Chương 14
“Can you recover it?”
“I already did from the version you sent me three weeks ago.”
Maya muted the television.
Claire put the call on speaker.
Emily continued.
“The deleted rows are all payments.”
“To who?”
“A company called PPR Consulting.”
Claire looked at Maya.
“Never heard of it.”
“Neither had I. So I searched state business records.”
Emily paused.
“It belonged to Peter Price.”
Claire felt cold.
“Lena's father.”
“Yes.”
“Why was Bennett Maritime paying him?”
“That's the weird part. The payments continued after he died.”
Maya leaned forward.
“For how long?”
“Sixteen years.”
Claire stared.
“Amount?”
“About forty-eight thousand dollars a year, increasing slightly.”
“Who received it?”
“The account later transferred to Lena Price.”
The room went silent.
Claire said, “That doesn't sound like revenge.”
“No.”
“It sounds like hush money.”
Maya said, “Or settlement payments.”
Emily answered. “Maybe. But they're booked as consulting fees.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Peter Price died.
His daughter received private payments for sixteen years.
Then Thomas died.
Margaret found the records.
Lena helped sort them.
Claire received documents.
Rows involving Lena's family were deleted before the fire.
“Who changed the spreadsheet?”
Emily said, “Metadata shows the copy in the email you received was modified the afternoon before the fire.”
“By who?”
“User initials LP.”
Maya whispered, “Lena Price.”
Claire shook her head.
“Too obvious.”
“Maybe.”
“Could metadata be altered?”
“Yes.”
“Send everything to Cole.”
“I already did.”
Claire smiled despite herself.
“You're learning.”
“I work in compliance, Claire. My entire personality is documentation.”
After the call, Claire sat in silence.
Maya unmuted the television.
A contractor was explaining why a wall could not be removed.
Claire watched without hearing.
“Why would Lena delete evidence of payments to herself?” she asked.
Maya muted the television again.
“To hide that she was being paid.”
“But from whom?”
“Thomas?”
“He's dead.”
“Margaret?”
Claire looked at her phone.
“Daniel?”
Maya said nothing.
Claire's stomach tightened.
Daniel had been twenty-two when Evelyn died.
Lena would have been twenty-five.
They could have known each other.
Claire searched her memory for every time she had seen them in a room together.
Christmas dinners.
Charity events.
Margaret's birthday.
Lena handing Daniel schedules.
Daniel barely acknowledging her.
Too barely?
Claire hated herself for thinking like that.
Everyone became suspicious if you stared long enough.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Maya looked at her.
Claire answered.
A woman's voice said, “Claire?”
Claire's skin prickled.
“Who is this?”
“Lena.”
Maya stood.
Claire immediately activated speaker.
“Where are you?”
“Portugal.”
“Why are you calling me?”
A pause.
“Because the police contacted me.”
“Good.”
“And because they're going to tell you I tried to kill you.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
The answer was quiet.
Claire believed nothing.
“Why did you leave?”
“My mother is Portuguese. She had a stroke.”
“Convenient.”
“I know how it looks.”
Claire almost laughed at the phrase.
Apparently everyone did.
“Did you tamper with the study door?”
“No.”
“Did you alter the spreadsheet?”
“Yes.”
Maya's eyebrows lifted.
Claire said, “Why?”
“Because the payments weren't hush money.”
“What were they?”
“My father's share.”
“Of what?”
“The insurance fraud.”
Claire stared.
“What?”
Lena exhaled shakily.
“My father helped Thomas hide the electrical fault.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“He was one of the victims.”
“Yes.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Money.”
The answer came with exhausted contempt.
“People keep making him into a saint because he died. He wasn't.”
Claire sat back.
Lena continued.
“Thomas Bennett couldn't get Asterion insured at the valuation he needed if the electrical problem was disclosed. My father signed off on a temporary repair he knew hadn't been done.”
“And then the ship burned.”
“And he died on it.”
“Why were you paid afterward?”
“My mother found correspondence between my father and Thomas. She threatened to sue.”
“Instead?”
“Thomas paid her.”
“For sixteen years?”
“Yes.”
“Then the records implicate your father too.”
“Yes.”
“So you deleted them.”
“I didn't want Claire Bennett publishing a story that turned my dead father into the villain and Thomas into the rich man who paid for silence.”
Claire said, “Thomas was still responsible.”
“They both were.”
Lena's voice sharpened.
“That is the problem with your version. You wanted clean lines. Rich family evil. Dead worker victim. I wanted my mother to die without seeing strangers online call her husband a murderer.”
Claire absorbed the anger.
It felt real.
“What happened in the study?”
“I brought you water.”
“And a charger.”
“Yes.”
“You saw the papers.”
“Yes.”
“We argued.”
“A little.”
“Did you touch the door?”
“I held it.”
“With what?”
“My hand.”
“Did you lock it?”
“No.”
“Did you know the power bank was recalled?”
Silence.
Claire sat straighter.
“Lena.”
“Yes.”
Maya's face changed.
Claire felt cold spread through her body.
“How?”
“I saw the recall notice months ago. Daniel ordered replacements for several devices at the house.”
“Did he replace mine?”
“I don't know.”
“You brought me the charger.”
“Yes.”
“You saw the battery.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you say anything?”
“I didn't recognize it at first.”
“At first?”
“When I left the room, I thought it looked familiar. I checked an email.”
“And?”
“It was the recalled model.”
Claire's hand shook around the phone.
“What did you do?”
“I went back.”
“When?”
“Maybe two minutes later.”
“Was the door open?”
“No.”
“Did you open it?”
“I tried.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“What happened?”
“It wouldn't open.”
Maya whispered, “Oh my God.”
“Did you call for help?”
Lena began crying.
Not loudly.
There was a raw inhale, then silence.
“Lena.”
“No.”
Claire stared at the wall.
“Why?”
“I panicked.”
The most common confession in the Bennett universe.
“I thought if I called security, they'd ask why I'd gone back. They'd ask what we talked about. You had those records. My father's name was there.”
“So you left me.”
“I didn't know the battery would catch fire.”
“You knew it could.”
“Yes.”
“You knew the door was stuck.”
“Yes.”
“And you walked away.”
“Yes.”
May you like
Claire could hear Lena crying now.
Maya reached for Claire's hand.
