Chapter 4: The Name on the Deed
Detective Reyes arrived within twenty minutes.
His name was Paul — Paul Reyes — and Marcus had known him since they'd both moved onto Crestwood Lane within the same summer, back when Lily was still in diapers and Hannah was still alive.
Paul had come to Hannah's funeral.
He had shoveled Marcus's driveway the winter after, without being asked, without saying a word about it.
He sat at the kitchen table now with a notepad and listened without interrupting while Marcus walked him through the footage.
Sarah had not left.
Marcus had asked her to stay, and she had stayed — which told him something.
She wasn't panicking.
She was still calculating.
"Nine incidents," Paul said, when the last clip ended.
"Over eleven weeks."
Paul looked at the brown bottle in the evidence bag Marcus had provided.
"And this was just sitting on the counter."
"She didn't think she needed to hide it."
Paul wrote something down.
He didn't look at Sarah.
"Mrs.
Vance, I'm going to need you to answer some questions."
"I'd like to call my attorney first."
"You're welcome to do that."
She picked up her phone.
Her hands, Marcus noticed, were finally not steady.
While she stepped into the hallway, Paul leaned forward slightly.
"Marcus.
The beach house Lily mentioned.
Do you own it jointly?"
"No.
It was Hannah's.
She inherited it from her father.
When she passed, it transferred to Lily in trust, with me as trustee until Lily turns twenty-five."
"So Sarah has no legal claim to it."
"None."
"But she's been discussing it with this attorney."
Marcus nodded.
"Julian.
I don't have a last name yet."
Paul tapped his pen once against the notepad.
"I might."
Marcus looked at him.
"There was a property inquiry filed against a residential trust in Greenwich four months ago.
Came across my desk because the trust had a flag on it — Hannah's father was involved in a civil dispute years back, nothing serious, but the flag stayed.
The attorney who filed the inquiry was named Julian Mercer."
The name landed like something physical.
"Four months ago," Marcus said.
"We'd been married six months."
"Yes."
They sat with that for a moment.
Sarah came back into the kitchen.
Her voice was composed again.
"My attorney advises me not to answer questions without him present."
"That's your right," Paul said.
He stood, capped his pen, and looked at her with the particular patience of someone who has heard that sentence many times.
"I'll be in touch, Mrs.
Vance."
He picked up the evidence bag.
At the door, he turned back to Marcus.
"Get Lily to her grandmother's tonight.
Don't tell Sarah where."
Marcus nodded.
After Paul left, Sarah turned to face him.
The calculation was gone now.
Something harder had replaced it.
"You have no idea what Julian found," she said.
"Tell me."
"Hannah's trust has a structural flaw.
A filing error from when her father set it up.
Julian says it's enough to challenge the trustee designation." She paused.
"Meaning you."
Marcus kept his face still.
"If the challenge succeeds," Sarah continued, "the court appoints a neutral trustee.
Julian has already identified a candidate.
And that trustee would be legally empowered to authorize a sale of the beach house to settle administrative costs."
"Administrative costs that you and Julian would define."
She didn't deny it.
"How long have you been planning this?" Marcus asked.
May you like
She picked up her coffee cup, found it cold, and set it back down.
"Since the week after the wedding."
