Chapter 4 - The Account Opened for a Dead Woman
Maya did not touch the key.
Julian remained standing.
Lily had fallen asleep with the stuffed rabbit beneath her chin.
The hotel television played silently.
“What is inside the box?” Maya asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You never opened it?”
“It requires two keys.”
Julian placed a second key beside the first.
Maya stared at them.
“Then you had both.”
“No.”
He pointed to the antique ring.
“The second key isn’t mine.”
Maya picked up the ring.
Julian indicated the inside edge.
“Press beneath the H.”
She did.
Nothing happened.
“Harder.”
A small section of the band shifted.
Maya gasped.
A tiny flat piece of metal slid from the ring.
It was shaped like a key.
She stared at it.
“My mother carried this for decades.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew.”
“I knew the ring contained something. I did not know what until she showed Thomas.”
“Why Thomas?”
Julian looked toward the door.
“Because in 2017, someone tried to kill him.”
Maya waited.
“Thomas was auditing a logistics subsidiary we had acquired. He discovered invoices connected to a company called Northstar Meridian.”
“What was it?”
“A shell corporation.”
“Connected to Ashbourne?”
“Yes.”
“Who attacked him?”
“We never proved it.”
“But my mother saved him?”
“She pulled him out of a car before it burned.”
Maya struggled to imagine Evelyn doing something so dangerous.
Her mother had hated driving at night.
She checked the stove three times before bed.
She cut coupons.
She grew basil in recycled coffee tins.
Then again, Maya had already learned that Evelyn had once been Eleanor Ashbourne.
Maybe she had never known her mother at all.
Julian sat in the armchair.
“Eleanor contacted me afterward. She believed the network that had stolen from the Ashbourne trust had survived through several corporations. Sterling included.”
“You’re saying your company was involved.”
“Parts of it.”
“Were you?”
“No.”
“Your father?”
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation.
Maya looked at him.
“You say that very easily.”
“I’ve had years to learn the difference between protecting a family name and protecting the truth.”
Something about the sentence made Maya think of Richard.
Julian continued.
“Your mother had documents. She believed someone inside Sterling Holdings was still transferring money through Northstar Meridian.”
“How much?”
“At least four hundred million dollars over three decades.”
Maya laughed once in disbelief.
“My mother lived in a two-bedroom apartment.”
“She refused Ashbourne money.”
“Why?”
“Because she believed it was contaminated.”
Maya’s eyes went to Lily.
“She raised me clipping coupons while people were stealing hundreds of millions from her family.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
Julian was quiet.
“She was afraid that knowing would make you a target.”
Maya’s stomach turned.
“Did it?”
Julian did not answer quickly enough.
“What?”
“Maya.”
“Did it make me a target?”
“I don’t know.”
“You have security outside this hotel, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
She walked to the curtain and pulled it aside.
A black SUV sat across the street.
Two men were inside.
Maya turned.
“You think someone is watching me.”
“I think Richard is looking for you.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Julian stood.
“I think there is a possibility that whoever wanted your mother silent may eventually learn the ring still exists.”
Maya looked at the silver band.
For seven years she had treated it like a memorial.
Now it felt like evidence.
“When do we open the box?”
“Today.”
The drive to Boston took two hours.
Julian arranged for Lily to travel in a separate vehicle with a female security specialist named Anna Cole.
Maya almost refused.
Then Lily took Anna’s hand after Anna produced a packet of dinosaur stickers from her bag.
At the bank, Maya entered the vault with Julian and a manager.
The safe-deposit box had been untouched for seven years.
The manager inserted one key.
Maya inserted the hidden key from the ring.
The lock opened.
Inside were three objects.
A sealed envelope.
A flash drive.
And a photograph.
Maya picked up the photograph first.
Her mother stood outside a courthouse.
She was younger.
Beside her was a man Maya did not recognize.
He had blond hair and wore a dark coat.
On the back, Evelyn had written one sentence.
If I disappear, find Daniel.
Maya handed it to Julian.
His face tightened.
“You know him.”
“Yes.”
“Who is Daniel?”
Julian stared at the photograph.
“Daniel Mercer.”
“And?”
“He worked for my father.”
“Doing what?”
“Private investigations.”
Maya looked at him.
“Is he alive?”
May you like
Julian’s gaze remained on the photograph.
“I thought he was dead.”
