Chapter 10: What the Lobby Looked Like the Second Time
Gerald was in the third-floor conference room when Charlotte arrived.
Daniel Ashworth was already seated across from a woman Charlotte didn't recognize — mid-forties, reading glasses, a yellow legal pad — who turned out to be the prosecutor's liaison Gerald had called two hours ago.
Charlotte stood in the doorway for a moment.
Gerald came to her.
"He's talking," Gerald said quietly.
"He's been talking since he sat down.
Names, dates, account numbers.
He wants the cooperation agreement in writing before he goes further, but he's already given us enough to move on Vivienne independently."
"Where is she?"
"Her attorney called twenty minutes ago.
She's preparing a statement." Gerald's expression said exactly what he thought of that.
"Her attorney is also asking whether there's any arrangement available."
"There isn't," Charlotte said.
"I told him that."
Charlotte looked through the glass at Daniel Ashworth, bent over the legal pad, writing in his careful, even hand.
"The forensic accountant," she said.
"What's the final number?"
"Four million, three hundred thousand, across thirty-one months.
Routed through the Delaware shell, then split between two personal accounts — one in Daniel's name, one in a holding entity Vivienne controls." Gerald paused.
"There's also a property.
A house in Connecticut, purchased eighteen months ago, titled under the Holt and Ashworth entity.
The purchase price was eight hundred thousand."
Charlotte was quiet.
"My mother's money," she said.
"Yes."
She nodded once.
"Add it to the filing."
She went into the conference room, sat down at the far end of the table, and spent the next three hours in that room while Daniel Ashworth gave his account and the prosecutor's liaison filled page after page of her legal pad.
At one point, Daniel looked up and met Charlotte's eyes across the table.
She held his gaze.
She didn't look away.
She didn't say anything.
He looked back down at the pad and kept writing.
At five-seventeen in the afternoon, Vivienne Holt's attorney called back.
He had a different tone this time.
Vivienne, he said, was prepared to make a full financial disclosure in exchange for a reduced charge.
Gerald looked at Charlotte.
"It's your call," he said.
Charlotte thought about the lobby that morning.
The marble floor.
Her scraped hands.
The guests who had watched and said nothing.
"She discloses everything," Charlotte said.
"Every account, every transaction, every conversation with Daniel, every name of anyone else involved.
Full disclosure.
And she resigns from the Solmere board today, in writing, effective immediately."
"And in exchange?"
"In exchange, I won't oppose the reduced charge." Charlotte paused.
"But I want the resignation letter on my desk before close of business.
Not tomorrow.
Today."
Gerald relayed the terms.
May you like
The attorney called back in eleven minutes.
Vivienne had signed.
