Chương 8
Richard's property had once felt enormous to me.
Now it looked almost restrained compared with the Albright mansion.
The guesthouse sat behind a row of olive trees, white stucco and dark wood, with a narrow patio facing a pool nobody used.
Hazel walked through the front door holding Richard's hand.
I noticed only after it had already happened.
He noticed too.
Neither of us mentioned it.
The refrigerator was full.
Of course it was.
Milk, fruit, eggs, yogurt, sparkling water, juice boxes.
I opened one cabinet and found children's cereal.
I turned slowly.
Richard was standing in the doorway.
"You stocked this."
"This afternoon."
"You didn't know we'd stay here."
"No."
"Then why?"
"I hoped."
There was no good answer to that.
So I closed the cabinet.
Hazel found the bathroom and shouted, "It has a giant tub."
Richard called back, "I told you."
"Don't encourage her."
"Too late."
Thomas left to coordinate counsel and financial review.
Before he went, he handed me a business card.
"Family attorney."
I looked at the name.
Naomi Keller.
"She works for you?"
"No."
"For my father?"
"No."
"Then why do you have her card?"
"Because I know lawyers."
"That's not reassuring."
"She represented a bank executive against our interests three years ago and made my life unpleasant."
Richard nodded.
"I disliked her immediately."
I slipped the card into my pocket.
"Sounds promising."
Detective Ortiz arrived thirty minutes later with a child services liaison named Maribel Shaw.
Ortiz wore plain clothes and practical shoes.
She was probably in her forties, with tired eyes and a voice that did not change when Richard Crawford introduced himself.
That earned my attention.
She asked where Hazel was.
"Taking a bath."
"We can wait."
Richard started to say something.
I looked at him.
He closed his mouth.
Ortiz noticed.
I liked her more.
We sat at the small dining table.
I told them what happened from beginning to end.
Not the marriage.
Not six years.
Just that afternoon.
Cassandra yelled because champagne spilled on her dress.
Hazel reached for her rabbit.
Cassandra struck her.
Spencer saw.
Patricia arrived afterward.
I left.
Ortiz asked where everyone had been standing.
I showed her.
She asked whether Cassandra had ever struck Hazel before.
"No."
"Threatened her?"
"Not directly."
"Insulted her?"
I swallowed.
"Yes."
"What kind?"
"Called her spoiled."
"Anything else?"
I looked toward the hallway.
The bathwater had stopped running.
"Called her annoying."
Ortiz waited.
"Once she said Hazel was the reason Spencer and I had no life."
Richard's chair creaked.
I didn't look at him.
"Did Mr. Albright respond?"
"He told Cassandra to stop being dramatic."
Ortiz wrote something down.
That sentence looked different when placed in a police notebook.
Maribel asked, "Does Hazel understand Cassandra's relationship with her father?"
"No."
Richard looked at me.
I kept my eyes on Maribel.
"What does she believe?"
"That Cassandra works with Spencer."
Maribel did not react.
"Does she?"
"Sometimes."
That sounded pathetic.
It was also true.
Cassandra had received a consulting contract through an Albright subsidiary eighteen months ago.
I had never asked what she consulted on.
Maybe expensive dresses.
Maybe humiliation.
Ortiz asked whether there were cameras inside the living room.
"Security cameras."
"Recording?"
"I don't know."
Richard said, "Most modern residential systems keep—"
I turned to him.
He stopped.
Ortiz looked between us.
"Do you have access?"
"No."
"Would Mr. Albright?"
"Yes."
"Anyone else?"
"His head of household."
"Evan?"
"No, Evan is Spencer's assistant."
I gave her the house manager's name.
Ortiz wrote it down.
My regular phone buzzed.
Spencer again.
I silenced it.
Ortiz noticed.
"He's contacted you?"
"Repeatedly."
"Any threats?"
"Nothing explicit."
"Show me."
I handed her the phone.
She scrolled through the messages.
Her eyebrows moved at one point.
I knew which message she had reached.
We need to talk before tonight.
She handed the phone back.
"Don't delete anything."
"I won't."
"If he contacts you regarding Hazel, respond only if necessary and keep it factual."
"Okay."
"If he tells you not to cooperate with us, save it."
Richard muttered, "He'd have to be an idiot."
Ortiz glanced at him.
"You'd be surprised."
"No, I wouldn't."
Maribel went to meet Hazel after I explained who she was.
She did not question her about the incident.
Instead she sat on the rug and helped Hazel put pajamas on a stuffed rabbit that did not need pajamas.
Hazel eventually asked, "Are you police?"
"No."
"Do you arrest people?"
"No."
"Can you arrest Cassandra?"
Maribel smiled faintly.
"No."
Hazel looked relieved.
Then she said, "Good."
Maribel glanced at me.
The expression was subtle, but I understood.
Hazel was afraid of consequences becoming bigger than she could control.
I knew the feeling.
Detective Ortiz was finishing her notes when the black phone rang.
Thomas.
I stepped onto the patio.
"What?"
"We have a problem."
"Another one?"
"The forty-million request wasn't the only one."
Cold moved through me.
"How many?"
"Three draws totaling ninety-two million over the last six weeks."
"Already funded?"
"Yes."
I gripped the railing.
"Backed by us?"
"Indirectly."
"What does indirectly mean?"
"It means Albright represented that certain receivables and assets met conditions under a facility supported by a Crawford guarantee."
"Did they?"
"We're reviewing."
"Thomas."
His voice lowered.
"We have serious concerns."
"About fraud?"
"About whether the collateral existed in the form represented."
I stared at the pool.
Hazel's inflatable yellow duck floated near one corner, probably placed there by staff who had never met her.
"Where did the money go?"
"Some stayed in Albright entities."
"Some?"
"Twenty-seven million moved through two subsidiaries and ended up at Marston Strategic Holdings."
The name from Evan's photograph.
"Who owns Marston?"
"We're working on it."
"That means you don't know."
"Correct."
I heard typing on his end.
"There's more."
"Of course."
"Marcus Pell called me."
"The restructuring consultant?"
"Yes."
"What did he want?"
"To know whether Crawford intended to honor all outstanding guarantees."
"And?"
May you like
"I told him our obligations would be governed by the agreements and the facts."
"That's a lawyer's way of saying nothing."
