Chapter 17 - Eleanor’s Last Secret
Claire did not go to the boathouse alone.
She wore an FBI wire and kept Agent Torres three minutes behind her.
Evan waited inside beside a space heater, the ledger on a wooden table.
“You brought the money?” he asked.
“No.”
He laughed. “Then this will be short.”
Claire looked at the ledger. “You said someone besides Martin wants it buried.”
Evan’s smile faded.
“Eleanor.”
Claire stared at him.
“She just told me she regretted protecting the company.”
“Regret is not confession.”
“What did she do?”
Evan opened the ledger near the back.
A set of payments bore Eleanor’s initials.
Claire felt sick.
“She paid Robert Hale?”
“After your father died.”
“For what?”
“To make the investigation disappear.”
Claire shook her head. “That doesn’t mean she ordered the crash.”
“No. She didn’t.”
Claire exhaled.
“But she knew Martin and Hale were involved within forty-eight hours,” Evan said. “She paid to keep Whitmore Holdings out of the newspapers.”
Claire looked away.
Her father had been reduced to a cost of doing business.
Evan continued. “That’s why she changed the trust. Not just because Daniel stole money. She was trying to put the company somewhere Martin couldn’t control after she died.”
“And she chose me because of my father.”
“Yes.”
Claire’s voice cracked. “Without telling me what she had done.”
“She wanted redemption without exposure.”
Evan slid the ledger toward her.
“Five million.”
“No.”
“Then I sell it.”
“To whom?”
A floorboard creaked behind Claire.
She turned.
Daniel stood in the doorway, pale and unsteady, hospital bracelet still on his wrist.
Claire stared at him. “What are you doing here?”
“Stopping this.”
Evan reached for the ledger.
Daniel said, “Don’t.”
“You can barely stand,” Evan replied.
Daniel looked at Claire.
“There’s one thing in that ledger you haven’t seen.”
“What?”
“The last page.”
Evan’s hand froze.
Claire opened to the final page.
There was one entry dated nine years earlier.
A payment from Daniel Whitmore to Evan Price.
Purpose: BENNETT CONTACT.
May you like
Claire slowly looked up at her husband.
Daniel had paid Evan to find her.
