Chương 7
Nathan knew better.
He had simply forgotten.
“Before we begin,” Nathan said, “I’m informing the board that last night a toxic substance was placed on my food during a dinner attended by Julian Vale.”
Nobody interrupted.
Nathan explained the facts without embellishment.
Lily’s observation.
The vial.
The preliminary laboratory result.
Police involvement.
Julian’s denial.
Then silence.
Board member Helen Cho spoke first.
“Is Julian under arrest?”
“I don’t know.”
Everett said, “Which is important.”
Nathan looked at his square on the screen.
“It is.”
“It means law enforcement has not concluded what you’re implying.”
“I’m not asking the board to conclude anything.”
“You opened a board meeting by describing an attempted poisoning.”
“I described a poisoning attempt.”
“You don’t know intent.”
Nathan felt his jaw tighten.
Helen interrupted.
“Everett, whether the intent was to kill him or make him violently ill is not especially comforting.”
Another director muttered agreement.
Everett leaned toward his camera.
“My point is that we need discipline. There will be press. There will be questions. We cannot connect a criminal investigation to the financial review without evidence.”
Nathan said, “I haven’t.”
“You’re about to.”
Nathan opened the folder Claire had sent him thirteen months earlier.
“No. Claire did.”
Everett went still.
Nathan shared the screen.
A spreadsheet appeared.
Consulting payments.
Transfers.
Three subsidiaries.
One vendor repeated across multiple columns.
Larkspur Advisory LLC.
Nathan had seen the name before. It had meant nothing.
At four that morning, he found an email from Claire.
Check who approves Larkspur after Julian signs off. Every time.
The second approval belonged to Everett.
Nathan enlarged the rows.
“Nine payments over twenty-six months,” he said. “Totaling just over four million dollars.”
Everett’s expression did not change.
“We’ve discussed Larkspur.”
“No. We discussed consulting expenses.”
“Same thing.”
“Who owns it?”
“I don’t know.”
Nathan waited.
Everett’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re trying to make a point.”
“I’m asking a question.”
“Then ask finance.”
“I did.”
Nathan brought up another document.
“Larkspur’s vendor profile lists an address in Delaware and a correspondence address in Connecticut. The Connecticut address belongs to a property management office that handles a building partly owned by Julian.”
Helen leaned toward her screen.
“Are you saying Julian owns Larkspur?”
“I’m saying we don’t know.”
Everett shook his head.
“This is exactly why the review needs to be delayed.”
Helen stared at him.
Nathan did too.
Everett realized it.
He recovered quickly.
“Because you are mixing unrelated facts.”
Nathan said, “Then vote for the review.”
“Nathan.”
“If there’s an innocent explanation, the review finds it.”
“Independent investigators don’t exist to find innocence. They exist to justify their fees.”
“That’s not an argument.”
“It’s experience.”
Nathan looked around the screen.
“Last night, a man whose name appears repeatedly in financial records my sister flagged placed a dangerous substance on my dinner plate.”
Everett interrupted.
“Allegedly.”
Nathan continued.
“A vial containing the same substance was found beside him. He had spent the afternoon arguing against the financial review. I am not saying the records explain what happened. I’m saying delaying the review now would be indefensible.”
Helen raised her hand.
“I move that we authorize it.”
Another director seconded.
Everett’s face hardened.
The vote was six to two.
Everett and one longtime ally voted no.
Nathan did not feel victorious.
He looked at the place where his plate should have been and thought of Lily’s hand slamming the fork away.
After the meeting, Everett called three times.
Nathan did not answer.
At eleven-fifteen, Claire’s old email account produced another problem.
Nathan’s outside forensic team had been given access to preserved company records. Within two hours, they found that Larkspur was not merely a suspicious vendor.
It had received money from Cole Meridian.
Four days earlier, Larkspur had sent $250,000 to a private consulting company controlled by Julian.
The description read RETAINER.
Nathan stared at the payment.
His attorney, Rachel Wynn, sat across from him in the study.
“Don’t get excited.”
Nathan looked at her.
“I’m not excited.”
“You have the expression you get when you think something is obvious.”
“It is obvious.”
“No, it’s suspicious.”
“A company tied to unexplained payments sends Julian a quarter million dollars four days before he puts poison on my steak.”
“We do not yet know who controls Larkspur.”
“Everett approved every payment to it.”
“That is evidence of approval.”
“You sound like Ruiz.”
“Then Ruiz sounds sensible.”
Nathan pushed back from the desk.
Rachel had represented his family for nine years and had acquired the irritating habit of refusing to fear him.
“What can we do?”
“We preserve everything. We give relevant records to law enforcement through the proper channel. We do not call Everett and accuse him of paying for your murder.”
Nathan stood.
“I wasn’t going to say murder.”
“What were you going to say?”
He did not answer.
Rachel nodded.
“Exactly.”
Nathan walked to the window.
“What if he runs?”
“Everett?”
“Yes.”
“Then people whose job involves preventing that will deal with it if they have grounds.”
“You’re enjoying this.”
“Watching you discover boundaries?”
“Yes.”
“A little.”
Nathan looked at her.
Rachel closed the folder.
“You nearly died last night.”
“I didn’t.”
“You almost ate the food.”
“I didn’t.”
“Because a five-year-old hit you.”
Nathan turned toward the city.
Rachel’s tone softened.
“You don’t need to pretend the difference between those two things doesn’t bother you.”
Nathan hated when people used gentle voices around him.
It felt like someone covering furniture before a storm.
“Lily’s fine.”
“I didn’t ask about Lily.”
Nathan looked back.
Rachel stood.
“Go be a person for an hour.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“I know.”
She left.
Nathan remained by the window.
On the floor near the sofa sat Lily’s paper crown from the night before.
Blue construction paper.
Silver stars.
One side bent where somebody had stepped on it during the police search.
Nathan picked it up.
His throat tightened unexpectedly.
May you like
He took it to the kitchen and searched drawers until he found tape.
He repaired the bent side badly.
