Chương 5
“Why?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“You’re investigating him.”
“I’m investigating what happened to you.”
“That includes him.”
“Yes.”
Claire rubbed her thumb over the edge of the blanket.
“What did you find?”
Elias hesitated.
Her eyes narrowed.
“One lie and we’re done.”
“There is a shell company called Arden Holdings.”
He explained the debt, the pledged assets, the eight o’clock deadline, and the possibility that someone had used Étienne’s credentials to create obligations he might never have approved.
Claire listened without interruption.
By the time he finished, her anger had shifted away from him just enough to make room for something else.
“Eleven million euros?”
“Approximately.”
“My mother doesn’t have eleven million euros.”
“Not anymore, perhaps.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Claire looked toward the window.
Dawn had begun turning the glass gray.
“My father fired a procurement manager two years ago.”
“Why?”
“He said the man had taken gifts from suppliers.”
“Name?”
“Jérôme something.”
“Could be relevant.”
“He also stopped letting Mom sign checks.”
Elias looked at her.
“When?”
“Maybe a year before he got sick.”
“Why?”
“He told me she was careless.”
Claire frowned.
“No.”
“What?”
“That’s not right.”
She closed her eyes.
“He said she had become expensive.”
Elias leaned forward.
“Exact words?”
“I think so.”
“Did you ask what he meant?”
“I assumed he meant shopping.”
A bitter laugh escaped her.
“God, that sounds stupid now.”
“It sounds normal.”
“My mother spent more on handbags than some people spend on cars.”
“That also sounds normal for your mother.”
Claire gave him a look.
“You are not allowed to insult her while I’m still deciding whether I hate you.”
“Fair.”
A knock came at the door.
Lieutenant Mercier entered with a second officer behind him.
His expression was different now.
More guarded.
“We searched the immediate exterior area at La Bruyère with consent from the property manager.”
“Viviane consented?” Claire asked.
“No.”
Mercier removed his gloves.
“Your mother and sister were not there.”
Claire stared at him.
“What?”
“The house was mostly empty.”
“Mostly?”
“We found a man in the study.”
Elias already knew the answer before Mercier said it.
“Marc Vanel.”
Claire’s face changed.
“The CFO?”
“Yes.”
Mercier continued.
“He claimed he arrived after being called about an urgent corporate matter.”
“At five in the morning?”
“He says corporate emergencies do not respect office hours.”
Claire looked at Elias.
“That sounds like him.”
Mercier took a breath.
“There is something else.”
Nobody spoke.
“In the fireplace, officers found partially burned documents.”
Elias’s phone vibrated in his pocket.
He ignored it.
Mercier looked directly at Claire.
“One page was recoverable enough to read a name.”
“Whose?”
“Your father’s.”
Claire went pale.
“And beneath it,” Mercier said, “there appears to be a signature authorization granting Viviane Delcourt power to act on his behalf.”
Claire gripped the blanket.
“My father never gave her power of attorney.”
Mercier’s expression stayed careful.
“We don’t know yet whether the document is genuine.”
Elias finally checked his vibrating phone.
Matteo had sent only four words.
We found the lender.
Then another message appeared.
It belongs to us.
Elias read the message twice before the meaning settled into place.
The lender belonged to one of his own companies.
He turned the phone facedown on his thigh.
Claire noticed.
“What?”
Mercier looked between them.
Elias said, “Nothing that changes what you need to do right now.”
Claire’s eyes hardened.
“That sounds suspiciously like the husband who lied to me for three years.”
Mercier cleared his throat.
“I can give you both a few minutes.”
“No,” Claire said.
“Stay.”
The lieutenant did.
Elias picked up the phone again.
The lending entity was called Northbridge Capital Europe, a private credit company headquartered in Luxembourg and owned through three layers of holding companies.
The final beneficial ownership sat beneath Morel Maritime Holdings.
His company.
His signature was nowhere on the Delcourt loan documents because men at his level did not sign ordinary lending transactions.
A credit committee had approved Arden Holdings eighteen months earlier.
At the time, it had probably looked routine.
Mid-market industrial collateral.
Strong cash flow.
Low default probability.
He had never seen the file.
That did not make it less his.
Claire watched his face.
“What did you find?”
Elias handed her the phone.
She read Matteo’s message.
Then she looked up.
“It belongs to us.”
“Technically, it belongs to a subsidiary I control.”
Mercier’s gaze sharpened.
“You control the lender involved in this restructuring?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t know?”
“No.”
Claire gave a short laugh without humor.
“Of course.”
Elias looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
“It means my mother may have been stealing from my father through a company financed by my husband’s empire.”
She rubbed her forehead.
“I’m beginning to miss the simple version where everyone was just awful.”
Mercier took out his notebook again.
“What exactly is your relationship to Northbridge Capital Europe?”
“Indirect controlling shareholder.”
“Do you participate in credit approvals?”
“Not at that level.”
“You’ll need to provide documentation.”
Claire handed the phone back.
“Can your company cancel the debt?”
Elias shook his head.
“Not because I dislike what happened.”
“Why not?”
“Because if I interfere improperly after learning I have a personal interest, everything becomes contaminated.”
Mercier nodded once.
“That would also make our lives more difficult.”
Claire stared at Elias.
“So your own rules stop you from helping me.”
“They stop me from destroying evidence and making things worse.”
“Those are not the same thing.”
“No.”
He leaned forward.
“If Arden’s loan was obtained through fraud, we preserve the file, isolate the decision chain, and let counsel and investigators examine it.”
“And at eight?”
“The maturity event still occurs unless the authorized people at Northbridge act within their rules.”
“Can they?”
“Possibly.”
“You don’t know?”
“I’ve been awake for four hours and discovered ten minutes ago that my wife’s family borrowed money from one of my companies through a shell structure.”
Claire stared at him.
“That sounded almost normal.”
May you like
“It felt strangely normal.”
Mercier looked as if he regretted being in the room.
