me.”
I stared at the wall.
It was almost too ugly in its simplicity.
Everybody had believed they were special.
Victor thought the son made him chosen.
Naomi thought access made her powerful.
Daniel thought consulting made him important.
Walter had simply been paying people to make silence look like opportunity.
“Why do you have copies of the report?”
“Insurance.”
“For blackmail.”
“For protection.”
“Those are sometimes the same thing.”
She started crying.
Not loudly.
I heard her trying not to.
“Did Walter know you were involved with Victor?”
“Yes.”
The answer came instantly.
That hurt more than I expected.
“Before the pregnancy?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he stop it?”
May you like
Another silence.
Then Naomi said, “Because he wanted Victor distracted.”
