Chương 14
Victoria started crying.
Not gracefully.
Not quietly.
She cried until she could not see the room.
Alison wiped her face with a tissue.
A few minutes later, they brought the baby close enough for Victoria to touch her cheek.
The skin was impossibly soft.
“Hi,” Victoria whispered.
The baby’s eyes remained closed.
Victoria rested one finger against the tiny fist.
It opened.
Closed around her.
The world stopped being about inheritance.
Or evidence.
Or Julian.
Or even survival.
For several seconds, there was only a hand barely large enough to hold the tip of her finger.
Then someone knocked.
Alison answered.
Detective Ortiz stood outside.
She did not enter.
Victoria looked at her.
Ortiz’s face told her there had been another turn.
“What happened?”
Ortiz glanced toward the neonatal team.
“We can wait.”
“No.”
Ortiz stepped inside.
“Troopers opened unit 317.”
Victoria tightened her hold on her daughter’s hand.
“And?”
“Julian is in custody.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“The woman?”
Ortiz looked at her.
“Alive.”
Victoria’s breath caught.
“Camille?”
Ortiz nodded.
“She says her name is Camille Lawson.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
Ortiz continued.
“She also says she’s the one who contacted Eleanor three weeks ago.”
“Why?”
“To tell her she was coming back to Texas.”
Victoria looked at the detective.
“To expose Richard?”
“Richard is dead.”
“Then Julian?”
Ortiz’s expression darkened.
“According to Camille, Julian contacted her first.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
Victoria felt something inside her go still.
“Why?”
Ortiz glanced toward the sleeping baby.
Then back at Victoria.
“Because he wanted Camille to sign away her claim to the Vance trust.”
Victoria almost laughed.
Of course.
Money again.
Always money.
“And when she refused?”
“He threatened her.”
Victoria stared at her daughter’s fingers.
Ortiz continued.
“Camille says she told Julian she had proof Richard and Eleanor concealed what happened in 1999.”
“What happened?”
Ortiz hesitated.
“Camille says she witnessed Richard kill a man at the Hawthorne facility.”
Victoria looked up.
“What man?”
“A company accountant named Thomas Reed.”
The name meant nothing to her.
Ortiz said, “Reed had discovered Richard was diverting trust assets.”
Victoria understood before the detective finished.
“Camille saw it.”
“Yes.”
“And Richard tried to get rid of her.”
“Yes.”
“Did Eleanor help?”
Ortiz’s expression remained careful.
“Camille says Eleanor helped her escape.”
Victoria stared.
The room seemed suddenly unstable.
“Eleanor?”
“Yes.”
“She greased my stairs.”
“I know.”
“She tried to kill me.”
“I know.”
“And she saved Camille?”
“According to Camille.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
People refused to remain one thing.
Villain.
Victim.
Protector.
Monster.
Human beings spoiled clean categories.
Ortiz continued.
“Camille says Eleanor drove her south and arranged for someone to take her across the border temporarily.”
“Why didn’t she bring her back?”
“Because Richard found out.”
Victoria looked at her.
“And Leah?”
“Camille believes Richard had Leah attacked to stop her searching.”
“Did Eleanor know?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Victoria almost smiled at the phrase.
This time it felt honest instead of empty.
Ortiz started toward the door.
Victoria stopped her.
“Detective.”
“Yes?”
“Why did Eleanor want me dead now?”
Ortiz’s face changed.
“Camille may have answered that too.”
Victoria waited.
“Julian told Eleanor that if you changed your corporate succession plan, he would lose control of Bellweather.”
Victoria frowned.
“I was changing it.”
“Yes.”
“He knew?”
“Mara apparently informed him as CEO that governance documents were being revised.”
Victoria looked toward the sleeping baby.
Ortiz continued.
“Julian told Eleanor your new plan would remove him as CEO and place your shares into a protected trust for your daughter.”
Victoria’s stomach turned.
“So he lied to his mother.”
“Possibly.”
“He told her I was cutting them off.”
“That appears to be part of it.”
Victoria thought of Eleanor whispering about an amendment.
“She believed killing me protected Julian.”
Ortiz nodded.
“And the insurance?”
“We’re still tracing it.”
Victoria already knew.
The forged signature.
The accidental-fall provision.
Julian had prepared the financial reward.
Eleanor had chosen the method.
They had not needed to agree on every step to build the same crime.
Victoria looked at her daughter again.
Ortiz said quietly, “There’s one more thing.”
Victoria raised her eyes.
“Camille found a ledger inside unit 317.”
“What ledger?”
“Richard’s.”
“And?”
Ortiz held her gaze.
“It includes payments to Julian.”
Victoria’s throat tightened.
“When?”
“Beginning twelve years ago.”
The year Richard died.
“The payments continued through shell companies.”
“For what?”
Ortiz did not answer immediately.
Then she said, “The entries are labeled with your name.”
Victoria looked at Ortiz for so long that the detective finally lowered her voice.
“Some entries are old.”
“How old?”
“The earliest one is from the year before you met Julian.”
Victoria’s daughter made a small sound under the warming blanket.
Victoria looked down at her.
The baby’s fingers had loosened around hers.
“What do the entries say?”
Ortiz opened her notebook.
“Initials, dates, amounts, and short descriptions.”
“Descriptions like what?”
“B.D. introduction.”
Victoria’s mouth went dry.
“Bellweather Development.”
“That’s our working assumption.”
“What else?”
“Board access.”
Ortiz glanced at the page.
“Relationship established.”
Victoria shut her eyes.
The room seemed suddenly too bright.
“What amount is beside that?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
Chloe had been right.
Julian had known Bellweather before he ever walked across a ballroom carrying two glasses of bad wine and pretending to be bored.
Victoria opened her eyes.
“Keep going.”
Ortiz hesitated.
“Marriage.”
The word landed quietly.
“How much?”
“Seven hundred fifty thousand.”
Victoria did not move.
“And pregnancy?”
Ortiz looked at her.
Victoria knew before she answered.
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“One million.”
Victoria laughed once.
It sounded wrong in the hospital room.
Alison looked over from the counter.
Ortiz closed the notebook.
“There are later payments we’re still tracing.”
Victoria stared at the sleeping baby.
“So Richard paid Julian to marry me.”
“It appears Richard began paying him to gain access to Bellweather.”
“Richard died twelve years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Then who continued?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Victoria almost smiled at the phrase.
Then the answer came to her.
“Eleanor.”
May you like
Ortiz said nothing.
“Or someone using money Richard set aside.”
