Chương 6
“That wasn’t my question.”
“There are boundaries, Marcus.”
He almost laughed.
“You slapped a mechanic at an airport.”
“And you are speaking to your mother as if I am being deposed.”
“Did you know Hannah was his daughter?”
Evelyn’s fingers pressed together.
The pause answered before she did.
“I suspected.”
Marcus felt something drop inside him.
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know exactly.”
She rose.
“I will not be interrogated in your house.”
“Then leave.”
That stopped her.
Marcus had never told his mother to leave.
Not as a teenager. Not after his father died. Not during the year they fought over whether Marcus would take control of Cross Aviation’s holding company. Their arguments had rules. Neither named the possibility that one of them might simply walk away.
Evelyn’s expression hardened.
“She came for money.”
“No.”
“You have known her twelve hours.”
“I know you lied about paying her.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“What did she tell you?”
“That she never signed.”
“She signed.”
“She photographed the document before you took it back.”
For the first time, Evelyn looked genuinely surprised.
Marcus watched her recover.
“The funds were transferred.”
“Where?”
“To an account provided by her representative.”
“What representative?”
“A man who identified himself as her attorney.”
“Name.”
“I don’t remember.”
Marcus stared.
Evelyn picked up her gloves.
“I have no obligation to retain every administrative detail.”
“You retain the table assignments from charity dinners in 2009.”
“That is childish.”
“Name.”
She said nothing.
Marcus walked to the door and opened it.
Evelyn’s face reddened.
“Do not perform authority at me.”
“Then give me a reason not to.”
Her voice lowered.
“You have no idea what your father was capable of doing to people when he wanted to avoid discomfort.”
Marcus’s hand remained on the door.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you knew him as your father. I knew him as a husband.”
“So tell me.”
“You do not want that.”
“Stop deciding what I want.”
The sentence landed.
Evelyn looked toward him with an expression he could not immediately name.
Then she said, “He told Claire he would leave me.”
Marcus’s grip loosened on the door.
“He told several women things.”
“Several?”
“Yes.”
Marcus shut the door.
Evelyn continued.
“Your father was charming when he needed forgiveness and vicious when forgiveness took too long. He loved you. He loved me in whatever portion of himself he considered love. And he wanted every consequence of every choice to wait politely outside while he decided when to deal with it.”
Marcus sat.
Evelyn remained standing.
“When Claire became pregnant, he said it might be his. Then he said it could not be. Then he admitted it probably was. Then he wanted to establish a trust. Then he wanted more time.”
“The lawyer letters.”
Her eyes flicked to him.
“You’ve seen them.”
“Hannah had them.”
Evelyn’s lips pressed thin.
Marcus took out his phone and opened the photographs.
“Did he withdraw the trust?”
“He reconsidered.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“I don’t know what he told Bell.”
“The withdrawal letter has the wrong middle initial.”
Evelyn’s face went still.
There it was.
Not proof.
Not yet.
But Marcus had spent years in negotiations learning the value of silence after somebody’s body betrayed them.
He waited.
Evelyn picked up her handbag.
“This conversation is over.”
“Did you forge Dad’s instruction?”
“No.”
“Did someone do it for you?”
She looked at him.
He saw the answer was more complicated than he had expected.
That frightened him.
“Who received the two hundred fifty thousand?”
“I will have my office locate the file.”
“No. David will.”
“Your investigator has no authority to search my private records.”
“He doesn’t need your private records to trace a transfer from a Cross family account.”
“That money came from me.”
“Even better.”
Evelyn’s mouth tightened.
“What exactly do you intend to do, Marcus? Invite this woman into your home? Put her photograph on the Christmas card? Give her a board seat because your father could not keep his trousers on?”
Marcus stood so quickly the chair scraped.
“Don’t talk about her like that.”
“You do not know her.”
“Neither do you.”
“I know enough.”
“You know she was a baby when this started.”
Evelyn’s face moved.
Barely.
Marcus saw it.
Something old.
Something painful.
“Mom.”
She looked away.
“Did you meet her?”
Evelyn did not answer.
“Did you meet Hannah when she was a child?”
“I have a meeting.”
“Mom.”
She walked to the door.
Marcus did not stop her.
Before she opened it, he said, “You hit her because you were afraid she would show me something.”
Evelyn’s shoulders stiffened.
“What?”
She looked back.
For the first time since he could remember, his mother looked tired.
Not older.
Tired.
“I was afraid,” she said, “that she would make you love a dead man less.”
Then she left.
Marcus sat alone for a long time.
At 10:12, David knocked once and entered.
“Well?”
Marcus rubbed his face.
“She knew.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
David sat opposite him.
“I found Martin Bell.”
“That fast?”
“He lives in Vermont and answers his phone at seven in the morning because apparently retired people become farmers.”
“He’s a farmer?”
“No. He sounded offended when I asked.”
Despite himself, Marcus smiled.
David continued.
“He remembers Claire Reed.”
Marcus leaned forward.
“He remembers the trust?”
“He remembers preparing documents at your father’s request. He also remembers being told by your father’s personal secretary that Mr. Cross had changed his mind.”
“Secretary?”
“Margaret Voss.”
“She died years ago.”
“Yes.”
“What about the letter?”
“Bell says the second letter wasn’t produced by his office.”
Marcus stopped.
“He’s sure?”
“He wants to see the original.”
“Hannah has it.”
“Then we ask.”
“Not demand.”
David gave him a look.
“I know how to ask people questions, Marcus.”
“Hannah would disagree.”
“She dislikes me because I followed her.”
“You did follow her.”
“It was the assignment.”
“My mother’s assignment.”
“Then yours.”
May you like
Marcus stared at him.
David allowed the point to sit between them.
