Chapter 9: What the Morning Brought
Elena was standing when I came in.
She had found her shoes — someone had brought them from the estate, along with a change of clothes — and she was dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed with her coat across her lap.
"I heard some of it," she said.
"Through the wall."
"How much?"
"Enough." She looked at her hands.
"She was going to blame Dad."
"She was."
"And the drive?"
"My men have it."
Elena nodded slowly.
She didn't cry.
She had the look of someone who had already done that privately, in the minutes I had been in the corridor, and had arrived somewhere past it.
"What happens now?" she said.
"The federal contact arrives at nine.
I've already spoken to him.
He has the transmitted documents, the transfer records, Walter's testimony, and the courier we detained in the parking structure.
Hargrove is being held in Albany." I sat beside her.
"Victoria will be taken in for questioning before noon."
"And the estate?"
"The estate is yours.
It was always yours.
Nothing was signed." I paused.
"The resort company will be frozen pending the investigation.
That may take time.
But the house, the land — none of that changes."
Elena was quiet for a moment.
"Dad tried to tell me," she said.
"That last phone call.
I thought he was just frightened.
I thought it was the illness making him anxious." She looked at the window.
"He was trying to warn me.
He was trying to make sure I'd be safe after he was gone."
"He did everything he could."
"He trusted a greenhouse panel and a retired accountant and a phone number he got from a stranger." She almost smiled.
"And it worked."
"It worked."
She stood up.
I stood with her.
"I want to go home," she said.
"Not to the estate.
To our home."
"The car is outside."
We walked into the corridor together.
Julian was still at the far window.
He turned when he heard us.
He looked at Elena — at the dressing above her eye, at the careful way she was holding herself — and his face did something complicated and honest.
"Elena," he said.
"I'm sorry.
I didn't know how far it had gone.
I didn't know about Hargrove or the documents or—" He stopped.
"I should have asked more questions a long time ago."
Elena looked at her brother for a moment.
"You told him to tell me," she said.
"In the corridor.
You told Mom to tell me the truth." She paused.
"That matters."
Julian nodded.
He didn't try to say anything else.
We passed Victoria on the way to the exit.
She was still in the chair.
She looked up when Elena walked by.
Elena stopped.
The two of them looked at each other.
Mother and daughter.
The woman who had left her child barefoot in the snow, and the child who had survived it.
Elena said nothing.
May you like
She turned and walked toward the exit.
I followed her out into the cold morning air.
