Chapter 15 - Voss Wants a Deal.
Detective Price did not let me bring Leah's notebook to the address Voss gave me.
He did not let me go alone either.
By Tuesday afternoon, the abandoned service building near County Route 18 had three unmarked police vehicles positioned out of sight and two detectives inside before I arrived.
Megan sat in a surveillance van across the road with Price.
I wore a small microphone beneath my shirt.
The whole thing felt ridiculous until I remembered that someone had called me anonymously and warned me not to open Locker 418.
Voss had admitted nothing yet.
He might be trying to help.
He might be trying to recover evidence.
He might be trying to create another recording he could edit later.
I had stopped assuming any conversation was merely a conversation.
The service building had once belonged to the county highway department.
Now its windows were dusty and the parking lot was cracked with weeds.
The curve where Leah died was visible through a line of trees.
That was deliberate.
Voss wanted me to feel it.
He arrived at 2:17 in a dark sedan.
No driver.
No assistant.
No Diana.
He stepped out wearing the same expensive suit he had worn in court, but without a tie.
For the first time, Charles Voss looked tired.
He held both hands where I could see them.
"Where's the notebook?" he asked.
"Safe."
He gave a humorless laugh.
"That's Leah's word."
"You remember it?"
His eyes moved toward the road.
"I remember more than I want to."
I stayed several feet away.
"You said you knew who called her at 9:29."
"I know who had the phone."
"Who?"
"Diana."
The answer was almost disappointing because it was what I expected.
"How do you know?"
Voss looked at me.
"Because she called me from that same phone nine minutes later."
"The records already show that."
"They show a phone called me."
"And you're saying Diana was holding it."
"Yes."
"Why should I believe you?"
He smiled faintly.
"You shouldn't. Not without corroboration. Megan taught you well."
My hands tightened.
"Don't say her name like we're colleagues."
"We are colleagues."
"You're not anymore."
Something passed across his face.
Fear, maybe.
"That depends how the bar association views my next week."
"What did Diana say at 9:38?"
Voss looked again toward the curve.
"She said Leah had crashed."
"How did she know?"
"Leah stopped answering. Diana sent someone to drive the route."
"Who?"
"Victor."
"Her brother."
"Yes."
"He found the crash before police?"
Voss shook his head.
"No. By the time Victor reached the curve, emergency vehicles were already there."
"Then Diana called you."
"Yes."
"Why?"
He took a long breath.
"Because Leah had told her she was going to expose the trust transfers the next morning."
"And you were part of them."
He did not answer.
"Charles."
"Yes."
The word came quietly.
I had expected denial.
Its absence made the air feel colder.
"How much?"
"That isn't simple."
"Make it simple."
Voss rubbed his forehead.
"Northstar paid entities connected to me approximately four hundred and eighty thousand dollars over seven years."
I stared at him.
"For legal work?"
"Some."
"And the rest?"
"For structuring transactions I should have refused to structure."
"You helped steal from Emma's trust."
"Emma did not own the pooled assets at the time."
"There it is."
He looked at me.
"What?"
"The sentence lawyers use when they know the moral answer is worse than the technical one."
Voss flinched.
Barely.
"I helped move money through service contracts that were inflated and sometimes fictitious."
"Why?"
"Because Diana said her father had starved Northstar of legitimate reimbursement for years. Because Victor said the family was only correcting internal allocations. Because I liked money. Pick whichever answer makes you feel better."
I did not feel better.
"The E.M. custodial account."
Voss's face changed.
"You found it."
"You were named custodian."
"On paper."
"Did Leah appoint you?"
"No."
I took one step toward him.
"Then who forged her signature?"
Voss raised a hand.
"I did not forge it."
"But you used it."
"Yes."
"Who created it?"
He looked toward the building.
"Diana brought me the document."
"Who notarized it?"
"Rachel."
"Rachel says she never did."
"She didn't."
My stomach tightened.
"Then why is her name there?"
"Because Diana had access to Rachel's old notary stamp."
That was new.
"Rachel was a notary?"
"For six months while she worked at the estate."
"Diana stole her stamp?"
"Kept it when Rachel stopped working administrative duties."
"And you knew the signature wasn't legitimate."
Voss was silent.
"You knew."
"I suspected."
"That's another lawyer sentence."
He looked away.
"Fine. I knew Leah had not willingly signed it."
My jaw tightened so hard it hurt.
"Why create an account in Emma's name?"
"Because it made the missing transfers look like money had been reserved for a minor beneficiary instead of diverted out of the trust."
"And you were the custodian so you could move it again."
"Temporarily."
"You keep using words that make crimes sound like calendar problems."
Voss's voice sharpened.
"I am talking to you because I know what I did."
"No. You're talking because the audit found it."
He looked at me for a long time.
"Both can be true."
I did not answer.
"Why Monday?" I asked.
"Diana needed standing as Emma's legal representative before the beneficiary accounting separated Leah's share."
"So she could hide the reserve account."
"Delay disclosure, challenge the accounting, argue privilege, replace advisers."
"You planned that."
"I explained legal options."
"You filed the petition."
"I did."
"You filed fake evidence."
"Evidence Diana told me was genuine."
"The edited video?"
Voss's expression darkened.
"I did not know it had been reordered."
"The forged letter?"
"I knew it was a copy. I did not know she had recreated it on modern stationery."
"The wallet photo?"
"I was told it was taken by Rachel during a visit."
"Do you expect me to believe you became stupid only when the evidence helped your client?"
Voss almost smiled.
"No. I expect you to believe I practiced selective blindness."
That answer was ugly enough to sound true.
I heard Megan's voice faintly through the receiver in my ear.
Keep him talking.
"What did Diana do to Emma Saturday?"
Voss's face changed again.
"I told her not to improvise."
"We have that on audio."
"I assumed Price recovered it."
"What did you think she planned?"
"A confrontation."
"With me?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"She said Emma would have a tantrum about going home and she wanted witnesses to your reaction."
My stomach turned.
"Did you know about the enclosure?"
"No."
"The chain?"
"No."
"The storm?"
"I knew the forecast."
"And when she said she needed one clean incident?"
Voss closed his eyes briefly.
"I thought she meant provoking you into yelling."
"You believed she planned to use my daughter to provoke me."
"Yes."
"And you left."
"Yes."
"Why didn't you call me?"
His answer came quietly.
"Because I wanted the custody petition to succeed."
There was no defense in it.
No technical language.
Just the truth.
That made it worse.
"Why?"
"Because if Diana got temporary custody, we could control the trust accounting long enough to restructure the reserve account."
I stared at him.
"You put my daughter at risk for thirty days of delay."
"I did not know Diana would put her outside."
"You knew enough."
Voss looked toward the road again.
"Yes."
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then I asked the question that had brought me there.
"What did Diana say to Leah at 9:29?"
Voss's mouth tightened.
"I don't know the exact words."
Anger flared through me.
"You said you knew."
"I know what Diana told me she said."
"Which was?"
"She told Leah that if she sent the audit evidence to Franklin Ames, Diana would file for emergency custody and make sure Leah lost control of Emma."
I felt cold.
The same threat.
Again.
"Leah was Emma's mother."
"Diana believed money and experts could make almost any family story look plausible."
"And you helped teach her that."
Voss did not deny it.
"What did Leah say?"
"According to Diana, Leah said, 'Try it and Daniel will bury you in court.'"
Despite everything, something inside me broke and healed at the same time.
Leah had believed in me.
Even angry.
Even frightened.
She had believed I would protect Emma.
"Then the call ended?"
"Yes."
"And two minutes later she crashed."
"Approximately."
"Did Diana cause it?"
Voss looked directly at me.
"I don't know."
"Did anyone touch Leah's car?"
"Not that I know."
"Did anyone follow her?"
"Victor drove the route later. I don't know if anyone followed earlier."
"Did Diana want Leah dead?"
Voss took a long time to answer.
"Diana wanted Leah obedient."
"That's not what I asked."
"I know."
"Answer."
"I never heard her ask anyone to hurt Leah."
That was important.
Not absolution.
But important.
Megan's voice came through my earpiece again.
Ask about the anonymous call.
"Did you call me last night?"
Voss looked surprised.
"Which call?"
"Blocked number. Told me not to open 418."
He hesitated.
Then nodded.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I believed Leah's notebook was there."
"And you wanted to destroy it."
"At first, I wanted time to understand what she had written."
"That's not an answer."
"Fine."
He looked exhausted.
"I wanted to protect myself."
"Then why tell me to meet you now?"
"Because the audit found the custodial account anyway."
He laughed bitterly.
"And because Diana's criminal lawyer told me this morning that if necessary, they would argue I created the entire financial structure without her knowledge."
I almost admired the symmetry.
Everyone had been keeping everyone else as insurance.
Rachel against Diana.
Diana against Rachel.
Leah against all of them.
Now Voss against Diana.
"What do you want?"
"A cooperation agreement."
"I'm not a prosecutor."
"No. But Price is listening."
My heartbeat changed.
Voss looked directly at the hidden microphone beneath my shirt.
"Tell him I will surrender my records, my client billing archive, and the encrypted backup Diana thinks I destroyed."
I did not move.
"In exchange for what?"
"I want to be treated as a cooperating witness."
Price's voice came faintly through my ear.
Do not promise anything.
"You can discuss that with prosecutors."
Voss nodded.
"Good answer."
He reached into his jacket slowly and removed a small key card.
"This opens a safe deposit drawer at First Commonwealth."
"What's inside?"
"Copies of everything."
"Why keep them?"
"Because Diana taught me something useful."
His smile was empty.
"Never be the only person without insurance."
I did not take the card.
A detective stepped from the building behind him.
Voss closed his eyes.
For the first time, he seemed relieved.
Price approached from the road.
"Charles Voss, we're going to continue this conversation somewhere more official."
Voss raised his hands.
Then he looked at me.
"One more thing."
Price told him to stop talking until counsel was present.
Voss ignored him.
"The box from your house."
My stomach tightened.
"What about it?"
"Diana didn't send a stranger."
Price stepped closer.
"Charles."
Voss looked at me.
"She sent someone you would let walk through your front door without asking a question."
My mind moved through the people who knew my code.
Nora.
My father.
Kate.
May you like
Voss saw the answer reach my face.
"Ask your sister why she was at your house at two fourteen Sunday morning."
