Chương 5
Claire hit the brakes.
The SUV stopped on the shoulder.
Noah cried out from the back.
“Mom!”
Claire turned toward Richard.
“Do not talk to Martin.”
Richard looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because he is lying to you.”
“About what?”
“Everything he can.”
“Specifics would be useful.”
Claire glanced at Noah.
“Not here.”
“No. Here is excellent.”
“Dad.”
“Who was in the hallway last night?”
Claire said nothing.
“Was it Martin?”
Still nothing.
Noah whispered, “Mom?”
Claire closed her eyes.
Then she looked at her son.
“Put your headphones on.”
“No.”
“Noah.”
“I don’t want to.”
Richard said, “He stays.”
Claire stared at him.
“You don’t get to make that decision.”
“He’s already in it.”
“He’s seven.”
“And somebody told him to keep quiet in my house.”
Claire’s face changed.
“What?”
Richard watched her carefully.
“The man Noah overheard.”
She turned to Noah.
“What man?”
Noah shrank against the seat.
Richard’s certainty shifted.
Not vanished.
Shifted.
Claire looked genuinely confused.
“Noah, who did you see?”
“The man with you.”
“There was no man with me.”
“Yes, there was.”
“When?”
“By the stairs.”
Claire looked at Richard.
“I was on the phone.”
“With whom?”
She hesitated.
Richard felt something inside him sink.
“With Martin.”
Noah shook his head.
“He was there.”
“No, sweetheart. He wasn’t.”
“He was.”
Claire pressed her fingertips against her forehead.
“I don’t understand.”
Richard’s phone rang again.
Martin.
Claire reached for it.
Richard pulled it away.
“Don’t.”
“Dad, please.”
He answered.
“Martin.”
Claire swore.
Martin’s voice came through the speaker.
“Are you alone?”
“No.”
A pause.
“Claire there?”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t say anything. Just listen.”
Claire leaned across Richard and tried to take the phone.
He blocked her.
“Stop.”
“Hang up.”
Martin continued.
“Richard, she changed the trust documents.”
Richard looked at Claire.
She went pale.
“What documents?”
“The medical control provisions. Yesterday. She had outside counsel draft an emergency amendment.”
Claire said, “He’s lying.”
Martin heard her.
“Of course she says that.”
Richard’s pulse seemed to thicken.
“What amendment?”
“If you’re declared incapacitated during tomorrow’s procedure, Claire gets immediate voting control of your shares.”
Noah looked between the adults.
Claire whispered, “That isn’t what it says.”
Richard turned to her.
“So there is an amendment.”
“Yes.”
Martin continued.
“She didn’t tell the board. She didn’t tell me. She tried to get you to sign it electronically yesterday.”
Richard remembered.
A packet Claire had placed beside his breakfast.
Routine estate cleanup, she had called it.
He had not signed because the tablet battery died halfway through.
“Martin,” Richard said, “where were you last night?”
Silence.
Claire stared at him.
Richard repeated the question.
“At home.”
“Can anyone confirm that?”
“What the hell kind of question is that?”
“A simple one.”
Martin’s voice hardened.
“Richard, do not let her isolate you.”
Claire laughed without humor.
“That’s rich.”
“What does that mean?” Richard asked.
Claire took a breath.
“Ask him why the company is missing eighteen million dollars.”
Nobody spoke.
Even Noah went still.
Richard looked at the road ahead.
A logging truck passed, rocking the SUV slightly in its wake.
“Eighteen million?”
Martin said, “She has no idea what she’s talking about.”
Claire reached into her bag and pulled out a folder.
She dropped it onto Richard’s lap.
“Page six.”
Richard opened it.
Bank transfers.
Subsidiary accounts.
A series of payments to a consulting company he did not recognize.
He read the total twice.
$18,430,000.
Martin said, “Those are authorized strategic payments.”
“Authorized by whom?”
“You.”
“I’ve never seen this company.”
“You approved the acquisition reserve.”
“That is not what I asked.”
Martin became quiet.
Richard looked at Claire.
“How did you get these?”
“Mom.”
Richard stared at her.
Claire’s eyes filled, but her voice remained controlled.
“She found the first transfers before she got sick.”
Richard felt as though somebody had removed the air from the vehicle.
“Your mother died four years ago.”
“I know when my mother died.”
“Then why am I seeing this now?”
“Because I didn’t understand what she had found until six weeks ago.”
Martin said, “Richard, hang up and call me privately.”
Richard ended the call.
Claire stared ahead.
Noah peeled the banana in the back seat.
The sound was absurdly loud.
Richard looked at his daughter.
“What did your mother find?”
Claire put the car into drive.
Richard reached over and shifted it back into park.
“No.”
She looked at his hand.
“Dad.”
“We’re not going anywhere until you answer.”
“We need to get you to the hospital.”
“I am not having a cardiac procedure until I understand why my CFO is accusing my daughter of trying to seize control of my company and my daughter is accusing my CFO of stealing eighteen million dollars.”
Noah took a bite of banana.
Claire looked back at him.
“Sweetheart, please put your headphones on.”
This time he did.
Richard waited.
Claire folded her hands in her lap.
“When Mom was sick, she started going through old accounts.”
“Why?”
“Because she didn’t trust Martin.”
Richard almost interrupted.
Claire raised one hand.
“You asked. Let me finish.”
He closed his mouth.
“She thought he was taking advantage of how distracted you were. She found transfers she couldn’t explain. She asked me to look at them.”
“And?”
“And I told her she was confused.”
Richard looked away.
Claire’s voice changed.
“I told my sick mother she was confused because that was easier than believing she might be right.”
The windshield wipers moved back and forth.
“She stopped asking me,” Claire said. “After she died, I put the folder in a box. Six weeks ago I found it while clearing storage.”
“Why were you clearing storage?”
“Because the pipe didn’t burst.”
Richard looked at her.
“What?”
“There is no broken pipe.”
Noah stopped chewing.
Claire noticed.
“So much for the headphones.”
“I can still hear you.”
Richard almost laughed.
He did not.
“Why are you staying with me?”
“Because I needed access to the records in your home office.”
May you like
Richard stared at her.
“You lied to get into my house.”
