Chapter 5: What Anna Knew
Detective Collins stepped into the hallway to make a call of her own.
I stayed in the room with Michael and Lily, performing the version of myself that didn't know anything yet.
Michael talked about traffic.
He talked about the hospital parking rates.
He peeled the straw from one of the juice boxes and handed it to Lily, and she accepted it without looking at him, and the three of us sat in the particular silence of people who are all pretending.
Collins came back eight minutes later.
"Mr.
Hartwell," she said to Michael, "I need to ask you to wait outside for a few minutes.
There are some details I need to go over with Daniel privately."
Michael stood without hesitation.
Too smoothly.
"Of course.
I'll grab a coffee." He touched my shoulder on his way past.
"Let me know if you need anything."
The door closed.
Collins pulled the chair close to the bed and sat down.
She spoke quietly, including Lily in the conversation in the way that told me she had dealt with children before — not talking around her, not pretending she wasn't there.
"The call Michael received," Collins said.
"It came from a prepaid phone.
Not Evelyn's registered number.
But the cell tower it pinged from is two blocks from the county jail processing center." She paused.
"She made one call before they took her phone.
We believe that call went to Michael."
"She warned him," I said.
"She tried to.
But here's what's interesting." Collins opened her notepad to a new page.
"While I was in the hallway, I heard back from our forensic accountant.
The four unauthorized withdrawals from Anna's trust — they were transferred to a holding account.
That account was opened fourteen months ago." She looked at me.
"The name on the account is a company called Hartwell Property Consulting LLC."
I had never heard of it.
"That company was registered in Delaware fourteen months ago," Collins continued.
"The registered agent is listed as a law firm.
But the sole director —" She turned the notepad so I could read it.
Michael James Hartwell.
The room felt very still.
"He didn't just help Evelyn," I said.
"He was running his own operation inside it."
"The withdrawals appear to be his cut," Collins said.
"Our theory is that Evelyn planned to gain control of the full trust through the custody petition.
But Michael wasn't willing to wait.
He started taking smaller amounts early, using forged authorization, routing it through the LLC so it looked like a legitimate consulting fee."
"For fourteen months," I said.
"He's been doing this for fourteen months."
Lily set her juice box down on the blanket.
"Dad."
I looked at her.
"Uncle Michael asked me something last week," she said.
"He asked me if I knew where you kept the important papers.
The ones in your office."
I went very still.
"What did you tell him?"
"I said I didn't know.
But I do know.
You keep them in the blue folder in the bottom drawer." She looked at her hands.
"I didn't tell him that."
Collins leaned forward slightly.
"Lily, did he ask you anything else?
Anything about your mom's money, or your dad's job, or any papers with numbers on them?"
Lily thought about it.
"He asked me once if Dad ever talked about the trust.
I didn't know what a trust was so I said no." She paused.
"He seemed happy when I said that."
I stood up and walked to the window.
The parking garage was visible from here.
Michael's car — my old car, the one I'd given him when Anna d*ed because he'd said he needed reliable transportation — was on the second level.
I could see it from where I stood.
I had given him a car.
A room.
Two years of proximity to my daughter and my finances and every document in my home office.
"There's one more thing," Collins said from behind me.
I turned around.
She was holding a photograph.
Not a printout this time.
An actual photograph, slightly worn at the edges, the kind printed at a pharmacy.
It showed Anna.
My wife.
She was sitting at a restaurant table, and across from her was a man I didn't recognize.
Middle-aged, well-dressed.
They were both looking at a document between them.
"Where did you get this?" I asked.
"It was in Evelyn's briefcase.
In a separate interior pocket." Collins set it on the table.
"We don't know who the man is yet.
But the restaurant in the background — we've identified it.
It's in the same building as the law firm that registered Michael's LLC."
I picked up the photograph.
Anna looked serious.
Not frightened.
Serious, in the way she looked when she was working through a problem she hadn't solved yet.
"When was this taken?" I asked.
"Based on what Anna is wearing and the seasonal decorations visible in the background," Collins said carefully, "our best estimate is approximately three weeks before she d*ed."
The photograph was in my hand and I couldn't feel my fingers.
"She knew," I said.
"We think she may have discovered something," Collins said.
"And we think Evelyn knew that she knew."
The door opened.
Michael stood in the doorway holding two paper coffee cups.
He looked at the photograph in my hand.
May you like
His face didn't change.
But he didn't come any further into the room.
