Chương 9
“I don’t want your money.”
“You need income.”
The remark was practical. That made it crueler.
Mara thought of her student loan payment, the apartment she had given up when Ruth became ill, the room upstairs that existed only while Harrison allowed it.
He saw the calculation in her face.
“I am not threatening you,” he said.
“You don’t have to.”
She left the library.
Owen Mercer called again at two thirty.
This time, Mara answered from her car in the employee lot. Rainwater still pooled along the gravel. She had packed a suitcase and placed it in the trunk, though she had nowhere particular to take it.
“You spoke to Serena,” Owen said.
“How do you know?”
“She called my old number six times.”
“Where are you?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“Then why call me?”
“Because your mother found the first false invoice.”
“I know.”
“She confronted Daniel.”
“Did you see it?”
“I heard them.”
“When?”
“July sixth, six years ago. In the foundation office.”
Mara closed her eyes.
Her mother had come home late that night and eaten cereal over the sink. Mara remembered because Ruth complained that the milk smelled like the refrigerator.
“What did Daniel say?”
“That he would fix it. That Harrison knew enough to help.”
“Did Harrison know?”
“Yes.”
“Before Daniel died?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you report it?”
Owen made a sound that might have been a laugh.
“I had two children in college and a mortgage. Daniel was the chairman’s son. Harrison told me the transfers would be reversed. Serena told me exposure would kill the foundation. Everyone said waiting thirty days was responsible.”
“And after thirty days?”
“There was another reason to wait.”
“Why give the affidavit now?”
“My wife left me in January. Not because of this. People always want one clean cause, but marriages are not accounting statements. After she left, I found the old files in the garage. I had spent six years telling myself I kept them because I might need proof. I think I kept them because throwing them away would have made the lie permanent.”
“Where is the packet?”
“I gave it to Ellen.”
“Serena gave it to Leon.”
“I don’t know Leon.”
“He disappeared.”
Owen was silent.
“Meet me,” Mara said.
“No.”
“You called me.”
“I called Ruth’s daughter. That was sentimental and probably a mistake.”
“My mother’s name may become public.”
“It should be cleared by Daniel’s note.”
“Then help me recover it.”
“I don’t have that kind of help left.”
“Where are you?”
The line went quiet again.
Mara heard a public announcement in the background. A bus terminal or train station.
“Owen.”
“I’m sorry about Ruth,” he said. “She was the only person who told Daniel he was not too sad to be dishonest.”
He ended the call.
Mara sat with the phone against her ear until the screen went dark.
A knock sounded on the passenger window.
Rachel stood outside holding two paper bags.
Mara unlocked the door.
Rachel got in, damp and out of breath.
“Mrs. Kline made sandwiches,” she said. “She says leaving angry without food is how people end up buying eight-dollar crackers at gas stations.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“Your suitcase is in the trunk.”
“I’m considering leaving.”
Rachel placed the bags between them.
“Paul suspended me.”
“Why?”
“I told the police Serena asked me to carry a garment bag to Leon’s car at nine.”
Mara turned.
“What was in it?”
“Clothes. I think.”
“When?”
“Before you came down the stairs. Serena called the pantry phone and said she needed the bag taken through the rear hall. Leon was waiting by the conservatory.”
“Did you see the packet?”
“No.”
“Why didn’t you say this last night?”
“Paul told me not to complicate the first statement.”
Mara stared through the windshield toward the house.
“Did he tell you to lie?”
“He said answer only what they ask.”
“That is how people here lie.”
Rachel wiped fog from the window with her sleeve.
“I know that now.”
“Why did Paul suspend you?”
“For failing to report contact with Leon before he left.”
“He told you not to report it.”
“Yes.”
Neither of them spoke for a moment.
Rachel opened one of the bags.
“Turkey,” she said. “The other is egg salad, which seems dangerous during a scandal.”
Mara laughed once before she could stop herself.
Rachel smiled, relieved.
Then her face tightened.
“There was something else in the garment bag,” she said.
“What?”
“It was heavier at the bottom. Flat. Like a book.”
“The packet?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where did the bag come from?”
“Serena’s dressing room.”
“Did Leon put it in the car?”
“I handed it to him.”
“Which car?”
“The town car.”
“The police searched it.”
“He took the bag out at the station.”
“You saw?”
“No. Paul showed me the footage after he suspended me.”
Mara reached for the door.
Rachel caught her sleeve.
“There’s more. Someone met Leon.”
“Who?”
“The camera only shows the back of him. Dark coat, umbrella. Leon gave him the garment bag.”
“Paul knows?”
“Yes.”
“Why hasn’t he told Harrison?”
Rachel looked toward the security wing.
“I think it was Ellen’s husband.”
Ellen Shaw was unmarried.
Mara looked at Rachel.
“Ellen doesn’t have a husband.”
“I know. But I’ve seen the man before. He came to the estate with her. Tall, gray at the sides. She called him Martin.”
“Martin Bell?”
One of the named partners at Pike, Bell and Shaw.
Rachel nodded.
The packet had left Ashbourne through Serena’s driver and arrived with Harrison’s own law firm.
Mara went back inside.
Ellen was in the blue sitting room with Harrison and Paul. Martin Bell appeared on a laptop screen set at the end of the coffee table.
Mara entered without knocking.
“Where is Leon?” she asked.
Ellen muted the screen.
“Mara, we are in a privileged conversation.”
“Martin met him at Westport station.”
No one answered.
Paul looked down.
Harrison turned toward Ellen.
“Is that true?”
May you like
Ellen removed her glasses.
“Martin received a garment bag from Leon at ten twelve last night.”
