Chapter 4: His Name in the Wrong Place
Marcus didn't move.
"What did you just say?"
Julian smoothed the front of his jacket with both hands.
"I said your name is on a document.
A financial agreement.
Signed eighteen months ago." He tilted his head.
"You don't remember it?"
"I've never signed anything involving you."
"No," Julian said.
"But you signed something involving Claire.
A loan guarantee.
She needed money — her business was struggling, you stepped in, very noble — and the paperwork went through my holding company." He paused.
"I may have structured it in a way that creates certain…
liabilities for the guarantor."
Marcus looked at Claire.
Her face had gone still.
"He's lying."
"Am I?" Julian reached into his inside jacket pocket and produced his phone.
He turned the screen toward Davis.
"I have a copy right here.
I can send it to whatever address you'd like."
Davis looked at the screen without touching the phone.
"We'll need the original."
"Of course.
My attorney has it." Julian smiled for the first time since the chain hit the floor.
"I'd suggest everyone slow down before this gets more complicated than it needs to be."
Marcus took a breath.
"Claire.
Did you take a loan through anything connected to him?"
Claire pressed her fingers to her temple.
"Eighteen months ago my catering business had a cash flow problem.
Julian said he knew an investor.
A private lender.
He handled all the paperwork.
I signed where he told me to sign." She stopped.
"I didn't read it carefully enough.
I trusted him."
"There it is," Julian said.
"That's not a defense," Marcus said.
"That's a confession that you put her name on documents without explaining what they meant."
"She's an adult.
She signed."
"While she was in a relationship with you.
While she trusted you." Marcus's voice was level but each word landed separately.
"That has a name, Julian.
It's called financial @buse."
Julian laughed — a short, dismissive sound.
"That's a very dramatic word for a business arrangement."
Officer Davis held up one hand.
"Sir, I need you to stop talking without counsel present.
For your own sake." He looked at Marcus.
"And I need everyone to understand that any additional documents will be part of the investigation.
Nothing gets resolved in this hallway today."
Julian buttoned his jacket.
"Fine.
I'll come with you." He looked at Claire one last time.
"But when my attorney starts pulling threads, don't be surprised what unravels.
That envelope was nothing.
A distraction." He walked toward the door, then stopped with his hand on the frame.
"The house isn't the only thing I restructured."
He left.
The front door closed behind him and Davis.
Lily pressed her face against Marcus's arm.
The hallway felt suddenly very large and very quiet.
"What did he mean?" Lily asked.
"What else did he restructure?"
Claire sat down on the bottom stair.
Her hands were in her lap.
She stared at the evidence bag Davis had taken with him — now gone — and then at the empty space where Julian had been standing.
"I don't know," she said.
"But I think we need to find out before he talks to his attorney."
Marcus crouched down in front of her.
"Do you still have copies of everything you signed?
Every document from that period?"
"Some of it.
Not all."
"Where?"
Claire looked up.
"The filing cabinet in my office.
He never touched that room.
He said it was too cluttered." She almost smiled.
"He was right.
It is cluttered.
I never let him organize it."
May you like
Marcus stood.
"Then that's where we start."
