Chapter 9: Nine O'Clock
The hearing lasted two hours and eleven minutes.
Charlotte sat at the plaintiff's table with Grace on her left and a second attorney named Warren Cole on her right.
Warren specialized in corporate fraud and had flown in from Chicago the night before.
He had read the USB files on the plane and arrived at the hotel at six-thirty with two printed copies of a forty-page brief and the focused energy of someone who had been waiting for a case like this for years.
Dorian's attorney — a man named Prescott, silver-haired and expensive — had filed a motion to delay the hearing on procedural grounds.
The judge denied it in four minutes.
Renata Solis sat in the gallery behind Charlotte, along with two other board members Grace had contacted overnight.
Neither of them had known why they were being asked to come.
Both of them had come anyway.
The judge — a woman in her late fifties named the Honorable Patricia Deem — read through the injunction filing, the board resolution, the document from the hidden recess, and the transcription of the audio recording.
She asked three questions.
Grace answered two of them.
Warren answered the third.
Then Judge Deem looked at Prescott.
"Counselor, your client was captured on audio recording stating, and I'm quoting directly, that the Vale line being broken would activate a trigger clause that would allow a third party to acquire Solmere properties at a price set eleven years prior, without court involvement.
He further stated that the plaintiff, Charlotte Vale, had been — and again I'm quoting — handled, and that she was unaware of her role in this arrangement." The judge set the transcript down.
"Does your client dispute the authenticity of this recording?"
Prescott stood.
"Your Honor, the recording was obtained without—"
"In a private office belonging to the plaintiff's mother, on property that legally belongs to the plaintiff, using a device placed there by the property owner herself." Judge Deem looked at him over her glasses.
"Try again."
Prescott sat down.
The judge expanded the injunction.
She froze all Solmere Group accounts associated with Dorian Holt's operational authority.
She ordered the immediate return of all documents removed from Solmere property — including the contents of the Meridian Records storage facility.
She referred the matter of the original fraudulent board vote to the state attorney general's office for review.
And she issued a material witness order for Callum Voss.
Prescott leaned over and said something to Dorian in a low voice.
Dorian didn't respond.
He was looking at the table in front of him.
Charlotte watched him.
She had expected to feel something large in this moment.
Triumph, maybe.
Or the particular release of a breath held for three years.
Instead she felt something quieter — a steadiness, like a door that had been straining against its frame finally settling back into place.
After the hearing, in the corridor outside the courtroom, Dorian stopped beside her.
Prescott tried to move him along.
Dorian didn't move.
"I want you to know," he said, "that I didn't plan for it to go this far."
Charlotte looked at him.
"Dorian," she said.
"You told a man named Callum Voss that my mother had been handled.
On a recording.
In her own dining room." She paused.
"How far did you plan for it to go?"
He didn't answer.
"That's what I thought," she said.
She walked past him toward the elevator.
Grace fell into step beside her.
"Voss was picked up in Philadelphia this morning," Grace said quietly.
"Forty minutes ago.
He had a one-way ticket to Lisbon in his bag."
"What was in the bag besides the ticket?"
"Documents.
Originals.
Some of them appear to be Solmere contracts going back twelve years." Grace glanced at her.
"He was trying to take the paper trail with him."
"He didn't get far enough."
"No," Grace said.
"He didn't."
The elevator arrived.
They stepped in.
Charlotte pressed the button for the executive floor.
"One more thing," Grace said.
"Iris Tan.
Your mother's former assistant.
I reached her this morning, before the hearing.
She's willing to make a formal statement.
She said—" Grace paused, choosing the words carefully "—she said she's been waiting for someone to ask."
Charlotte looked at the elevator doors closing.
May you like
"Tell her I'll call her this afternoon," she said.
"And tell her thank you."
