Chương 6
He typed three responses and deleted each one.
At two, he drove to the company’s headquarters in Stamford because he could not bear the mansion and did not know where else to go. The security guard at the garage entrance had already seen the video. Daniel could tell by the care with which the man avoided looking at him.
Upstairs, the offices were empty except for cleaning staff. Daniel entered his father’s old suite, which had become his own, and turned on only the desk lamp.
Richard’s portrait hung near the conference room. It showed him at fifty-two, smiling with his hands in his pockets, his head tilted as though he had just heard something mildly amusing. Daniel had chosen the photograph. He had believed it captured charm without vanity.
Now he saw a man who expected the room to forgive him.
Daniel took the portrait off the wall and placed it facedown against the carpet.
The company’s general counsel, Priya Shah, arrived at six thirty. She wore running shoes with her suit and carried two coffees. Daniel had called her at three and told her only that she needed to come early.
“I brought you one without sugar,” she said.
“I don’t want it.”
“You will in ten minutes.”
She placed it on the desk.
Priya had worked for Hale Development for nine years. She was forty, direct without enjoying cruelty, and unimpressed by family mythology. Richard had died before she joined the company, which was one reason Daniel trusted her.
He told her everything Eleanor had said.
Priya did not interrupt. She took notes on a yellow pad, paused twice to ask for exact wording, and once to confirm whether Owen had represented the company, Eleanor personally, Richard personally, or all three.
“He represented everyone,” Daniel said.
“That is not an answer.”
“It was how things worked then.”
“That is why I asked.”
When Daniel finished, Priya closed the pad.
“You need independent criminal counsel.”
“Owen said the same.”
“Then for once, Owen and I agree.”
“I didn’t commit a crime.”
“You are the chief executive of a company whose charitable foundation may have been used to move money. You have now been told that corporate property was sold in connection with concealing a death.”
“I was twenty-nine.”
“I know.”
“I knew none of this.”
“I believe you.”
“That sounded carefully phrased.”
“It was.”
Daniel picked up the coffee and drank. It was cold enough to be tolerable.
“What happens now?”
“First, you do not search company systems by yourself. You do not remove records. You do not call old employees and ask them to remember things. You do not contact Vanessa about evidence.”
“She is my wife.”
“She is also under investigation for assaulting your mother and has made allegations involving the company.”
“What am I supposed to do, pretend I don’t know her?”
“No. You are supposed to understand that everything you do from this moment can be misunderstood by someone with a different interest.”
Daniel looked at Richard’s portrait on the floor.
“The board will see the video.”
“They have seen it.”
“Of course they have.”
“The lead independent director called me at five.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I had no verified information beyond a family incident being investigated.”
Priya slid a second document across the desk. It was a draft statement expressing concern for Eleanor, acknowledging the police investigation, and asking for privacy.
Daniel read it twice.
“It says nothing.”
“That is the purpose.”
“My mother nearly went into a fire.”
“And if the company statement calls that attempted murder before charges are filed, we create another problem.”
“I hate this.”
“Yes.”
He signed the statement.
By nine, three cable news producers had requested interviews. By ten, the longer version of Meredith’s video appeared online. Someone had slowed the moment Vanessa released the handles and added dramatic music. Another person placed a red circle around the fire pit, as though viewers might miss it.
Comments divided with the confidence of people who knew none of them.
Vanessa was called a monster, a gold digger, a traumatized wife, a victim of aristocratic abuse, and a woman who had finally snapped under decades of humiliation. Eleanor was called fragile, manipulative, brave, cruel, and obviously guilty of something. Daniel was praised for the rescue and mocked for failing to know his own family.
The company’s stock was privately held, but its lenders noticed. Two banks called before noon. A city council member postponed a vote on a Hale project. The foundation’s executive director asked whether grants would still be funded.
Daniel answered yes before Priya could stop him.
When they were alone again, she said, “Do not promise money before we understand the exposure.”
“Children’s housing vouchers are not responsible for my father.”
“I agree.”
“Then why should they wait?”
“Because the accounts paying them may be part of what we need to review.”
Daniel pressed his fingers against his eyes.
Priya’s voice softened. “We can protect the grants. We just need to do it correctly.”
Correctly. The word felt like an accusation.
At eleven fifteen, the board placed Daniel on temporary leave pending an independent review. The chair read the resolution in a measured voice while Daniel sat in the conference room beneath a blank space where his father’s portrait had been.
He did not argue.
He went home after dark.
The mansion had never seemed large while people filled it. Empty, it became ridiculous. Lights glowed in rooms no one used. The catering company had missed a champagne glass beneath a hedge, and the sprinklers had filled it with water. The pink glass Vanessa dropped still lay on the grass near the top of the slope. A faint lipstick mark remained on the rim.
Daniel picked it up.
May you like
Inside, he found the anniversary gift Vanessa had left on his desk that morning. The wrapping paper was cream with a narrow silver ribbon. He opened it in the kitchen.
It was a watch, an old stainless-steel Omega repaired and fitted with a new band. His father had owned one like it, though Daniel did not know whether this was the same watch. Beneath it lay a note in Vanessa’s angled handwriting.
