Chương 3
Elena sat on the edge of the bed in her evening gown.
Her earrings hurt.
She removed one, then the other, placing them in an empty water glass because she could not find a jewelry tray.
The pendant remained around her neck.
For nearly twenty minutes she did nothing.
Then she walked barefoot into the kitchen.
Marcus was eating cold roast chicken over the sink.
She stopped in the doorway.
He looked at the drumstick in his hand.
“I missed dinner.”
“You were at a dinner.”
“I spent dinner arguing with a senator about parking regulations.”
Elena opened the refrigerator.
“There are six kinds of mustard.”
“Marie has opinions.”
She took out a bottle of water.
Her father chewed, swallowed, then said, “Your mother hated that necklace.”
Elena touched the pendant.
“She hated jewelry that looked like club membership.”
“She said the signet made us look like minor European nobility.”
“She wasn’t wrong.”
Marcus smiled briefly.
It disappeared.
“Elena, I need to know what we’re dealing with.”
She opened the water.
“There are transfers.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
His expression changed.
“That means you know enough not to like the number.”
“I found three. Two point eight. Four point one. Five.”
“Million?”
“Yes.”
“To where?”
“Cross Meridian Development Services first. Then somewhere else.”
“You have the somewhere else?”
“No.”
“Were they authorized?”
“That’s complicated.”
Marcus set the chicken down.
“Complicated how?”
Elena drank water slowly because her mouth had gone dry.
“Do you remember the River North acquisition last year?”
“I remember telling Adrian it was overpriced.”
“You tell people their groceries are overpriced.”
“They usually are.”
“Dad.”
He leaned against the counter.
“Go on.”
“When the lender delayed final funding, Adrian asked for temporary authority to move cash between operating entities. We had payroll, earnest money, contractor deposits. He sent me a consent package.”
“You signed it.”
“Yes.”
Marcus’s face closed slightly.
Elena hated that.
“I was traveling. He said it was routine.”
“You signed financial authority without reading the limits.”
“I read it.”
“Apparently not enough.”
She put the bottle down harder than she intended.
“That is exactly why I didn’t call you first.”
Marcus’s mouth opened, then closed.
She laughed once without humor.
“Thank you for demonstrating the problem this efficiently.”
“Elena, twelve million dollars—”
“I know how much twelve million dollars is.”
“Then act like it.”
The sentence stayed between them.
Marcus looked away first.
His thumb went to his index finger again.
“That was cheap,” he said.
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
She pulled out a chair and sat.
After a moment he sat across from her.
“The authority had a five-million-dollar cap,” she said. “Thirty days. Acquisition-related expenses only. I found transfers outside the window. I don’t know whether there were more.”
“Why were you looking?”
That question hurt in a different place.
“Because Adrian started asking me to sign another ratification.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
“What did he say it was?”
“Cleanup after year-end audit prep.”
“And you believed him?”
“For about six minutes.”
Marcus waited.
Elena stared at the water bottle label.
“There was a schedule attached. Four pages. Page three listed an intercompany receivable I didn’t recognize. It disappeared in the revised copy.”
“Disappeared?”
“The amount was rolled into another line.”
“Who revised it?”
“Camille.”
“Did you ask her?”
“I asked why the schedule changed. She said Adrian wanted it simplified.”
Marcus frowned. “Camille Hart is communications.”
“Chief strategy and communications now.”
“That title means nothing.”
“It means she knows where everybody’s bodies are buried and has no formal responsibility for digging.”
“Elena rubbed the side of her thumb with one fingernail.
“I requested underlying bank statements through accounting. Adrian called the controller before she sent them.”
“How do you know?”
“She called me afterward and apologized.”
“For what?”
“For misunderstanding the reporting structure.”
Marcus gave a quiet, ugly laugh.
“That sounds like Adrian.”
“It also sounds like every company where nobody wants to lose a seven-figure job.”
“Did she send anything?”
“Two PDFs. Then she withdrew the message.”
“Withdrawn emails still exist.”
“I downloaded them.”
“Where?”
Elena touched the pendant without thinking.
Marcus noticed.
“Not in the necklace.”
“No.”
“Then where?”
“With an outside forensic accountant.”
His face changed again, this time not to judgment.
“You hired one?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“Who?”
“Rachel Sato.”
Marcus sat back.
He knew the name. Rachel had investigated accounting irregularities for one of Vale Holdings’ lenders years earlier and irritated everyone equally, which was why Elena had chosen her.
“You did all of this without telling me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Elena looked at him.
“Because I wanted to know whether I had a financial problem before I turned it into a family war.”
Marcus folded his arms.
“And?”
“Now I have both.”
He looked toward the dark window over the sink.
After a while he said, “When did Nora start coming?”
“Tonight.”
“You said we were already coming.”
“You were.”
He turned back.
“I sent Nora a scheduled check-in at seven. If I didn’t cancel it by eleven-thirty, she was supposed to come to the building and wait downstairs.”
“You expected trouble.”
“I expected pressure.”
“But you armed the pendant.”
“In the elevator.”
“Why?”
Elena had not told anyone this part.
“Because Adrian changed the dinner reservation.”
Marcus frowned.
“He moved dinner upstairs?”
“Yes.”
“Why did that matter?”
“It didn’t. Not by itself.”
She looked at the empty glass where Marcus had left a fork.
“He told Camille to come too. Then he asked the driver not to wait. Then he took my phone when we entered the apartment and said he didn’t want us distracted. Three little things. None of them enough to call anyone.”
Marcus’s face went very still.
“So you armed it.”
“Yes.”
He stared at her for a long time.
“I was going to ask why you didn’t leave then.”
“I almost did.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because the folder was on the table.”
“That folder could have waited.”
“I know.”
“But you stayed.”
“Yes.”
Marcus looked down.
May you like
Elena expected another lecture.
Instead he said, “I used to stay in meetings with your grandfather for the same reason.”
