Part 5
Julian handed him the folder.
Alan read the label and stopped.
It was not shock that crossed his face.
It was recognition.
Mara saw it. Julian did too.
“You know what Halcyon is,” Julian said.
Alan removed his glasses and wiped them with the end of his tie. “I know what it was.”
“Then start there.”
Alan looked toward Mara. “This conversation should be privileged.”
“She found the records.”
“That does not make her counsel.”
“I’m aware.”
“She may also be a witness.”
Mara unclipped the phone from the pocket of her dress and held it out.
“I photographed three ledger pages at 4:18 this afternoon. I haven’t sent or copied them. The phone has been locked since before the confrontation. You should document taking possession.”
Alan looked at her arm.
“What confrontation?”
“A dispute over the document case.”
“With Ms. Arden?”
“Yes.”
Celeste’s voice was flat. “This is absurd.”
Alan opened his briefcase and took out a yellow legal pad.
He wrote the date, time, and phone model. He asked Mara to unlock the screen without opening the photographs, enabled airplane mode while she watched, placed the device in an envelope, and signed across the seal.
Mara countersigned it.
“Do you consent to my retaining this pending review?” he asked.
“For seventy-two hours.”
Celeste stared at her. “You think you’re negotiating?”
“I’m establishing the terms.”
Alan looked at Mara more closely.
“You’ve done this before.”
“My last institution had a theft investigation.”
“Were you involved?”
“I found the inventory discrepancy.”
“And?”
“The director accused an intern. The intern hadn’t done it.”
“Who had?”
“The director.”
Alan wrote something on the pad.
Julian leaned against the worktable. “Tell me about Halcyon.”
Alan placed both hands on his briefcase.
“Your grandfather acquired three former manufacturing sites through a subsidiary in the late nineties. Environmental liabilities emerged. Your father created Halcyon Management to administer remediation, tenant relocation, and settlements. After Halcyon dissolved, certain obligations were transferred to private agreements.”
“Paid by the charitable trust.”
“Some were.”
“Legally?”
Alan hesitated.
“That is not an answer,” Julian said.
“It depends on the purpose and documentation of each payment.”
“Did you approve them?”
“I did not represent the trust until 2016.”
“Did you know they were continuing?”
“I knew the trust funded community remediation grants.”
“Through an account identified only by initials?”
Alan looked at the open folder.
“I would need to review the ledger.”
“It’s missing.”
Silence settled over the archive.
Alan’s eyes went to Celeste.
She shook her head. “No.”
He had not asked a question.
Julian folded his arms.
“Search the house.”
Alan’s expression sharpened. “Carefully.”
“Every room.”
“You cannot conduct an uncontrolled search of occupied rooms and personal property.”
“It’s my house.”
“Property ownership does not eliminate privacy, employment, or evidentiary issues.”
“Then tell me what we can do.”
Alan glanced at Celeste. “Ask everyone who entered the west wing to remain available. Preserve access logs and security footage. Secure exterior doors without physically detaining anyone. Request voluntary inspection of bags and vehicles. If someone refuses, document the refusal and decide whether the circumstances justify contacting law enforcement.”
Celeste gave him a look of open contempt. “You cannot seriously believe this.”
“I seriously believe a restricted financial ledger is missing from a locked archive,” Alan said. “Everything after that depends on facts.”
Julian turned to Mara. “Who had access today?”
“Me. The HVAC technician entered the outer workroom at ten. Mrs. Alvarez brought lunch at twelve-thirty but didn’t go inside the cage. You came in at two.”
“I did?”
“You dropped off your grandmother’s diary.”
He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Right.”
“Celeste entered at six-twelve.”
“How do you know the time?”
“The wall clock chimed.”
Celeste looked at the clock above the door. “It’s seven minutes slow.”
“Five,” Mara said.
Alan interrupted. “Did the electronic system log her entry?”
“She didn’t use the outer door,” Mara said. “She came through the old nursery passage.”
Julian looked toward the narrow door partly hidden behind a shelving unit.
“That passage is sealed.”
“No,” Mara said. “The library side is hidden by paneling. The archive side still opens.”
Celeste’s composure cracked just enough to reveal anger.
“You showed it to me,” she told Julian. “Last summer.”
“I showed you the panel in the library. I didn’t know it opened into this room.”
“Well, it does.”
“Why did you use it tonight?”
“The west corridor was being waxed.”
“It wasn’t,” Mara said.
Celeste turned. “Do you monitor the cleaning schedule now?”
“The floors were done Tuesday.”
Alan raised a hand before the argument could return to its loop.
“Where did you go after leaving this room?”
Celeste’s eyes settled on him. “Upstairs.”
“Carrying a book?”
“I carried a family album Mara had left on the table.”
“What album?” Mara asked.
Celeste ignored her.
“Where is it?”
“In Julian’s sitting room.”
Julian left without speaking.
Celeste followed him as far as the corridor but stopped when Alan said her name.
Mara remained beside the open cage, suddenly exhausted. Her knees hurt from the marble. Tea had dried along one cuff. She wanted her phone, not because she needed to call anyone but because its absence made her feel cut off from the ordinary world where her sister sent photographs of burnt dinners and her landlord texted reminders about recycling bins.
Alan studied the scrape on her arm.
“Do you need medical attention?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s superficial.”
“Did Ms. Arden cause it?”
“The broken clasp did.”
“That isn’t the same question.”
Mara looked at him. “You and Julian ask questions the same way.”
“I taught him.”
“That explains some things.”
One corner of Alan’s mouth moved.
Then he became serious again. “I need a complete account. Not an edited one designed to protect your job.”
Mara looked toward the corridor where Celeste had disappeared.
“My job is already gone.”
“Probably.”
The bluntness steadied her more than reassurance would have.
Alan took out another legal pad.
May you like
“Start with the missing pages.”
Mara told him about opening the ledger that morning, noticing slack in the binding, and finding folios 214 and 215 absent. She described the payment entries surrounding the gap, the recurring initials V.A., and the reference to a beneficiary schedule in an annual trust report.
