Chapter 4: Everything He Said He'd Closed
I didn't sleep.
I lay in the guest room of my friend Paula's house — she had insisted, no discussion — and stared at the ceiling while the city went quiet outside.
Paula had left a glass of water on the nightstand and asked no questions.
That was the kindest thing anyone had done for me in months.
By six in the morning I was dressed.
By seven I was at a coffee shop two blocks from Darcy's office with my laptop open and a name typed into the search bar.
*Renata V.*
Without a surname it gave me nothing useful.
I tried combinations — Renata V.
and Julian's name, Renata V.
and the hotel, Renata V.
and the name of Julian's collapsed company.
Nothing landed.
I closed the laptop and called Darcy.
"I'm already in," she said, before I could speak.
"Come at nine."
I was there at eight fifty.
Darcy was standing at her window when I walked in.
She turned, gestured to the chair across from her desk, and sat down without preamble.
"Renata Voss," she said.
"Thirty-four years old.
She's a financial consultant.
Freelance, mostly private clients." She slid a printed page across the desk.
A professional headshot, a LinkedIn profile, a business address.
"She and Julian have been in contact for at least fourteen months based on the phone records we've been able to access."
Fourteen months.
I did the arithmetic without meaning to.
Fourteen months ago, Julian had told me his stress levels were affecting his health.
He had started going to the gym at odd hours.
He had become quieter at dinner.
I had thought he was depressed.
"Is she a client?" I asked.
"Or was she advising him on something?"
"Both, possibly.
But that's not the part that matters." Darcy opened the blue folder.
"The company Julian told you never got off the ground — the one before his first business collapsed."
"He called it a dry run.
Said he'd wound it down before it ever traded."
"It didn't wind down." Darcy turned a page toward me.
It was a company registration document.
The filing date was four years ago.
"It's still registered.
It's been dormant, but it's active on paper.
And three months ago, someone filed updated director information."
I looked at the document.
Julian's name was still listed.
But beside it, added in the most recent filing, was a second name.
*Renata Voss.*
The room tilted slightly.
I kept my eyes on the page.
"She's a director of his company," I said.
"A company he told you didn't exist."
"And the forty thousand—"
"We believe part of it was moved through that entity before it reached the property deposit account.
We're still tracing the full path, but the structure is consistent with someone trying to move money in a way that's difficult to follow."
I set the page down.
"He was hiding assets."
"That's what it looks like."
"While asking me for another twenty-eight thousand dollars."
Darcy said nothing.
She didn't need to.
I thought about Eleanor sitting at my kitchen island in her cream suit, scrolling through Paris hotel photos.
I thought about the small, satisfied smile she had given me when Julian told me to leave.
*Maybe some time away will help you appreciate what you have.*
"Does Eleanor know about Renata?" I asked.
"I don't know yet."
"Does she know about the company?"
Darcy paused.
"That's the question I've been sitting with since last night." She leaned forward slightly.
"Because the property deposit — the one that never completed — the address it was registered to is in Eleanor's name."
The silence in the room was absolute.
"She's involved," I said.
"I think she has been from the beginning," Darcy said quietly.
"I think the Europe trip was never about a vacation."
My phone lit up on the desk between us.
Julian's name on the screen.
I looked at it.
I didn't pick it up.
It rang seven times.
May you like
Then it stopped.
Then it started again.
