Chapter 7 - Sterling Voss

Sterling Voss entered the breakfast room carrying an umbrella and the confidence of a man accustomed to billing people for their own destruction.

He was fifty, silver-haired, expensive, and smiling.

"Brooke, we need to get the—"

He saw Dominic.

The rest of the sentence died.

Dominic sat at the head of the long table with a cup of coffee in front of him. Natalie sat on his right. Emma stood near the windows. Brooke remained by the fireplace, pale and furious.

"Sterling," Dominic said. "Early morning?"

Voss recovered quickly. "Mr. Mercer. I thought you were abroad."

"So did everyone involved, apparently."

Voss looked at Brooke. She gave him nothing.

Dominic slid the forged letter across the table.

"Did you prepare this?"

Voss barely glanced at it. "My office prepares hundreds of documents."

"That's not an answer."

"Then I would need to review the file."

Dominic slid the dead notary page after it.

Voss stopped breathing for a second.

Natalie saw it.

"You knew," she said.

"I know nothing of the kind."

Noah had been sent upstairs with Emma, but before leaving he had whispered something in Dominic's ear.

Dominic now repeated it.

"Tuesday afternoon. Old Mercer house. Catherine's study. You told Brooke, 'Once Natalie signs, the coastal parcel goes to Bellweather by Friday.'"

Voss slowly turned toward Brooke.

Brooke snapped, "He's eight."

Dominic leaned back. "And surprisingly good at remembering names."

Voss's professional calm began to fray. "Dominic, there may have been discussions about a future sale. That is not a crime."

"Bellweather Development offered forty-two million dollars for that land last year. I rejected them."

Natalie's head turned. "Forty-two million?"

Dominic nodded.

The old house sat on sixty-two acres overlooking the water, land Catherine had refused to sell her entire life.

Brooke's motive suddenly had a number.

Forty-two million dollars.

Dominic looked at Voss. "How much were you promised?"

"This conversation is over."

Voss stood.

Two security men appeared outside the door.

He sat back down.

Dominic's phone buzzed again.

This time the message came from his chief financial officer.

It contained only one sentence.

DOMINIC, WE FOUND THE SAME VOSS SIGNATURE ON THREE FOUNDATION TRANSFERS TOTALING $8.6 MILLION.

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Dominic turned the screen toward Brooke.

"Looks like the house wasn't your first theft."