Chương 6
Margaret looked at her husband.
“Daniel overestimated me.”
“Maybe. He still made the choice.”
“What does the key open?”
Richard moved closer.
Margaret turned away from him.
Ava said, “I don’t know. Daniel did not tell me. He told me only that if the key reached you, I should arrange a safe transfer.”
“To whom?”
“Not over the phone.”
“Is there evidence in the envelope?”
“No.”
“Then why is Mercer trying to take it?”
“He may not know that.”
Margaret’s gaze went to the locked door.
“Martin is on the train.”
Silence.
When Ava spoke again, her voice was different.
“Get away from him.”
“I am in a moving train in the Rockies.”
“Then involve the conductor. Do not isolate yourself. Do not let Richard move the children. I’m contacting law enforcement again.”
“Again?”
“Daniel asked me not to earlier. After his last call, I stopped honoring that request.”
“What did he say in his last call?”
Ava hesitated.
“He said, ‘If I’m wrong about my father, I’ll apologize to him myself.’”
Margaret waited.
“And if he wasn’t wrong?”
“He didn’t finish the sentence.”
The line clicked softly.
Margaret lowered the phone.
Richard said, “Ava Morales is not neutral.”
“Neither are you.”
“She has encouraged Daniel’s paranoia for years.”
“You know her.”
Richard pressed his lips together.
Margaret laughed without humor.
“Of course you do.”
“She represented him in a property matter.”
“You have been tracking his lawyer.”
“I have been trying to keep him alive.”
Noah said, “Dad says that’s what people say when they want you to do what they want.”
Richard looked at the boy.
For a second, Margaret saw Daniel between them so strongly it made her dizzy.
Same eyes.
Same refusal to look away first.
Richard sat.
“What exactly has Daniel told you about me?” he asked.
Noah shrugged.
“Not a lot.”
“That seems unlikely.”
“He doesn’t talk about you unless Mom makes him.”
Margaret almost looked away to spare Richard.
She decided not to.
Noah added, “He says when he gets mad at you, it makes him act like you.”
Richard’s face changed.
The train entered a tunnel.
Dark glass replaced the storm outside. Their reflections appeared around them: Margaret pale and upright, Ellie wrapped in cashmere, Noah beside the little leather backpack, Helen standing watch, Richard alone across the aisle.
For several seconds they looked like strangers trapped in a photograph.
Then the train emerged into snow again.
Richard rubbed his forehead.
“I did not order Martin to run Daniel off that road.”
Margaret said nothing.
“I told Martin to get the Redstone copies back. I told him Daniel was upset and reckless and not to let him leave the state with company records.”
“Did you tell him to follow Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell him to stop him?”
“Yes.”
“Did Daniel crash while being followed?”
“Yes.”
“Then spare me the distinction.”
“I am not sparing myself anything.”
“You’ve spent eleven years doing exactly that.”
Richard leaned forward.
“You want an uncomplicated villain because it will make tonight easier.”
“No. I want my son.”
That silenced him.
Margaret looked at the letter again.
“Tell me about my signature.”
Richard’s eyes dropped.
The answer came in pieces.
Redstone had been running over budget. A contractor had threatened to walk. Whitmore Consolidated needed short-term cash in a subsidiary while financing was renegotiated. Richard approved moving money through several affiliated entities.
One of them managed assets for the Whitmore Foundation.
Margaret had signed an authorization transferring funds between investment accounts.
The authorization itself had been legitimate.
Someone later used the same signed resolution as support for another transfer that was not.
“Someone?” Margaret asked.
Richard stared at his hands.
“Martin arranged it.”
“Without your knowledge?”
“I knew money was being moved.”
“That was not my question.”
Richard’s mouth tightened.
“I did not know he used foundation documentation.”
“When did you learn?”
“Before Daniel’s accident.”
Margaret felt a deep, almost peaceful disgust.
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“I had already replaced the money.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I was protecting you.”
There it was.
The family religion.
Protection.
Daniel had disappeared to protect her.
Richard had lied to protect her.
Mercer had broken rules to protect Richard.
Everybody had protected Margaret until there was almost nothing left of her life that belonged to her.
“I wish,” she said, “one of you had tried respecting me.”
Richard looked away.
The observation-car door rattled again.
This time Mercer called through it.
“Richard.”
Nobody answered.
“Richard, we need to speak.”
Margaret rose.
Helen said, “I wouldn’t open it.”
“I’m not going to.”
She approached the door but kept three feet between herself and the glass.
Mercer’s face appeared through the narrow pane.
“Mrs. Whitmore.”
“What?”
“We have reason to believe Daniel removed confidential digital records belonging to the company. Those records could create serious security and legal exposure.”
“You keep using the word records as though it means my son.”
“Your son is making decisions that put people at risk.”
“Which people?”
“Everyone connected to this.”
“Name one.”
Mercer’s eyes flicked toward Richard.
Margaret noticed.
So did Richard.
Mercer said, “You.”
Richard stood.
“Martin.”
“Sir, she deserves to know.”
“I said enough.”
Mercer’s gaze changed.
“You don’t get to decide that anymore.”
Richard froze.
There was a small silence.
Margaret stepped closer to the door.
“What does he have on you, Richard?”
Mercer smiled faintly.
Not pleasantly.
Richard said, “Nothing that concerns you.”
Mercer’s smile disappeared.
Margaret almost admired the stubbornness required to make such a statement under the circumstances.
Then she saw Noah watching.
She moved back to him.
“You and Ellie need food.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“That wasn’t a question.”
Noah frowned.
Daniel had made exactly the same face when Margaret forced him to eat breakfast before ski lessons.
May you like
She had the absurd thought that genetics should not be allowed to be that cruel.
Helen ordered soup from the dining car and asked the staff to bring it through the forward service entrance so nobody needed to open the vestibule door.
