Chương 10
Ava frowned.
“Victoria’s?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“I can’t discuss everything, but there may be evidence relevant to the events before the staircase.”
Ava’s stomach tightened.
“The test?”
“Yes.”
“What about it?”
Ortiz paused.
“Ms. Bennett says she did not take the report from Eleanor’s study.”
Ava stood.
“Then where?”
“She says it was sent to her.”
“By who?”
“That’s what we’re investigating.”
The call ended soon afterward.
Ava stood beside the window.
For the first time since the fall, the story changed shape.
Victoria had claimed she opened an envelope.
Ava had assumed she meant Eleanor’s copy.
Maybe Victoria wanted her to assume that.
Ava called Eleanor.
“Who had access to the report?”
“My attorney.”
“Who else?”
“The family office scanned documents for him.”
Ava closed her eyes.
“How many people?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
Eleanor’s voice sharpened.
“I will.”
Within two hours, they had a list.
Eleanor’s executive assistant.
One junior attorney.
Two employees at the family office.
And Martin Greeley, the Bennett family’s longtime financial manager.
Ava knew Martin.
Everyone knew Martin.
He had been around so long that he seemed less like an employee than a piece of expensive furniture.
He had handled insurance paperwork after Michael’s diagnosis.
He had helped Eleanor reorganize accounts after the funeral.
He sent birthday gifts with handwritten notes in identical blue ink.
Daniel called from New York.
“Martin has access to the trust structures.”
“Yes.”
“And Victoria has been pressuring Eleanor over distributions.”
“Yes.”
“You’re thinking financial motive.”
“I’m thinking I don’t know.”
“Good.”
Ava leaned against the desk.
“I hate when you say good like that.”
“You usually prefer certainty.”
“Officer Ortiz cured me.”
Daniel became quiet.
Then he said, “Naomi found something unrelated last month that I didn’t think mattered.”
Ava straightened.
“What?”
“When we reviewed public records because Victoria was making claims about the trust, Martin’s name appeared on documents connected to a company that lent money to Victoria’s design firm.”
Ava stared at the wall.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because being connected to a lender is not misconduct.”
“What kind of connection?”
“He was listed years ago as an officer of the company’s parent entity.”
“Years ago?”
“Yes.”
“Still?”
“No.”
Ava closed her eyes.
“Send it to Ortiz.”
“Already doing it.”
“Of course you are.”
This time she was glad.
The investigation widened quietly.
No dramatic raid followed.
No secret ledger appeared in a desk drawer.
Instead there were emails.
Boring ones.
Calendar invitations.
Loan documents.
Routing instructions.
A sequence of transfers that did not prove a crime by themselves but raised questions Eleanor’s accountants had not been asking.
Martin had helped arrange financing for Victoria’s business during a period when it was losing money. The lender was legitimate, but the terms were ugly. Victoria had personally guaranteed part of the debt.
Then she borrowed again.
And again.
The family trust had not guaranteed those loans.
But Victoria had apparently told Martin she expected future distributions large enough to cover them.
Eleanor did not know.
When the baby entered the picture, the assumptions behind those distributions changed.
Not automatically.
Not legally overnight.
But enough to frighten someone living on expected money.
Martin had forwarded Victoria a scanned copy of Ava’s paternity report from the family office.
Detective Ortiz did not tell Ava every detail.
Eleanor did.
She came to Ava’s house with printed emails in a folder and sat at the kitchen table without taking off her coat.
“I trusted him for twenty-eight years.”
Ava read the messages.
Martin to Victoria:
You should be aware of this before Friday’s discussion.
Victoria:
Is this confirmed?
Martin:
Appears so.
Victoria:
Does Mother understand what this means?
Martin:
She may not understand the financial implications yet.
Ava looked up.
“What implications?”
Eleanor’s face had gone gray.
“Martin believed I intended to restructure a portion of the family holdings for Michael’s child.”
“Did you?”
“I was considering it.”
“Without telling me?”
“It was preliminary.”
Ava pushed the folder away.
“We already talked about this.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t. This baby is not a correction to your estate plan.”
Eleanor’s jaw tightened.
“I did not say he was.”
“You keep making decisions around him without me.”
“I wanted to protect him.”
“From what?”
Eleanor did not answer.
Ava stood.
She had begun doing that more slowly now. The fall had left deep bruises along her side that were turning yellow at the edges.
“From Victoria?” Ava asked. “From taxes? From being poor? He’s not going to be poor.”
“That is not the point.”
“Then what is?”
Eleanor looked at the folder.
“Michael.”
There it was.
Not money.
Not exactly.
Grief wearing a tailored suit.
Eleanor touched one page.
“I lost the future I thought he would have. I lost his children. Then you told me about the embryo, and I—”
She stopped.
Ava remained standing.
Eleanor swallowed.
“I started planning.”
“For a person who isn’t born.”
“Yes.”
“Without asking his mother.”
“Yes.”
Ava sat again.
Her anger did not disappear.
It changed.
Eleanor said, “I am sorry.”
“I need more than sorry.”
“What?”
“I need you to stop.”
Eleanor looked at her.
“No trust changes. No announcements. No property. No promises. Not until after he is born and I’ve had time to think without everybody turning him into Michael’s replacement.”
Eleanor flinched.
Ava saw it.
Good, an ugly part of her thought.
Then she felt guilty.
Good.
Both emotions stayed.
Eleanor nodded slowly.
“All right.”
“And Martin?”
“Suspended from all responsibilities. Independent auditors are reviewing everything.”
“Victoria knew about the loans?”
“She knew about her own debts. Whether she knew Martin had conflicts with the lending company is unclear.”
“So he may have been protecting his own exposure.”
“Possibly.”
Ava looked at the emails again.
“Did he tell Victoria to confront me?”
“No evidence of that.”
“Did he know she would?”
Eleanor stared at the table.
“He knew my daughter.”
That was not the same thing.
May you like
Ava would not let it become the same thing.
“Then don’t make him responsible for what she did.”
