Chapter 5 - sixty-three million reasons to lie)
For twelve minutes, nobody spoke.
Nora eventually sat at the kitchen table and opened her laptop.
It was instinct.
Numbers had always been the place she went when people became impossible.
“Name.”
Gerald looked at her.
“Of what?”
“The entity.”
“Farwell Preservation Trust.”
“No. The entity owning the parcels.”
“Northstar Holdings LLC.”
“State?”
“Delaware.”
“Operating companies?”
Gerald paused.
“Nora.”
“Give me the names.”
“You just buried your father.”
“And apparently inherited a corporate structure nobody thought I deserved to know existed.”
Elaine said, “That attitude is exactly why Samuel kept things from you.”
Nora looked up.
“What attitude?”
“You turn everything into an audit.”
“Someone should have.”
Marcus stood.
“This is ridiculous. If it’s worth sixty-three million, we sell enough to cover everything.”
Nora stared at him.
“No.”
“It’s family property.”
“You tried to sell my home this morning.”
“Our home.”
“You haven’t lived here in nineteen years.”
“Neither have you.”
“I came home every week for Dad.”
Marcus rolled his eyes.
“And there it is. Saint Nora.”
Elaine said, “Marcus has children.”
Nora’s expression changed.
Marcus had two daughters.
Fifteen-year-old Brooke and twelve-year-old Sophie.
Nora loved them.
“They are exactly why Marcus should not receive two million dollars to gamble.”
Marcus slammed the table.
“I am not gambling again.”
Dean’s forty-eight-hour deadline lingered in the room.
Nora looked at Gerald.
“Who controls Northstar?”
Gerald hesitated.
“Samuel did.”
“And now?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“The contents of the trust amendments.”
“Where are they?”
“In my office.”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“Of course they are.”
Gerald ignored him.
“Samuel created layers because he expected a challenge.”
“From Marcus?”
“From everyone.”
Elaine turned away.
Nora saw it.
Not irritation.
Recognition.
“Mom.”
Elaine did not answer.
“Who else would challenge it?”
“People your father should never have trusted.”
“Names.”
“You always want names.”
“Yes.”
“Names get people killed.”
Nora stood.
“And secrets have done such a wonderful job protecting us?”
Elaine’s face hardened.
“You think Evelyn was brave because she found some numbers in a ledger?”
Nora moved closer.
“I don’t know what Evelyn was because you erased her.”
Elaine slapped her.
The crack echoed through the kitchen.
Marcus looked stunned.
Gerald stepped forward.
Nora did not touch her cheek.
She simply looked at the woman who had raised her.
Elaine’s eyes filled.
“Evelyn did not understand when to stop.”
Nora whispered, “And you do?”
Elaine looked immediately toward the basement.
Nora followed her gaze.
The ledgers.
“Gerald.”
He knew.
“You think the accounting records downstairs relate to Northstar.”
“I think they relate to something Samuel never managed to resolve.”
Nora grabbed the basement key.
Marcus stepped in front of her.
“What are you doing?”
“What you should have done five years ago.”
“Which is?”
“Reading.”
Downstairs, Nora opened the first filing cabinet.
The folders were organized by year.
1988.
1989.
1990.
1991.
She pulled one.
Payment schedules.
Property acquisitions.
Shell companies.
Consulting payments.
Several names repeated.
Farwell Equipment.
Northstar Holdings.
Mercer Development.
Wellington Trust Company.
Then one she had never heard.
Crown Meridian Partners.
Nora stared at the transactions.
Amounts moved from Farwell Equipment to Crown Meridian.
Then to Mercer Development.
Then into land purchases surrounding Hawthorne Ridge.
Gerald leaned over her shoulder.
“What is it?”
“The money didn’t disappear.”
“What?”
“Dad said Evelyn found irregular payments.”
Nora ran her finger down the ledger.
“She thought money was being stolen.”
“Yes.”
“It wasn’t.”
Elaine stood near the stairs.
Nora looked at her.
“It was being hidden.”
Elaine said nothing.
Nora opened another folder.
Inside was a copy of an internal memorandum signed by Raymond Hayes, Elaine’s brother.
At the bottom appeared another signature.
Elaine Farwell.
Nora looked up.
Her mother had stopped breathing.
“You were part of Northstar.”
Elaine whispered, “Nora.”
“You signed the transfers.”
“It wasn’t what you think.”
“Then tell me what it was.”
“We were protecting property.”
“From whom?”
Elaine shook her head.
Nora scanned the memorandum.
One phrase repeated.
BENEFICIAL OWNER: E.M.
Evelyn Mercer.
Nora’s chest tightened.
“This money was hers.”
Gerald took the page.
His face changed.
“What?”
He read it again.
“Gerald.”
“I never saw this.”
“Tell me.”
He looked at Nora.
“If these records are legitimate, Evelyn wasn’t investigating Samuel.”
“Who was she investigating?”
Gerald looked toward Elaine.
“Your mother.”
Elaine turned and ran up the stairs.
Marcus followed.
Nora started after them.
Then something fell from the folder.
A bank statement.
It was dated eight months after Evelyn Mercer’s supposed death.
The account holder was Evelyn Mercer.
And someone had withdrawn $40,000 in person.
Nora stared at the signature.
“Gerald.”
He leaned closer.
Nora felt the room tilt.
“If Evelyn died before this date…”
Gerald finished the sentence.
“Then either someone used her identity.”
May you like
Nora looked toward the photograph wall.
“Or she didn’t die.”
