Chương 5
Vincent Ruiz.
Noah’s fingers moved faster.
On the day of the accident, at 4:30 in the afternoon, his mother had written: Speak to Claire before R. files amendment.
“What amendment?” Elena asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Would it be in the company records?”
“Maybe. Claire has access.”
“Then call her.”
Noah used Elena’s phone because his own remained on the family plan and had already begun showing no service. Claire answered on the fifth ring.
“Elena?”
“It’s Noah.”
Silence.
“Where are you?” Claire asked.
“Why?”
“Dad said you had an episode.”
“He froze my accounts.”
“He said you destroyed Grandmother Evelyn’s vase and threatened him.”
“I didn’t threaten him.”
“You threw a piece of porcelain the size of a fire hydrant.”
“It was not the size of a fire hydrant.”
Elena reached for the phone. Noah turned away from her.
Claire continued, “He also said you took Mom’s phone from estate property.”
“I found messages from Vincent Ruiz.”
Another silence, different this time.
“Who told you that name?” she asked.
“It’s on the messages.”
“You need to bring the phone back.”
“I need you to look up a board amendment filed the Friday before Mom died.”
“Noah, listen to me. Graham is contacting counsel. They think you may have accessed privileged records.”
“Did you hear what I said?”
“Yes.”
“Mom had a reminder to call you about the amendment.”
Claire lowered her voice. “Where are you?”
“At a diner.”
“With Elena?”
“Yes.”
“Stay there.”
The line ended.
Elena took her phone back. “Is she coming?”
“I think so.”
“She did not say.”
“She never does.”
Claire arrived twenty-eight minutes later in cream trousers and a camel coat she had thrown over evening clothes. Her dark hair was pinned back, though one side had loosened. She entered scanning the room and relaxed only slightly when she saw them.
She did not sit.
“Give me the phone.”
“No.”
“Noah, I left my children with a neighbor because Dad said you were unstable.”
“He says that whenever I become inconvenient.”
“He says it because you smashed a three-hundred-year-old vase.”
“It was made in 1894,” Elena said.
Claire turned toward her.
Elena sipped her coffee. “Martin told me.”
Claire pulled out the empty side of the booth and sat. “Are you all right?”
Noah looked at her carefully, trying to determine whether she wanted the truth or a manageable answer.
“No.”
Her shoulders dropped. “Okay.”
He played Vincent’s voicemail.
She listened without moving, then asked to hear it again. On the second play, her eyes closed when Vincent said the brake line was leaking under pressure.
“That could mean anything,” she said when it ended.
“It means the brake line was leaking.”
“It means he believed it was.”
“He left a written report with Graham.”
“Graham says Vincent was inflating repair needs because he knew the family paid without questioning invoices.”
“Dad used the same explanation.”
“Maybe because it’s true.”
Elena placed her spoon in the soup bowl. “Did you ever meet Vincent?”
Claire looked at her. “Of course.”
“Did he strike you as dishonest?”
“People do not usually announce it.”
“No. They tend to accuse someone else first.”
Claire’s face hardened. “You work for my father.”
“Not anymore, I think.”
“That doesn’t make you part of this family.”
Noah flinched.
Elena folded her napkin with careful hands. “No. It means I was allowed to witness it.”
Claire turned away, ashamed but unwilling to apologize yet.
Noah opened the calendar. “Mom wrote that she needed to speak to you before Dad filed an amendment.”
Claire read the entry twice.
“What?” he asked.
“I don’t remember.”
“You were supposed to talk Friday.”
“I had a baby who woke every ninety minutes. Half my life happened in a fog.”
“What amendment?”
“I said I don’t remember.”
“Try.”
Her head snapped up. “Do you think I haven’t spent five years trying to remember every call I ignored that week?”
The delivery driver at the counter looked over. Claire lowered her voice.
“She called Friday afternoon,” she said. “I let it go to voicemail because Grace was screaming and I had mastitis and Mom had been calling me every day to complain about Dad. I deleted the message without listening.”
Noah stared at her.
“I know,” she said.
He sat back. “Did Dad know?”
“Yes.”
“And he still told you the crash was my fault.”
“He said you called her from the hospital after you stole a car and got into a fight.”
“He knew the brakes were failing.”
“We do not know that.”
“His voice is on the other message.”
Noah played it.
Richard sounded impatient, almost bored.
“Marianne, Vincent has become dramatic because I questioned his charges. The car was inspected last month. Miller has the Escalade, and I need the Bentley here in case Anderson comes by. If you insist on going to the hospital, take the Mercedes and drive carefully. Noah can wait another half hour. Frankly, it may do him good.”
Claire’s face lost color.
The waitress arrived with the coffee pot, noticed the table, and retreated without asking.
For a while, no one spoke.
Claire finally reached for the phone. Noah pulled it back.
“I need to authenticate it,” she said.
“You need to believe me.”
“Those are not the same thing.”
“Which one comes first?”
“Right now? Authentication.”
He laughed under his breath. “You really are his daughter.”
The insult landed. Claire’s eyes narrowed, then filled.
“Yes,” she said. “So are you.”
He looked away.
Elena took a twenty-dollar bill from her purse and placed it beneath the coffee cup. “Both of you are tired.”
Claire ignored her. “What do you plan to do with this?”
“Find Vincent.”
“He signed a settlement and left the state.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Dad had me approve a confidential payment from a family holding company six months after the accident.”
Noah stared at her. “You approved it?”
“I was told it resolved fraudulent billing claims.”
“How much?”
May you like
“Two hundred thousand.”
Elena’s eyes sharpened. “That is generous for a dishonest mechanic.”
