Chương 12
“I know.”
“You watched me cover the shortage.”
“I know.”
“You let me think Patricia started all of it.”
“She did start moving family money.”
My mother flinched.
Martin’s voice hardened.
“That is not the same thing as your fraud.”
“I know.”
“You knew I was trying to put funds back.”
“Yes.”
“And you kept approving North Bay invoices anyway.”
“I was trapped.”
Martin laughed bitterly.
“No, you were afraid.”
Blake said nothing.
Martin continued.
“So was I.”
That took some of the heat out of his voice.
“But fear does not turn your decisions into accidents.”
The airport announcement behind Blake became clearer.
Final boarding.
He said, “I have to go.”
Vanessa grabbed the phone from me.
“No.”
“Vanessa.”
“If you get on that plane, don’t come home.”
Everyone looked at her.
She was crying now, but her voice had gone strangely steady.
Blake said nothing.
She continued.
“I don’t mean tonight.”
“Vanessa.”
“I mean don’t come back to the house and expect me to help you explain this.”
“I’m going to get records from Philip.”
“Send an attorney.”
“He won’t talk to one.”
“Then let him not talk.”
“He has proof.”
“So do we.”
“You don’t have everything.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“What else is there?”
Silence.
A long one.
I watched my sister stop breathing.
“What else?”
Blake’s voice dropped.
“Your mother’s account wasn’t only used for renovation money.”
Patricia stood.
“What?”
“There were deposits I routed there temporarily.”
“How much?”
“About ninety thousand.”
My mother stared at the phone.
“I never saw ninety thousand.”
“You did.”
“No.”
“It moved through in pieces.”
“I would have noticed.”
“Not if it left again quickly.”
She looked at Martin.
He shook his head.
“I didn’t know.”
Vanessa whispered, “Where did it go after Mom’s account?”
Blake hesitated.
“Back to Philip.”
My father finally spoke.
“You used my wife as a pass-through account.”
Blake’s voice cracked.
“I was trying to keep North Bay from showing the losses.”
My father looked suddenly exhausted.
I pulled a chair toward him.
This time he sat without objecting.
Vanessa wiped her face with both hands.
“Get off the flight.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“I need to fix this.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
Then at Dad.
Then at Mom.
When she spoke again, the anger was gone.
“You keep saying fix like it means hide.”
Blake said nothing.
She took a breath.
“If you want to help, come back and tell the truth where everyone can hear it.”
The airport noise continued.
Then the boarding announcement repeated.
For a second I thought he had hung up.
Finally Blake said, “I’m scared.”
Vanessa’s face crumpled.
“So am I.”
Another silence.
Then we heard him walking.
Fast.
The airport sounds changed around him.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Walking away from the gate.”
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Blake kept breathing into the phone.
“I’m coming back.”
She did not thank him.
She did not forgive him.
She only said, “Don’t turn your phone off.”
“I won’t.”
The call ended.
Nobody spoke for a while.
My mother picked up the fallen chair.
Martin looked through the study doorway at the shredded paper.
My father stared at his hands.
Vanessa stood beside me.
Yesterday, I had looked up at her from the floor and believed I knew exactly who had taken from whom.
Now the accounting had become uglier.
Money had moved through nearly everyone.
So had fear.
So had silence.
My phone buzzed again.
This time it was Eleanor.
Marcus found one more thing.
I opened the message.
Attached was a scanned authorization form dated five months earlier.
My signature appeared beside my father’s.
The transfer was for sixty thousand dollars to North Bay.
Below the signatures was a handwritten approval note.
The handwriting was Vanessa’s.
She saw it over my shoulder.
Her face went blank.
“I wrote that.”
My father looked up.
“What does it say?”
Vanessa read it aloud.
“Approved per family agreement.”
She pressed her fingers to her lips.
“I remember this.”
I turned toward her.
“What do you remember?”
Her eyes filled again, but this time with something closer to horror than grief.
“Dad gave me that form.”
My father frowned.
“I did?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“At the hospital.”
He stared at her.
“I told you to give it to Martin.”
“Yes.”
“Blank?”
Vanessa shook her head slowly.
“No.”
Her voice became almost inaudible.
“Your signature was already on it.”
My father looked at the document.
Then he looked toward the stamp on his desk.
“That means the stamp existed before your mother says she made it.”
My mother looked at the stamp as though it had changed shape.
“No.”
Her voice was barely audible.
“I had that made in February.”
Vanessa held the scanned form closer to her face.
“This is dated January twenty-ninth.”
“That’s impossible.”
My father extended his hand.
“Let me see it.”
I gave him the phone.
He studied the image for a long time.
His thumb moved once over the edge of the screen.
“That was three days after I came home from rehab.”
Vanessa nodded.
“You were in the den.”
“I remember the den.”
“You gave me a folder and told me Martin needed it.”
My father frowned.
“Was Patricia there?”
“No.”
“Blake?”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
The room seemed to contract.
“He drove me over that morning.”
I looked toward my mother.
She was shaking her head.
“I did not have the stamp then.”
Martin stepped into the study and looked down at the rubber signature.
“Maybe you didn’t.”
My father looked at him.
“What are you saying?”
Martin opened his portfolio.
“I’m saying the stamp in this room may not be the first one.”
Nobody spoke.
He removed a sheet of paper and set it on the desk.
“I checked our administrative purchasing records before I came here.”
Eleanor’s voice still came faintly from my phone.
“What did you find?”
Martin leaned over the page.
“An expense reimbursement from January twenty-second.”
May you like
“For what?”
“Office supplies.”
