Chapter 9 - My Terms
June slept in a room arranged through Dana’s newspaper that night.
I stayed next door.
Ruth sat in the hallway until I told her there was a chair inside.
Vincent offered an apartment, a driver, an account.
I refused all three.
“You can’t fix this by making me dependent on you.”
“I’m trying to protect you.”
“Then listen.”
He did.
“No one threatens Adrian on my behalf.
No one disappears.
No one makes a call that turns this into another thing people are too scared to discuss.”
Ruth watched him.
So did Evelyn.
Finally, he nodded.
“All right.”
“And if you know something about those businesses, you tell Ruiz.”
Evelyn started to speak.
Vincent raised a hand.
“I’ll talk to her about what that means.”
“That isn’t a yes.”
“No,” he said.
“It’s an honest answer.”
I could work with that more easily than another promise.
Later, Dana helped me send Adrian a message.
I have something the people who searched June’s apartment missed.
It was true.
Mom had mailed Dana a thin packet of copied invoices and a handwritten explanation.
Adrian didn’t know exactly what was in it.
We didn’t invent a document.
We didn’t claim we had a confession.
We simply let him wonder.
His response came eleven minutes later.
What do you want?
I typed:
You withdraw the lies about us.
You leave June alone.
Then we talk about returning what belongs to your company.
Ruiz read the message before it went out.
“You don’t have to meet him,” he said.
“I know.”
Adrian chose the Meridian.
Friday afternoon.
Before the closing documents were signed.
Public enough that he would feel respectable.
Private enough that he would expect control.
While Ruiz arranged surveillance, I went through Dana’s copies again.
A line in Mom’s note stopped me.
I kept looking at the payments because that was what Daniel wanted me to see.
I should have looked at who signed when Vincent wasn’t there.
Underneath, she had written three dates.
I passed the page to Evelyn.
She checked them against the old bank records.
Then she called Vincent.
“Were you in the country that week?”
“No.
I was in Italy for my father’s funeral.”
Evelyn looked at the forged settlement letter.
Its date fell in the middle of that week.
May you like
And beneath the signature was a witness’s name.
Malcolm Reed.
