Chapter 7: Edmund at Two O'Clock
Edmund arrived at 1:52.
He came through the front door with his briefcase and his reading glasses already on his head, which meant he had been thinking about this in the car.
He shook my hand, nodded at Marisol, and looked at Paulina sitting in the chair against the wall with the expression of a man who had seen this particular type of situation before and found it neither surprising nor forgivable.
"Where's the safe?" he asked me.
I showed him.
He examined the interior without touching anything, then looked at the blank paper with Paulina's four words.
He read it once, set it down, and turned to face the room.
"Is she still in the house voluntarily?" he asked, meaning Paulina.
"For now," I said.
Edmund looked at her.
"Ms.
Voss.
I'm going to be direct with you because it saves everyone time.
The document that was removed from this safe is the founding instrument of Hartwell Capital.
It contains a clause that determines inheritance rights for any biological heir of Daniel Hartwell.
If that document has been altered, destroyed, or removed with the intent to prevent a legitimate heir from being recognized—" He paused.
"That is not a civil matter."
Paulina's chin came up.
"I haven't admitted to taking anything."
"No," Edmund said.
"You haven't.
But you've left a note in a safe that only you and Daniel knew the combination to, which suggests you've been inside it." He sat down.
"I'd like to hear your explanation for that."
"The combination wasn't secret," she said.
"Daniel used his father's birthday.
I worked it out."
The room went very still.
I had never told her my father's birthday.
I had never told anyone that was the combination.
The only person who had known was my father, and he was gone, and me.
Edmund wrote something in his notepad.
He didn't look up when he wrote it.
"Marisol," he said.
"You mentioned a recording to Daniel.
Is it accessible?"
"The lockbox is at the post office on Clement Street," she said.
"I can go today."
"I'll send someone with you," Edmund said.
"For the chain of custody." He looked at me.
"The paternity question — how do you want to handle it?"
"Quickly," I said.
"I can arrange a private test through a certified lab.
Results in seventy-two hours." He looked at Valentina's rabbit, which had been left on the corner of the desk when Mrs.
Okafor took her to the kitchen.
He didn't comment on it.
"In the meantime, no one leaves this property until I've documented the safe and photographed the note."
Paulina stood up.
"You can't keep me here."
"You're right," Edmund said pleasantly.
"I can't.
But if you leave before I've had the opportunity to ask you a few questions, the next conversation will happen somewhere considerably less comfortable." He gestured to her chair.
"Please."
She sat back down.
Her composure was intact but it was costing her now — visible in the set of her shoulders, the way her hands stayed too still in her lap.
"The folder that was on the desk," I said to her.
"The brown one.
Where is it?"
"I don't know what folder you mean."
"Marisol dusted around it for months.
It disappeared after your first visit."
"I wasn't here for a first visit.
I don't know what she's told you."
"She told me you came alone," I said.
"Before we met.
That you told her I had asked you to look in on the property."
"That's not true."
"She has no reason to lie."
"She has every reason to lie," Paulina said, and her voice finally cracked open — not with guilt, but with something harder.
"She has a child she kept from you for three years.
She has been living in your house, raising your daughter under your roof, letting you pay for everything, and saying nothing.
And you're asking me who has a reason to lie?"
The words landed.
I watched Marisol absorb them without flinching.
"She stayed silent because you threatened her," I said.
"I had a conversation with her.
That's all."
"Edmund," I said.
"Can you play the recording once we retrieve it?"
"Yes," he said.
"Then we'll know exactly what that conversation was."
Paulina looked at me for a long moment.
Then she looked at the desk, at the rabbit in the corner, at the blank paper Edmund had placed in an evidence sleeve.
Her jaw moved once, as though she was going to say something, and then she stopped.
"I want to call my lawyer," she said.
"Of course," Edmund said.
He slid a notepad across the desk toward her.
"Write down the number.
I'll step out while you make the call."
He stood.
I stood.
Marisol stood.
We left Paulina alone in the study with the notepad and the phone and the evidence sleeve containing her own handwriting.
In the hallway, Edmund touched my arm lightly.
"The combination," he said quietly.
"How did she know it?"
"She shouldn't have," I said.
"No one should have."
He nodded slowly.
"Then she's been in that safe more than once."
From the kitchen came the sound of Valentina laughing at something Mrs.
Okafor had said.
It was a bright, uncomplicated sound, the kind that belongs to children who do not yet know what is happening around them.
Edmund looked toward the kitchen.
"How old?" he asked.
"Three," I said.
He was quiet for a moment.
"March birthday?"
I looked at him.
"My granddaughter was born on March 14th," he said.
May you like
"Same look about the eyes." He picked up his briefcase.
"Let's go get that lockbox."
