Chương 5
“She said I wasn’t supposed to have it. I told her Mom wanted you to know.”
“How did you know that?”
“Mom said your name.”
Ryan felt something inside him twist.
“Do you remember exactly what she said?”
Mia shut her eyes.
“‘Ryan needs to see this.’”
Elaine stood abruptly and walked to the window.
Ryan knew his mother was trying not to frighten Mia by crying again.
He sat beside his niece.
“What happened after that?”
“She took my arm.”
“Hard?”
Mia shrugged.
“She put me in the little room.”
“And locked it.”
“Yes.”
“What about the creek?”
“I heard people outside.”
“Did Vanessa tell you what was happening?”
Mia nodded.
“What?”
“She said everybody thought I was dead, and if I yelled they’d think I was a ghost and nobody would believe me.”
Elaine turned from the window.
“Oh, Jesus.”
Mia looked at her.
“Grandma.”
“Sorry.”
Ryan’s jaw hurt from clenching it.
“Did Vanessa say anything else?”
“She said she had to fix it.”
“Fix what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she say she was going to let you out?”
“She said when she figured it out.”
The distinction mattered.
Ryan could hear Hall’s voice about fast and correct.
He wished it didn’t.
That afternoon, his board chair called.
Ryan nearly ignored it.
Then he remembered Mia’s repetition of Claire’s words.
Ryan doesn’t pay attention.
He answered.
“Ryan, first, is the child safe?”
“Yes.”
“Thank God.”
Margaret Sloan had chaired Cole Development’s board for seven years. She was sixty-three, impatient, and allergic to unnecessary adjectives.
“Second,” she said, “we have a problem.”
“My wife locked a seven-year-old in a closet and staged her death. I’m aware.”
“I mean a company problem.”
Ryan stood at the window.
Below, hotel guests moved beneath umbrellas.
“What happened?”
“Our controller received a preservation notice from the state police requesting records related to payments from the Claire Cole Family Trust.”
Ryan went still.
“Why would the company have those?”
“That’s the question I was hoping you could answer.”
Ryan looked toward the adjoining room where Mia and Elaine were watching a baking show.
“I’ll call you back.”
“No. You won’t.”
He closed his eyes.
Margaret’s voice softened by perhaps two percent.
“Ryan, listen to me. I don’t know what this is. But the request names Vanessa and three vendors that have billed both the trust and Cole Development.”
“What vendors?”
Margaret read the names.
Ryan recognized two.
The third made his stomach drop.
Armitage Residential Consulting.
He had approved an Armitage contract eleven months earlier for a renovation analysis on three company properties.
The principal had been recommended by Vanessa.
“How much?”
“Company payments? Eight hundred and forty thousand over fourteen months.”
“And the trust?”
“I don’t have those records.”
Ryan did.
Or rather, he was supposed to.
Claire had named him trustee.
He had delegated administration to the family office and signed quarterly summaries without reading every underlying invoice.
Ryan doesn’t pay attention.
“I need everything we have on Armitage.”
“Our lawyers say you should not access anything until they preserve it.”
“They’re right.”
“I know.”
He almost smiled.
Margaret continued.
“Ryan, you need independent counsel.”
“I have counsel.”
“You need counsel who does not work for your company or your family.”
That was also true.
“I’ll call someone.”
“Today.”
“Yes.”
“And until we know whether you approved anything connected to this, I’m asking you not to authorize expenditures.”
Ryan turned from the window.
“You’re suspending me?”
“I’m asking you voluntarily.”
“Margaret.”
“Did you approve the Armitage contract?”
“Yes.”
“Did Vanessa introduce the vendor?”
“Yes.”
“Then make this easy for me.”
He could have resisted.
The bylaws gave him room.
He owned enough voting stock to make Margaret’s life difficult if he wanted.
Two days earlier he might have done it from reflex.
Instead he looked at Mia’s hospital bracelet, still lying on the coffee table because she refused to let anyone throw it away.
“I’ll step back.”
“Thank you.”
The call ended.
Ryan sat in silence for several minutes.
Elaine appeared in the doorway.
“What now?”
He told her.
His mother leaned against the frame.
“How much did Claire leave Mia?”
“Just under five million in the trust. Plus her interest in the company.”
“And you were responsible for it.”
“Yes.”
Elaine looked toward the adjoining room.
Ryan waited for her to defend him.
She did not.
“Were you paying attention?”
He laughed once without humor.
“No.”
Elaine nodded.
It hurt more than accusation would have.
Grace asked to see him the next morning.
Ryan nearly refused.
Mia was the one who changed his mind.
“Is Grace bad too?” she asked.
He had no useful answer.
“What do you think?”
Mia frowned.
“She brought crackers.”
“That doesn’t answer it.”
“I know.”
Neither did anything else.
Ryan arranged to meet Grace in a private conference room at the hotel while Elaine stayed with Mia one floor above.
Grace arrived carrying a purse she gripped with both hands.
Without the uniform she looked older.
Ryan had known her six years. She knew he took coffee black, that Vanessa preferred the guest towels folded inward, that Mia had once hidden a hamster inside the pantry for eight hours. Grace had sat beside Elaine at Claire’s funeral.
Now Ryan could not decide where to look when she entered.
She sat without being asked.
“I’m sorry.”
Ryan remained standing.
“I don’t know what that means.”
Grace nodded.
“I know.”
“You brought her food.”
“Yes.”
“You knew she was locked in there.”
“Yes.”
“And then Vanessa called the police and said Mia was missing.”
Grace’s mouth trembled.
“Yes.”
“You watched deputies search the property.”
“Yes.”
“You watched volunteers go into that creek.”
Grace lowered her head.
Ryan’s restraint slipped.
“Why?”
“I was scared.”
“Of what?”
“Of her.”
Ryan stared.
Grace wiped her palms on her trousers.
“That sounds stupid.”
“It sounds insufficient.”
“I know.”
“Then give me something better.”
Grace looked up.
“I believed her for about an hour.”
May you like
Ryan said nothing.
“She told me Mia had found something upsetting. She said the child was out of control and tried to run outside. She said the storage room was the only room with no windows and she needed Mia somewhere safe until a doctor called back.”
