Chương 7
Maya waited.
“Six years ago,” Victoria said, “during the Savannah expansion, I signed batches of documents. Sometimes fifty at a time.”
“Who prepared the batches?”
“Legal. Finance. Sometimes Julian.”
“Did you review all fifty?”
“No.”
“Did anyone summarize them?”
“Usually.”
“Usually isn’t a person.”
Victoria pressed her thumbnail into the side of her index finger. “Julian summarized his.”
Maya turned the page. The document authorized the opening of an account for Larkspur Consulting and identified Victoria as managing member.
“I have never managed Larkspur.”
“The bank records contain a copy of your driver’s license.”
“He had access to it.”
“Your electronic signature certificate was used.”
“He had access to that too.”
Maya looked at her. “Why?”
“He was my husband and attorney.”
“That answers how. Why did he need access?”
Victoria’s throat tightened.
Because giving access was easier than admitting she could not do everything.
Because Julian had been useful.
Because he had a way of taking a task from her hands while making her feel foolish for having held it.
“Convenience,” she said.
Maya wrote something down.
On the third day, the company’s independent counsel informed Victoria that two transfers to Larkspur had been approved from her executive account. One occurred at 11:48 p.m. on a Thursday. The second occurred during a flight from Atlanta to Dallas.
Victoria remembered both nights.
On the Thursday, a supplier had threatened to halt delivery unless Hale Meridian posted emergency collateral. Julian had brought her a tablet in bed. She had been half asleep. He said the authorization moved funds into a protected reserve until the dispute cleared.
On the flight, the Wi-Fi had failed twice. Julian stood in the aisle holding his phone near the ceiling as though signal might collect there. He made her laugh. Then he sent the approval link.
The memories did not absolve her.
They made the failure more specific.
At the end of the third interview, Maya closed her notebook.
“You want me to tell you he deceived you.”
“He did.”
“I believe he deceived you.”
Victoria waited.
Maya folded her hands. “You also built a system where one person could deceive you repeatedly because you considered your judgment a sufficient control.”
The words landed without malice.
Victoria looked at the dark conference-room window. Beyond it, employees crossed the floor carrying laptops and coffee cups. A printer started and stopped.
“I trusted my husband.”
“You trusted yourself to know when not to trust him.”
“That sounds like the same thing.”
“It isn’t.”
Victoria gathered her papers. “Are we finished?”
“For today.”
In the parking garage, she sat in her car without starting it. A concrete pillar blocked most of the view. Water from an overhead pipe had dried in a white mineral streak down one side.
She called Elias.
“Maya thinks I built the conditions for this.”
“She is probably right.”
“You could pretend to consider my feelings.”
“I considered them. Then I answered.”
Victoria rested her head against the seat.
“Did my father know about any family reserve?”
“We found no reference in the estate documents.”
“My mother believed Julian.”
“Your mother believed a story that paid her eight hundred thousand dollars.”
“That doesn’t mean she knew it was stolen.”
“No.”
“But you think she did.”
“I think people ask fewer questions when the answer would require them to give money back.”
Victoria watched a woman struggle to fit a stroller into the trunk of an SUV. After two attempts, the woman swore, removed a bag of groceries, folded the stroller, and tried again.
“What happens to Brenda?” Victoria asked.
“That depends on what she knew and what she does now.”
“She’s my mother.”
“I am aware.”
“She raised us.”
“Yes.”
“She sat with my father every night in the hospital.”
“Yes.”
Victoria closed her eyes. “Stop agreeing with me.”
“Would you prefer I argue that she didn’t?”
“No.”
“Then I’ll remain irritatingly accurate.”
Jasmine came to the house that night without calling.
She wore jeans, a loose sweater, and no makeup. Her blonde hair was pulled into a knot that had begun to fall apart. She looked younger than twenty-nine and older than Victoria remembered.
“Trent left,” she said.
Victoria stepped aside.
Jasmine entered but did not remove her shoes. She walked into the living room, stopped near a chair, then remained standing as if sitting would imply she planned to stay.
“Where did he go?”
“His brother’s.”
“Why?”
“Because I asked him what Larkspur was.”
Victoria waited.
Jasmine rubbed her arms. “He said it was a consulting company Julian set up. He said he introduced Julian to developers who needed legal work. He said the payments were referral fees.”
“Lawyers generally can’t pay nonlawyers referral fees for legal clients.”
“Do not start sounding like Elias.”
“I’m telling you why his explanation is a problem.”
“He says he didn’t know the money came from Hale Meridian.”
“Do you believe him?”
Jasmine looked toward the kitchen. “Do you have wine?”
“No.”
“You own wine.”
“I’m not opening it.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re upset.”
“That’s when people open wine.”
“That’s why I’m not.”
Jasmine gave a short, humorless laugh. “You really are impossible.”
“I have sparkling water.”
“Of course you do.”
Victoria brought two cans from the refrigerator. Jasmine opened hers and took one sip.
“Mom called,” she said. “She thinks you’re trying to destroy her.”
“I’m trying to find company money.”
“She says Dad promised her more.”
“He may have.”
“He did.”
“Then why isn’t it in the will?”
“You know how he was.”
Victoria did know. Their father had promised things when uncomfortable. A lake house. An early retirement. A college fund large enough for any school. He had also changed his mind quietly, leaving other people to discover it through paperwork.
“That doesn’t make stolen money his promise,” Victoria said.
Jasmine’s fingers tightened around the can. “You always got the real things.”
“What does that mean?”
“The company. His respect. The decisions.”
“You didn’t want the company.”
May you like
“I was twenty-two.”
“You said you would rather die than work there.”
