Chapter 15 - THE CALL FROM CAPE ANN|
Malcolm Reed answered the telephone on the fourth ring.
He sounded irritated rather than surprised when Adrienne introduced himself.
“I wondered how long it would take you to find the box.”
“You knew about it?”
“Your father asked me to help secure it.”
“Then why didn't you tell me Nathan was alive?”
There was a long silence.
“I never said he was alive.”
“You signed the transfer papers that moved him from the hospital.”
“I signed many documents in those years.”
“Don't play games with me, Malcolm.”
The older man sighed.
“Your father believed the truth would destroy the family. I believed him.”
“And now?”
“Now I believe the family may already be destroyed.”
Adrienne arranged to meet him in Cape Ann the following morning. The detective insisted that officers accompany them, but Malcolm refused to meet at his home. He chose a small restaurant near the harbor, where the windows overlooked gray water and fishing boats.
Marisol came with Adrienne.
She had no formal role in the investigation, but the letter in her father's handwriting had made her part of the story whether she wanted to be or not.
Malcolm arrived wearing a dark coat and carrying a walking stick. He was seventy-five, with silver hair and the practiced politeness of a man who had spent his life delivering bad news without appearing responsible for it.
He looked at Marisol first.
“You're the mechanic's daughter.”
She stiffened.
“You knew my father?”
“I met him twice. He was a decent man.”
“Why did he help Nathan?”
Malcolm took a seat.
“Because Nathan was in danger, and your father was one of the few people willing to help without asking what he would receive in return.”
Adrienne leaned forward.
“Who was threatening him?”
Malcolm looked toward the window.
“Gideon Cross had discovered that your father intended to remove him from the company. He had been moving money through a network of consulting firms and using the foundation to conceal payments. Nathan found the records.”
“Why didn't he bring them to the police?”
“He tried. The first attorney he contacted warned him that the evidence had been compromised. Someone had access to the investigation before it began.”
“Who?”
Malcolm looked at Adrienne.
“Your father suspected a member of the board. He never proved it.”
Adrienne's jaw tightened.
“And Celeste?”
“She entered the picture years later. Gideon needed someone who could get close to you without raising suspicion. She had financial problems and a talent for making people believe what they wanted to believe.”
Marisol felt sick.
“So the wedding was planned from the beginning?”
“Not the wedding itself. The opportunity. When Celeste became engaged to you, Gideon decided that the time had come.”
“Why poison him?” Adrienne demanded. “Why not expose me, remove me from the company, or force me to resign?”
“Because you would never have signed the transfer documents voluntarily.”
Malcolm removed a small envelope from his coat.
Inside was a photocopy of a corporate resolution that would transfer voting control to a temporary board committee if Adrienne became medically incapacitated. The committee's members included Gideon Cross and two executives who had resigned years earlier but retained advisory positions.
“If you had collapsed at the wedding and been hospitalized,” Malcolm explained, “Celeste would have presented the documents as a precaution. The committee would have taken control while you recovered. If you never recovered, the arrangement would have become permanent.”
Adrienne stared at the paper.
“And Nathan?”
“He wanted the documents exposed. Gideon wanted them destroyed. Victor was hired to handle the medical side of the operation.”
“Where is Nathan now?”
Malcolm's expression changed.
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
“I knew where he was eight years ago. I helped him disappear. After that, he stopped trusting me.”
“Why?”
Malcolm looked at Marisol.
“Because he discovered I had signed another document. One that gave Gideon temporary access to the trust. I believed it would help us protect the evidence. Nathan believed I had betrayed him.”
“Did you?”
Malcolm's eyes filled with shame.
“I made a terrible decision. I thought I could control Gideon. I was wrong.”
A waiter approached. Malcolm asked for water, then waited until the man left.
“There is one more thing you should know,” he said. “The trust was not created only to protect Nathan. Your father used it to pay for medical care, legal assistance, and education for people who had been harmed by Gideon's operations.”
Marisol remembered the scholarship.
“Emilio's scholarship.”
Malcolm nodded.
“Your father recommended your family after he learned what happened to your parents. He believed your brother deserved an opportunity that money should never have taken away.”
Marisol looked down at her hands.
The kindness she had attributed to Adrienne had begun years earlier, through people she had never known and secrets she had never been meant to discover.
Then Malcolm leaned toward them.
“Gideon knows you found the box. He knows you spoke to me. And if Nathan is alive, Gideon will do anything to find him before you do.”
Adrienne rose.
“Then we'll find him first.”
Malcolm caught his wrist.
“There's something I haven't told you.”
Adrienne looked down.
“The man who arranged the transfer from the hospital wasn't Gideon.”
“Who was it?”
Malcolm's voice dropped to a whisper.
“Your father.”
May you like
He paused.
“And your father did it because Nathan was not the only person he was trying to save.”
