Chapter 8: What Marcus Carried
Grant's team followed Serena to a parking garage twelve minutes from the mansion.
Marcus Hale was already there, leaning against the silver car, when she arrived.
The exchange lasted nine minutes.
Grant's team captured it on audio from a directional mic — legal, under the authorization Victor had signed that morning.
Victor listened to the recording in his study at noon, with Patricia beside him.
The first four minutes were argument.
Serena's voice was tight and fast.
Marcus was slower, more controlled.
*"You said we had more time."*
*"We had enough time until you decided to hjt the nanny."*
*"I didn't plan that.
She got in the way."*
*"She got in the way because you were hurting a child, Serena."*
A pause.
*"Don't lecture me.
You're in this as deep as I am."*
*"I'm in this for the money.
You're in this because you wanted to be her."*
Silence on the recording.
Long enough that Victor almost thought the audio had cut out.
Then Serena's voice, quieter: *"Where's the folder?"*
*"Destroyed."*
*"All of it?"*
*"Everything that had your name on it.
The rest I'm keeping."*
*"Why?"*
*"Insurance."*
Another pause.
*"Marcus.
If they connect Diana to the firm—"*
*"They already have.
Your mother needs to stop answering her phone."*
*"She won't talk."*
*"She's a seventy-year-old woman being contacted by a financial crimes unit.
She'll talk."*
The recording ended there.
Serena had apparently seen something — a reflection, a movement — and the conversation had stopped.
Patricia set down her pen.
"Insurance," she said.
"He kept documents."
"Which means he'll use them," Victor said.
"Either to negotiate with us or to protect himself from Serena."
"We should move on him before he decides."
Victor nodded.
"Grant is already coordinating with the unit.
They'll pick him up this afternoon."
Patricia gathered her papers.
"And Diana Voss?"
"She called her own lawyer an hour ago," Victor said.
"Grant flagged it.
She knows."
Patricia stood.
"This moves fast now.
Once Marcus is in custody, Serena has no one left to run to." She paused at the door.
"Victor.
The medical records question — the one you raised this morning about Claire."
Victor looked up.
"I pulled the name of the attending physician," Patricia said carefully.
"He retired eighteen months ago.
Moved abroad.
I think we should find him."
The room was very quiet.
"Yes," Victor said.
"Find him."
Patricia left.
Victor sat alone.
He opened the drawer of his desk and took out a photograph — not the fundraiser picture, not anything from the investigation.
A personal one.
Claire in the garden, laughing at something off-camera, Ethan not yet born, her hand resting on her stomach.
He looked at it for a long time.
May you like
Then he put it back in the drawer, gently, and picked up his phone.
There was one more call he needed to make.
