Chapter 7 - The False Transfer.
Jonathan answered on speaker at Detective Ortiz's instruction.
“Celeste.”
For several seconds, nothing came through the phone except faint wind.
Then Celeste spoke.
“You let them turn this into a spectacle.”
Jonathan stared at the detective.
“You locked Noah in a wall.”
“I kept him from hurting himself.”
“He can barely walk.”
“He was already ill.”
“Where are you?”
Celeste laughed quietly.
“You finally sound like a father.”
Jonathan closed his eyes.
Ortiz gestured for him to continue.
“You told me he was being transferred to Vermont.”
“He was supposed to be.”
“Was he ever admitted?”
A pause followed.
“No.”
Jonathan's face hardened.
“Why?”
“Because you would have lost control of everything if the truth about him became public too early.”
Maya looked at Ortiz.
The detective's pen stopped moving.
“What truth?” Jonathan asked.
Celeste did not answer directly.
“You never read what you signed.”
The line went dead.
Jonathan lowered the phone.
Noah had heard every word.
He turned his face toward the wall.
Maya wanted to take the phone and throw it across the room.
Instead, Ortiz asked Jonathan to explain what Celeste might mean.
“I don't know.”
“Think.”
Jonathan rubbed both hands over his face.
“There were estate documents after Evelyn died.”
“What kind?”
“Trust amendments.”
Maya watched him carefully.
“Did they concern Noah?”
“Yes.”
Jonathan swallowed.
“Evelyn left most of her voting interest in Hawthorne Holdings in trust for him.”
“How much?” Ortiz asked.
“Thirty-eight percent.”
The detective's expression changed.
“Enough to matter.”
“Enough to control the company with the family foundation's shares.”
Maya suddenly understood why Celeste had spoken about what the family had spent generations building.
“What happens if Noah is considered incapable?”
Jonathan stared at her.
“I remain trustee until he is twenty-five.”
“And if something happens to you?”
Jonathan's silence was answer enough.
Ortiz finished for him.
“Celeste becomes successor trustee.”
Jonathan looked sick.
“No.”
“Yes,” Maya said.
“You said you signed whatever she put in front of you.”
Jonathan walked to the window.
For the first time, Maya saw the full shape of his carelessness.
Celeste had not needed to forge every decision.
She had only needed a man too distracted to read them.
Ortiz's phone buzzed.
An officer at the mansion had found paperwork in Celeste's private office.
A folder labeled GREEN MOUNTAIN RESIDENTIAL CENTER contained intake forms for Noah.
The address belonged to a real facility in Vermont.
But the facility had no record of receiving the forms.
More disturbing was the transfer date.
The paperwork claimed Noah had been admitted twelve days earlier.
The same twelve days he had been hidden behind the portrait.
At the bottom of the intake form was Jonathan's signature.
He stared at the scanned image.
“That isn't mine.”
Ortiz zoomed in.
It looked perfect.
Jonathan shook his head.
“I never signed this.”
Maya thought of Celeste's statement on the phone.
You never read what you signed.
Perhaps it had been a taunt.
Or perhaps Jonathan had forgotten signing something that had later been altered.
Ortiz asked the obvious question.
“Who had regular access to your signature?”
Jonathan looked toward Noah.
Then he answered.
“My chief of staff.”
“Name?”
“Marcus Reed.”
Maya's stomach dropped.
May you like
Marcus was not missing.
He was still at the mansion helping police search for Celeste.
