Chapter 6: The Conversation He Didn't Know Was Being Recorded
Neither of us moved for a moment.
Then Michael stepped inside and set both cups on the small table near the door.
He didn't look at the photograph again.
He sat down in the chair he'd been in before, crossed his arms loosely, and said, "Everything okay?"
"Sit down, Michael," I said.
"I am sitting."
"Then stay sitting." I set the photograph face-up on the bed beside Lily.
"Do you recognize this?"
He looked at it.
Took his time.
"That's Anna."
"Yes."
"I don't know who the man is."
"The restaurant is in the same building as the law firm that registered your LLC," I said.
"Hartwell Property Consulting.
The one you used to move two hundred and forty thousand dollars out of Lily's trust."
The room was very quiet.
Michael looked at Detective Collins.
Then back at me.
Something in his posture shifted — not collapse, not panic.
Recalculation.
"I want to be careful about what I say here," he said.
"That's fine," Collins said.
"You're not under arrest.
You're free to leave at any time."
He didn't leave.
"Daniel," he said, "I know how this looks.
But I need you to understand that everything I did, I did because I was trying to protect Lily."
"From me."
"From the situation.
From Evelyn." He leaned forward.
"You think Evelyn was my partner in this?
She wasn't.
She was using me.
She came to me eight months after Anna d*ed and told me she had concerns about the trust.
She said she'd found evidence that money was being mismanaged.
She said if I helped her build a case against you, she would make sure Lily was protected and I would be compensated fairly."
"Compensated," I said.
"I know how that sounds."
"You signed a petition to have me declared an unfit father.
You asked a court to make you Lily's guardian.
You forged my signature on four bank withdrawals.
And you're telling me Evelyn manipulated you into all of that."
"The withdrawals were her idea," Michael said.
"She told me to set up the LLC.
She told me the money would be safer there while the petition was pending.
She said once you lost custody, we'd return it to the trust and no one would ever know."
"And you believed her."
He looked at his hands.
"I needed to believe her."
"Why?" I asked.
"Why did you need any of this?
I gave you a room.
I gave you a car.
I trusted you with my daughter."
Michael's jaw tightened.
"Because Anna left me nothing."
The words landed like something dropped from a height.
"Anna's will left everything to you and Lily," he said.
"Not a single dollar to me.
I was her brother-in-law for nine years.
I helped her when she was sick.
I drove her to appointments when you were traveling for work.
I sat with her." His voice cracked at the edge.
"And she left me nothing.
Evelyn found me when I was angry enough to listen."
Collins was writing steadily.
I looked at my brother.
At the grey jacket.
At the man who had smoothed Lily's hair back from her forehead an hour ago.
"Anna left you nothing," I said slowly, "because she knew what you were."
His eyes came up.
"She found out," I said.
"Didn't she.
That's what the photograph is.
She found out you'd been talking to Evelyn, and she went to meet with a lawyer, and Evelyn found out she knew."
"I didn't know what Evelyn was going to do," Michael said.
"I want you to understand that.
I didn't know about Anna."
"What did Evelyn do to Anna?"
"I don't know."
"Michael."
"I don't know, Daniel.
I swear to you.
I don't know."
He was crying now.
Actual tears, running down the side of his face, and I had no way to know if they were real.
Collins closed her notepad.
"Mr.
Hartwell," she said to Michael, "I'm going to ask you to come with me to the station to continue this conversation.
You're not under arrest.
But I'd like to record this formally."
Michael wiped his face with the back of his hand.
He looked at Lily.
Lily was looking at the window.
He stood up.
"Okay," he said quietly.
"Okay."
At the door he stopped and turned back to me.
"Daniel.
I'm sorry.
I know that doesn't —" He stopped.
Started again.
"I'm sorry."
I didn't say anything.
He left.
Collins paused in the doorway.
"We'll need to talk more tonight.
Don't go anywhere." She glanced at Lily.
"She's a remarkable kid."
"I know," I said.
The door closed.
Lily reached over and picked up the photograph of her mother.
She looked at it for a long time.
"Dad," she said finally.
"Mom knew something was wrong, didn't she."
"Yes," I said.
"I think she did."
"Is that why she made the recording thing on my watch?
The one that taught me how to record voice messages?"
I went still.
"Lily," I said carefully.
"Who taught you how to use the recording function on your watch?"
She looked up at me.
"Mom did," she said.
"Right before she went to the hospital the last time.
May you like
She said I should always know how to save things.
In case I needed to remember them later."
