Chương 10
Richard moved into an extended-stay hotel.
Sarah postponed her return flight with command approval, then hated herself for feeling embarrassed about explaining why.
Her superior officer, General Rebecca Hall, listened without interruption during a secure call.
“Are you under investigation?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Are you a material witness?”
“Yes.”
“Then handle your responsibilities there.”
Sarah stared at the laptop.
“I can return if required.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want this to affect—”
“Whitmore.”
Sarah stopped.
Hall leaned slightly toward the camera.
“You have covered for three other people’s family emergencies in the last eighteen months.”
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
Sarah had no answer.
Hall waited.
Sarah said, “Because those were legitimate.”
Hall’s expression changed.
“Your mother being arrested for allegedly assaulting you while police investigate forged property documents is not legitimate enough?”
Sarah looked down.
Hall softened her voice.
“Handle your life.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And stop apologizing for having one.”
The call ended.
Sarah sat in Elena’s guest room surrounded by laundry baskets.
She moved one pile from the bed to a chair.
Then another from the chair to the floor.
Elena stood in the doorway.
“I had a system.”
“You had geology.”
“Those layers were historically important.”
Sarah threw a sock at her.
It missed.
Her shoulder was improving.
That evening Michael called.
The notary listed on Sarah’s transfer document existed.
Her name was Danielle Crowe.
She denied notarizing Sarah’s signature.
Her notary stamp had been reported missing six months earlier.
“Missing how?” Sarah asked.
“Stolen from her car along with a laptop and several work files.”
Sarah sat up.
“Did she know Stephen?”
“Not by that name.”
“By another?”
“Police are handling that.”
Sarah hated the phrase but accepted it.
Michael continued.
“There’s another issue.”
“Of course.”
“The lender sent preliminary copies of the application package.”
Sarah waited.
“Your mother represented that you were permanently relocating overseas and had voluntarily transferred your interest as part of estate simplification.”
Sarah laughed once.
“I’ve been stationed overseas before.”
“They included a copy of military orders.”
Sarah stopped.
“What orders?”
“Old ones.”
“How old?”
“Three years.”
Sarah’s jaw tightened.
“Who had them?”
“Your parents?”
Richard had copies.
Margaret probably did too.
Sarah stood and walked to the window.
Her family had treated her military records as proof she was absent enough to exploit.
“When did the lender get them?”
Michael gave the date.
Sarah checked her calendar.
The day before Richard’s birthday.
The day before she called him from Kuwait.
She closed her eyes.
“Sarah?”
“I’m here.”
“There’s more. The signature pages appear to have been assembled from different document sets.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t want to speculate.”
“Michael.”
“It means someone may have been testing versions before the final filing.”
Sarah thought about the envelope in Margaret’s desk.
Different signatures.
Different dates.
The point had not been merely to copy her name.
Someone had been planning around her location.
“Stephen,” she said.
“Maybe.”
“Mom?”
“Maybe.”
“Dad?”
Michael was quiet.
Sarah pressed her forehead to the window.
“Maybe,” he said.
That night she called Richard and asked him to meet her the next morning.
They chose a diner halfway between his hotel and Elena’s apartment.
Richard arrived early.
Of course he did.
He was drinking decaf from a thick ceramic mug when Sarah entered.
She sat across from him.
He looked at her shoulder.
“Better?”
“Yes.”
The waitress appeared.
Sarah ordered coffee and toast.
Richard ordered nothing.
When the waitress left, Sarah placed a printed copy of the lender’s application summary on the table.
“Did you give Mom my old deployment orders?”
Richard read the page.
His face changed.
“Yes.”
Sarah stared.
“When?”
“A few months ago.”
“Why?”
“She said she needed proof that you were overseas.”
Sarah nearly stood.
Instead she gripped the edge of the table.
“For what?”
“She said the county needed confirmation about why you couldn’t appear in person for an estate matter.”
“You believed that?”
“I didn’t ask enough questions.”
“That is not the same as believing it.”
Richard looked at her.
“No.”
The admission unsettled her more than denial would have.
“Did you know she was transferring my share?”
“By then, I suspected.”
Sarah went still.
“By then.”
Richard’s eyes filled.
“I told myself you had agreed.”
“Without speaking to me.”
“Yes.”
“Without seeing anything from me.”
“Yes.”
“While knowing Grandma created the share because she didn’t trust Mom.”
“Yes.”
The waitress brought Sarah’s coffee.
“Toast will be right up, honey.”
“Thank you.”
Sarah waited until she walked away.
“Why?”
Richard stared into his cup.
“I was afraid.”
“Of Mom.”
“Yes.”
“That answer isn’t enough anymore.”
“I know.”
“What were you afraid would happen?”
He rubbed his thumb against his finger.
“She would leave.”
Sarah waited.
“And?”
“She would tell everyone I had ruined us.”
“And?”
“I’d lose the house.”
“You risked the house anyway.”
“I know.”
“And?”
Richard’s shoulders shook once.
Sarah watched him.
Finally he said, “I was afraid she was right.”
“About what?”
“That I had failed her.”
Sarah frowned.
Richard looked out the window.
“When your mother’s antique business failed, I told her we’d recover. When the cards got bad, I covered them. When my mother found out, I told Margaret it was my fault for not managing the money better. Every time something went wrong, I fixed it.”
“Or hid it.”
“Yes.”
Sarah sat back.
Richard continued.
“After I retired, I didn’t have much to fix. She hated that. Or maybe I hated that. I don’t know. Then Stephen came along and talked to her like she was brilliant. Like she had found something everyone else was too timid to understand.”
Sarah listened.
“She wanted me to believe in it.”
“So you did.”
“I wanted to.”
“That’s different.”
“Yes.”
Sarah noticed it again.
He was answering more honestly now.
It did not make the answers hurt less.
May you like
Richard folded the edge of his paper napkin.
“When the first checks came, she was happy. Happier than I had seen her in years. She talked about traveling. She wanted to redo the basement. She said we could finally stop worrying about money.”
