Chapter 7: What Robert Claimed to Have
I called Patricia from the car.
"Don't go back alone," she said before I'd finished explaining.
"Whatever he claims to have, he wants you in that room without a witness and without counsel.
That's the only reason for the condition."
"What could he actually have?"
"I don't know yet.
But think about it from his position.
He's received a letter of notice.
He knows we have the bank statements, the filing discrepancies, and the letter.
He needs something to trade or something to threaten." A pause.
"Has your father ever signed anything that could be used against you?"
"Not that I know of."
"Any informal agreements?
Anything you signed without a solicitor present?
Any loans in your name that touched the family property?"
I thought.
"No.
Nothing."
"Any personal matter — anything in your private life — that Robert might have found out about?"
"No."
"All right.
Then my best guess is that he has nothing, and this is a pressure tactic." She paused again.
"But we should find out.
I'll come with you.
Tomorrow.
Ten o'clock.
We go together, and if he refuses to speak in front of me, we walk out and that tells us everything we need to know."
We arrived at the house at ten the next morning.
Robert opened the door.
He looked at Patricia and his expression went very still.
"I said alone," he told me.
"My solicitor attends all meetings relating to this matter," I said.
"If that's a problem, we can conduct this through formal correspondence instead."
A long pause.
Robert stepped back from the door.
We sat in the front room.
My father was not there.
My mother brought tea that nobody touched and then left without speaking.
Robert put a folder on the table.
"Before your father started sending you money every month," he said, "he took out a loan.
Private lender.
Not a bank.
The loan was secured against the house." He opened the folder.
"Your father used some of that loan to cover a debt that had your name on it."
I looked at the document he slid across the table.
It was a loan agreement.
My father's signature at the bottom.
And beside the lender's terms, a reference to a debt account — with my name attached as the named beneficiary of the funds disbursed.
"That debt doesn't exist," I said.
"I've never had a debt with my father."
"The account says otherwise."
Patricia picked up the document.
She read it slowly.
I watched her face.
"Where is the original of this?" she said.
"You're looking at it."
"This is a photocopy."
"The original is in a safe place."
Patricia set the document down.
"Mr.
Harland.
This account number." She pointed to a line near the bottom of the page.
"This is a sort code and account number.
Whose account is this?"
Robert said nothing.
"Because if this account belongs to your business," Patricia said, "then what this document describes is not a debt in Marcus's name.
It describes a transfer from your father-in-law's loan directly into your business account, with Marcus's name attached after the fact as a cover."
The room was very quiet.
"That's not what it is," Robert said.
"Then produce the original document, the lender's contact details, and the correspondence that establishes Marcus's involvement in this debt.
In writing.
To my office.
By five o'clock Friday." Patricia closed her notebook.
"If you can't produce those things, this document is not evidence of anything except an additional line of inquiry into Harland Property Solutions."
Robert's hand was flat on the table.
"You're making an enemy," he said.
Not to Patricia.
To me.
"You made my children serve food to your guests," I said.
"And you filmed it."
He had nothing to say to that.
We stood up to leave.
At the door, Robert spoke one more time.
"Ask your father," he said, "what he promised me when I married into this family.
Ask him what he said I was owed."
The door closed behind us.
On the pavement outside, Patricia stopped walking.
"He married into the family?" she said.
"His wife is my father's niece," I said.
"Distant.
But yes."
Patricia looked at me.
"Then this isn't only about a failing business.
This is about inheritance." She started walking again.
"We need to talk to your father.
May you like
Soon.
Before Robert does."
