Chương 9
Doug was silent.
Then he said, “That makes two of us.”
The bitterness surprised me.
“Doug, what did Richard tell you about your lawsuit?”
“What do you mean?”
“After I paid the settlement.”
Silence.
I heard a faucet dripping on his end.
“You paid it?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Richard said the company covered it.”
“The company did not cover it.”
My voice remained level, but my heart was pounding.
“I transferred the funds through Naomi’s trust account because the plaintiffs required verified settlement money.”
Doug swore softly.
“How much?”
“One hundred and forty thousand.”
He said nothing.
“Doug?”
“He told me it was ninety.”
I sat down again.
“What?”
“He said he had to move ninety grand from company reserves.”
“Did he ask you to repay it?”
“Yes.”
My skin prickled.
“How much?”
“One hundred and ten.”
For a moment I could not fit the numbers together.
“He told you the settlement cost ninety and made you repay one hundred and ten?”
“I paid some of it back.”
“How much?”
“Seventy-five.”
“Where?”
“The company.”
“By check?”
“Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“Some cash.”
I closed my eyes.
“Why cash?”
“Because he said it was easier for bookkeeping.”
Nothing about that sentence made sense.
Doug seemed to hear it too.
“Jesus.”
“Do you have records?”
“Checks, yes.”
“Cash?”
“No.”
“Texts?”
“Probably.”
“Do not delete anything.”
“I’m not an idiot.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
“You didn’t have to.”
His voice cracked at the end.
I softened mine.
“Doug, I need you to listen to me.”
“I am.”
“Do not confront Richard.”
“He’s my brother.”
“I know.”
“You think he stole from me?”
“I don’t know what he did.”
“You always say that now.”
“Because guessing is how people get manipulated.”
He went quiet.
I hated the sentence immediately because it sounded like Naomi.
Then Doug laughed once, without humor.
“Well, that explains this family.”
I heard footsteps upstairs.
Tessa appeared in the doorway wearing flannel pajama pants and one sock.
She mouthed, Coffee?
I nodded.
“Doug, send Naomi anything you have about the settlement.”
“Why her?”
“Because if there’s a pattern, she needs to see it.”
“What pattern?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“You think he did this with Mom too?”
I looked at the floorboards.
“I think you should ask what Eleanor believes I paid and compare it with what actually happened.”
He did not answer.
“Doug?”
“I’m waking her up.”
The call ended.
I immediately called Naomi.
She answered with a clipped, “Morning.”
“Richard left Eleanor’s house with the company laptop.”
That woke her fully.
“When?”
“Before five.”
“Do we know where he went?”
“No.”
“Did he take anything else?”
“Unknown.”
I told her about Doug’s settlement.
She stopped interrupting.
When I finished, there was a long pause.
“That’s not small.”
“I know.”
“No, I mean structurally.”
Her voice sharpened.
“If Richard represented your payment as a company expenditure and then collected reimbursement from Doug, we need to know where that reimbursement went.”
“Could it have gone back into the company?”
“Yes.”
“And if it did?”
“Then it could still be dishonest, depending on what was represented, but the issue is different.”
“And if it didn’t?”
“Then we have a more serious problem.”
I rubbed my eyes.
“What do you need?”
“Documentation.”
“From Doug?”
“From everyone.”
Tessa handed me coffee.
I mouthed thank you.
Naomi continued.
“I’m also calling the forensic accountant as soon as his office opens.”
“What can he check?”
“Everything he already checked, but with a different question.”
“What question?”
“Not whether the company was failing.”
Her voice was calm now.
“Whether the company’s apparent losses were being created or exaggerated.”
I lowered the mug.
“Why would Richard make his own company look worse?”
“To justify outside money.”
My chest tightened.
“Mine.”
“Possibly yours.”
“Eleanor’s?”
“Possibly.”
“Doug’s?”
“Yes.”
I stared into the coffee.
A thin skin of cream was swirling on top.
“That’s insane.”
“It’s also only a hypothesis.”
“I know.”
“But it fits more facts than it did yesterday.”
My phone buzzed.
A message from Madison.
Dad called me twelve times.
Then another.
He says I need to come back and fix what I started.
I sent it to Naomi.
“She should not meet him alone.”
“I’ll tell her.”
“No legal lecture.”
“I know.”
“And Claire?”
“Yes?”
“If Richard contacts you, preserve everything.”
“I already am.”
“Good.”
The call ended.
Tessa leaned against the counter.
“You look like someone just told you the basement is bigger than the house.”
“That is almost exactly how I feel.”
She poured coffee into her own mug.
“What do you need?”
“To stop finding new rooms.”
“That may not be available today.”
“No.”
She looked at me over the rim.
“What is?”
I thought about it.
“Clothes.”
“Excellent.”
“I flew here with one blouse and a grudge.”
“That’s not enough for Colorado.”
“I noticed.”
She smiled.
For twenty minutes, we did something absurdly normal.
She opened drawers.
I borrowed jeans.
She found a gray sweater that was too big and a pair of socks with tiny lemons on them.
We argued about whether I could wear her hiking shoes into town.
I said they made me look like a substitute teacher on a field trip.
She said that was disrespectful to substitute teachers.
The ordinary rhythm steadied me.
Then my phone rang.
Eleanor.
I had blocked her.
The call came from Doug’s phone.
I answered.
“Claire.”
Her voice was already trembling.
“Where is Richard?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.”
“He wouldn’t just leave.”
“Apparently he would.”
“Doug says you told him terrible things.”
“I told him facts.”
“You told him Richard cheated him.”
“I told him who paid his settlement.”
Eleanor inhaled sharply.
“That money came from the company.”
“No.”
“Richard showed me.”
“Showed you what?”
“Statements.”
“What statements?”
“Company statements.”
My pulse quickened.
“Eleanor, did Richard ever show you proof that Cole Family Catering repaid me?”
She went silent.
“Did he?”
“He said it was all accounted for.”
May you like
“That wasn’t my question.”
“Don’t take that tone with me.”
