Chapter 7: What Victoria Came to Collect
I answered it.
"Elena." Victoria's voice was different from the morning call.
Quieter.
Controlled in a way that took effort.
"Is Julian there?"
"He's here."
"Put me on speaker."
I looked at Julian.
His face had not recovered its color.
I pressed the speaker button and set the phone on the table between us.
"Julian," Victoria said.
"Mother." The word came out flat.
"I've just had a very interesting conversation with our attorney in Portland.
It seems someone has filed a preservation order against Arthur's accounts." A pause.
"Would either of you like to explain that to me?"
Julian said nothing.
"Elena," Victoria said.
"I don't know what Julian has told you, but I want you to understand something.
You are not the injured party here.
You are the liability.
Your firm's accounts were used to move funds because your name is on the compliance license.
If this goes to the authorities, the first person they look at is the licensed professional whose signature appears on every document."
Maya's pen was moving.
"That's an interesting theory," I said.
"It isn't a theory.
I have spoken to three attorneys this morning.
Your signature, your firm, your professional license.
Julian and I are family members who relied on your expertise.
You are the one who authorized the transfers."
"With a forged signature," I said.
"Forged while I was on a plane."
"Prove it."
"We already have," Maya said.
"Flight records, airport security footage, the timestamp on the authorization.
The forgery is documented."
Silence.
"Victoria," I said.
"Where is Diane?"
Nothing.
"Is she in Portland?
Is that where Julian's been flying?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"The security footage from the Portland bank branch," I said.
"The woman using my signature at the counter.
We have her on camera.
We have the date.
We have the transaction records." I leaned toward the phone.
"We know Diane is alive.
We know you paid for her disappearance.
We know the trust.
We know the law firm.
The only thing we don't know yet is why — and I suspect the why is going to be the most interesting part."
The line was silent for so long I thought she had disconnected.
Then: "You should have stayed in Chicago."
The call ended.
Julian was staring at the phone.
His hands were on the table and they were not steady.
"Julian," I said.
"Whatever Victoria has told you — whatever she's threatened you with — it doesn't matter now.
The evidence exists.
The only question is whether you're standing on her side of this or mine."
"You don't understand what she did to Diane," he said.
"She drove her out.
Paid her off.
Made her sign documents agreeing never to contest the estate, never to contact Arthur, never to come back.
Diane was twenty-nine years old and Victoria had lawyers and Arthur's power of attorney and Diane had nothing." His voice cracked slightly at the edges.
"She's been living under a false name for eleven years.
She has nothing.
She reached out to me and I—" He stopped.
"You started sending her money," I said.
"Before she even contacted you."
He looked at the table.
"Someone told you she was alive before that letter arrived," I said.
"Who?"
He didn't answer.
The front door opened.
We all heard it — the distinct sound of a key in the lock, the door swinging wide, footsteps on the hardwood.
Julian stood up so fast he knocked his water glass off the table.
Victoria walked into the kitchen.
She was dressed precisely, her coat buttoned, her expression composed.
She looked at the documents on the table.
She looked at Maya.
She looked at Julian with an expression that contained no warmth at all.
Then she looked at me.
"I think," she said, "it's time we spoke honestly."
She pulled out the chair at the head of the table — Arthur's chair, the one he sat in every Sunday — and sat down as though she had always owned it.
"Diane Hale is not a victim," she said.
"And before you build your entire case around protecting her, you should know exactly what she did."
She reached into her coat pocket and set a photograph on the table.
It was Arthur.
Younger — perhaps sixty.
Standing beside a woman I didn't recognize.
They were holding hands.
"Diane was not Julian's biological mother," Victoria said.
May you like
"She was Arthur's second wife.
And she was embezzling from his accounts for six years before I found out."
