Chapter 6: The Account in Vancouver
Marcus was in the anteroom on the third floor when Julian returned, his phone to his ear, a yellow legal pad covered in notes on the table in front of him.
He held up one finger without looking up, finished his call, and set the phone down.
"Garrett Hale," Marcus said.
"He has a registered business address in Vancouver, British Columbia.
A holding company — Hale Meridian Capital.
It was incorporated fourteen months ago."
Julian sat down.
"Fourteen months ago."
"Three months after you and Victoria started dating." Marcus turned the legal pad around so Julian could see it.
"The account your anonymous text referred to — I can't access it directly, obviously, but I have a contact at a forensic financial firm who can begin a trace through public incorporation records.
If there's a linked account in Victoria's name, or a name she uses, it will surface."
"She said something before I left the room."
Marcus waited.
"She told me to ask Teresa how much she was paid to spy on her."
Marcus was quiet for a moment.
"What do you make of that?"
"I don't know yet.
Either it's true and Teresa has a connection I don't know about, or it's a deflection designed to make me doubt the one person who helped me today."
"It could be both," Marcus said.
"Or neither.
But it needs to be addressed." He picked up his pen.
"Do you want me to speak to Teresa?"
"No.
I will."
Julian found Teresa in the room they'd reserved for Leo — a quiet suite at the end of the east corridor, away from the event spaces.
She was sitting in the armchair near the window, the baby asleep in the travel cot beside her.
She stood when Julian came in.
"Sit down, Teresa.
Please."
She sat.
He pulled a chair across and sat facing her.
"Victoria said something to me before I left her room," he said.
"She told me to ask you how much you were paid to spy on her."
Teresa's face didn't crumple.
It went very still.
"Did someone contact you?" Julian asked.
"Before today.
About Victoria."
A long pause.
Then Teresa said, "Yes."
Julian held himself steady.
"Who?"
"I don't know his name.
He called my personal number two weeks ago.
He said he was a private investigator working on behalf of a client who had reason to believe Victoria Hayes was engaged in financial misconduct.
He asked if I had observed anything in the household that concerned me." She paused.
"I told him I didn't speak to strangers about the families I worked for and ended the call."
"Did he call again?"
"Once.
I didn't answer.
He left a voicemail saying that if I ever felt the child in my care was at risk, I should call a number he left." She looked at Julian directly.
"I deleted the voicemail.
But I kept the number."
Julian absorbed this.
"When did you decide to come to me today?"
"This morning.
I brought Leo up to the bridal floor to show him to Victoria — she had asked me to bring him up before the ceremony so she could have a photograph with him." Teresa's hands tightened slightly in her lap.
"She didn't know I was already in the corridor when she started her call.
I heard the first two minutes before I understood what she was saying.
Then I went to find you."
"The private investigator's number — do you still have it?"
"Yes."
"Give it to Marcus.
He's downstairs." Julian stood.
"Teresa — I want you to know that what you did today took courage.
Whatever else is happening around the edges of this, what you did in that hallway was the right thing."
Teresa looked at Leo sleeping in the cot.
"She called him a complication," she said quietly.
"I've been caring for that boy since he was six weeks old.
I wasn't going to say nothing."
Julian nodded.
He didn't trust himself to say more than that.
He went back to Marcus with the information.
Marcus added it to his legal pad, circled the word *investigator*, and underlined it twice.
"Someone else was already watching her," Marcus said.
"Yes."
"That means someone else has information we don't have yet."
"Yes."
"And that someone sent you a text this morning at a moment carefully designed to land after you'd already heard the phone call but before you'd confronted her."
Julian looked at him.
"You think it was coordinated."
"I think," Marcus said carefully, "that we are not the only people who wanted this wedding stopped." He set down his pen.
"Which raises the question of who else Victoria has done this to.
And whether they're in this building right now."
Julian's phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number — the same one as before.
*Room 214.
He's been waiting since this morning.
His name is Daniel Forsythe.
He drove four hours to be here.
He thought you should hear it from someone who lost everything.*
Julian read it twice.
Looked up at Marcus.
May you like
"Room 214," he said.
Marcus was already standing.
