Chapter 11 - The Man Who Helped Him
I didn’t meet Dale in a parking lot.
I didn’t promise to protect him.
I gave him Mara’s number and told him to get counsel.
Three days later, he sat across from us with his own attorney.
He looked smaller without the office around him.
“I should have stopped it,” he said.
“Yes,” I answered.
His eyes dropped.
Charles had first asked him to reuse my signature on what he called a routine internal approval.
Then another.
Then the reserve transfer.
“He said you knew,” Dale told me.
“Did you ask?”
“No.”
“Why?”
He looked toward his lawyer.
She nodded for him to answer.
“Because I didn’t want to know.”
That hurt more than an excuse would have.
He brought emails.
Original messages.
Instructions from Charles to attach the signature image.
A note calling the reserve transfer temporary.
Another telling Dale to describe Harbor Lantern as an established adviser.
Then the message that emptied the room of air.
If Claire becomes difficult, the authorization will establish that she approved the movement of funds.
I read it once.
Then again.
My father had written that before the dinner.
Before I embarrassed him.
Before I spoke.
He hadn’t turned on me because I answered Dominic.
He had already decided I was disposable.
The dinner had simply moved the schedule.
Dale’s lawyer discussed how the records would be preserved and supplied to the appropriate investigators.
Mara explained that civil claims and a criminal review were separate matters.
Nothing would happen overnight.
I barely heard her.
My father’s sentence kept repeating.
If Claire becomes difficult.
As if I were a shipment delayed by weather.
As if being his daughter had never entered the calculation.
Outside, I stood under the courthouse awning and watched rain gather along the curb.
Dominic had sent a message earlier.
No need to respond. I’m available if you want to talk.
I called him.
When he answered, I said, “He planned it before I did anything.”
For a moment, Dominic was silent.
Then he said, “You didn’t have to do anything to deserve better.”
I closed my eyes.
Across the street, a black sedan pulled into a space.
May you like
My father stepped out.
He had been waiting.
