Chương 12
Then Peter’s credibility came under attack.
Anonymous accounts circulated allegations that he had mismanaged company funds. A photograph appeared showing Peter drinking with Elena at a charity dinner five years earlier. The caption implied an affair.
Elena barely remembered the dinner.
Peter’s wife did.
She called Elena from a blocked number.
“Did you sleep with him?”
“No.”
“Did you want to?”
“No.”
“My husband says Ivan invented this because Peter spoke to police.”
“That sounds likely.”
“Likely isn’t the same as true.”
“No.”
The woman’s breathing came fast through the phone.
“Peter has lied to me before.”
Elena sat in her studio with the door locked.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t say that like you know what I mean.”
“You’re right.”
“Was there ever anything?”
“No.”
“A message? A kiss? Something you thought about and stopped?”
Elena could have protected herself with outrage.
Instead, she remembered Peter standing beside her at that charity dinner while Ivan disappeared with donors. Peter had asked whether she wanted to leave. His concern had warmed her more than it should have.
“I imagined what it would be like to be married to someone who asked if I was tired,” she said.
Silence.
“That isn’t an affair.”
“No.”
“It isn’t nothing.”
“No.”
Peter’s wife ended the call.
Elena told Dana about it.
“Why would you say that?” Dana asked.
“Because she asked.”
“You are not required to answer every emotional question with maximum vulnerability.”
“I’m learning.”
“You are learning in a manner that creates discoverable statements.”
“Put that on a brochure too.”
A week later, Maya Chen received a letter accusing her of violating a confidentiality agreement with the catering company by recording private guests.
The agreement did not prohibit documenting work conditions or cooperating with law enforcement, but Maya panicked.
She called Elena late at night.
“I can’t afford a lawsuit.”
“They may be bluffing.”
“That’s what my supervisor said. Then the company suspended me.”
“Why?”
“They said they need to investigate whether I posted the video.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Do they believe you?”
“I don’t know.”
Elena gripped the phone with her left hand.
Maya continued. “Ivan’s lawyer offered to cover my lost wages if I sign a statement saying you told me to record him.”
Elena stopped breathing.
“What did you say?”
“I hung up.”
“Did you record the call?”
“No.”
“That’s all right.”
“It doesn’t feel all right.”
“Did they put the offer in writing?”
“They said they would send documents.”
“Forward everything to Dana.”
“I don’t have Dana’s email.”
Elena gave it to her.
Maya was quiet.
Then she asked, “Did you tell me to record him?”
“No.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“I was there.”
The answer steadied something in Elena that legal language could not.
“Maya, the catering company has attorneys. Dana may be able to help you find your own.”
“I don’t want this to become my life.”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t get to say that.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“You’re right.”
“I was working a Saturday job. I have student loans. My mother thinks I’m going to be killed because people online found my name.”
“I’m sorry.”
“They call me a hero.”
“You don’t have to be.”
“They call me a liar too.”
“You don’t have to answer them.”
“You answer everything like there’s a correct procedure.”
The accusation sounded like Noah.
Elena looked at the meticulous rows of tools on her worktable.
“What do you need from me?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“All right.”
“I expected you to tell me.”
“So did I.”
Maya laughed weakly.
They sat in silence over the phone.
Finally Maya said, “The worst part is I almost didn’t record. I thought it wasn’t my business.”
“What changed?”
“You looked at the camera above the door before he touched you.”
Elena’s skin went cold.
“What?”
“You looked at it. Just for a second.”
“I don’t remember.”
“I thought maybe you were checking whether it was on.”
The memory returned in fragments.
Ivan approaching.
His voice changing.
The camera’s red light.
Elena calculating distance.
Not expecting the grill. Expecting something.
“You were already afraid,” Maya said.
“Yes.”
“Then I started filming.”
Elena pressed the phone against her ear.
“Thank you.”
“I hate when people say that.”
“I know.”
“You did it again.”
“Yes.”
Maya’s laugh became a sob.
Elena listened until it passed.
The forensic review of the security system produced video from three cameras.
The patio camera had captured the assault from above, without sound. The kitchen camera recorded the minutes before and after. A driveway camera showed guests arriving, police entering, and one additional detail no one expected.
Twenty minutes before the barbecue, Cynthia had entered the house through the side door carrying a small black case.
She left the case in Ivan’s study.
The warrant did not cover a search for unrelated items, and the house had been returned to Ivan’s control after the security equipment was seized. The case was gone.
When shown the footage, Cynthia claimed it contained jewelry she intended to place in the family safe.
Dana advised Elena that the detail might mean nothing.
Elena remembered Cynthia’s behavior that afternoon. The constant glances toward the house. Her unusual insistence that the back door remain open despite the heat. The way she had asked Ivan twice whether he had “handled the Zurich documents.”
Elena searched her evidence folders.
In CYNTHIA, she found an email from six months earlier.
Please sign the authorization before Thursday. Ivan cannot carry everything personally, and delay will draw attention.
At the time, Elena had assumed it concerned a property transfer.
Dana compared the email with records from Ivan’s companies. The timing aligned with a disputed movement of funds through a family trust.
The financial questions grew larger.
So did the danger of the story drifting away from what Ivan had done to Elena.
May you like
Prosecutors asked whether she would provide the financial documents to investigators examining possible fraud and misuse of company accounts.
Dana warned that Elena’s own signatures appeared on several transactions.
