Chapter 15 - Tea With Celeste
Elena did not meet Celeste alone.
Clara sat beside her at the hotel table. Martin occupied another table within view, while two investigators waited in the lobby.
Celeste arrived precisely on time.
She was in her early sixties, with carefully arranged silver-blonde hair and the calm confidence of someone accustomed to entering rooms where people already knew her name.
She placed the brass key beside Elena’s teacup.
“You could have mailed it,” Elena said.
“I wanted to see whether Richard’s widow was as formidable as he claimed.”
“Do not use my husband to flatter me.”
Celeste smiled slightly.
“Richard never exaggerated your strength. He underestimated your willingness to use it.”
Elena did not touch the key.
Celeste claimed that Nolan had revived Bluebonnet without her approval. He recruited Sabrina, supplied the medical consultant and expected to obtain Elena’s mansion through Garrick.
When the birthday plan failed, Nolan cooperated with investigators to protect himself.
“He gave them minor names,” Celeste said. “Consultants, document preparers and intermediaries. He did not give them the structure.”
“Because you control it?”
“Because even Nolan did not know who controlled it.”
Clara leaned forward.
“Your family created Bluebonnet.”
“My father created the first version. Richard destroyed most of it.”
“Most?”
Celeste glanced at the brass key.
“The ledger contained more than victims. It contained payments made by respected lawyers, bankers, doctors and charitable foundations. Some participated willingly. Others paid to keep their relatives’ names out of court.”
“And you want it.”
“I want it contained.”
“That means hidden,” Elena said.
“That means preventing panic that could destroy innocent institutions.”
“People always discover innocent reasons to bury profitable crimes.”
For the first time, irritation appeared in Celeste’s eyes.
She slid a bank receipt across the table.
The brass key belonged to a deposit box opened under the Richard Mercer Protective Trust.
According to the receipt, someone had accessed the box two days after Richard’s funeral.
The visitor signed Garrick’s name.
Garrick had been twenty-six at the time.
Elena remembered him spending that week at her sister’s home in Denver. He had been unable to enter Richard’s office without breaking down.
“He was not in Austin,” she said.
“I know.”
“Then who used his name?”
“That is the question Richard expected you to ask years ago.”
Celeste stood.
“You will find the box empty. But the person who emptied it made one mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“They believed Richard kept only one copy.”
Before leaving, Celeste looked at Clara.
“Ask your mother where the second copy went.”
Clara’s face hardened.
“My mother has been dead for nine years.”
May you like
Celeste picked up her gloves.
“Yes,” she said. “That has made asking her extremely inconvenient.”
