Chapter 8 - What Anna Knew
The photograph changed the investigation.
Marcus called Samuel Brenner before sunrise.
When he read the words on the back, Samuel became silent.
“You knew,” Marcus said.
“I knew Anna was suspicious of Grant.”
“Of what?”
“She believed he was diverting funds from one of the company’s acquisition accounts.”
“When?”
“About six months before she died.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
Anna had been sick then.
Chemotherapy.
Hospital appointments.
He had been running Vale Maritime and caring for Lucas.
Grant had handled more and more of the finances.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She tried.”
Marcus remembered arguments during Anna’s final year.
She had accused him of trusting Grant too much.
Marcus had defended his friend.
“You thought she was being paranoid,” Samuel said.
The shame was immediate.
Marcus had used that word.
Paranoid.
The same word Serena now used against him.
“What was the second account?”
Samuel explained that Anna had found references to a second escrow account during an acquisition of a marine-software company.
Official records showed one escrow account.
Anna found a payment to another.
Approximately $1.7 million.
The beneficiary had been hidden.
“She copied documents,” Samuel said.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why?”
“Because she told me, ‘If Grant knows I have them, he’ll make Marcus choose between us.’”
Marcus stared at nothing.
“And I probably would have defended him.”
Samuel did not answer.
He did not need to.
The glossy photograph had been hidden in Mia’s elephant recently.
That meant somebody else had found Anna’s evidence and placed it there.
Rosa.
Marcus called her.
She hesitated, then admitted it.
“I found an envelope in Mrs. Vale’s study closet when I was packing baby clothes.”
“Serena’s closet?”
“Yes.”
“What was inside?”
“Old photographs and papers.”
“Why did you hide one in Mia’s toy?”
“I heard Mrs. Vale coming. I panicked.”
“What happened to the rest?”
“She took the envelope.”
Marcus asked, “Did you read anything?”
“One paper had Mr. Grant’s name. Another had a company called Harbor Light.”
Daniel searched immediately.
Harbor Light Ventures had dissolved five years earlier.
Its manager was listed as Grant Holloway.
The registered agent was Vincent Pike.
Naomi looked at Marcus.
“This predates Serena.”
That mattered.
Maybe Serena had joined Grant’s scheme later.
Maybe Grant had been stealing from Marcus for years.
Marcus felt a strange grief.
Grant had been his friend since graduate school.
They had slept on office floors during Vale Maritime’s first year.
Marcus had given him seventeen percent of the company.
“Why steal?”
Miriam answered.
“Because people rarely stop wanting money just because they already have some.”
By Sunday, she had reconstructed the second account.
Harbor Light had received $1.7 million from Vale Maritime during the acquisition Anna questioned.
Part went to Grant.
Part went to Vincent Pike.
The remainder disappeared into a trust account controlled by a firm where Serena worked at the time.
Marcus froze.
“She knew Grant then.”
Naomi said, “They dated in college. You knew that.”
“I knew they dated. I didn’t know they were doing business together.”
Serena had entered Marcus’s life again at a charity gala four years earlier.
She had been charming.
Attentive to Lucas.
Patient with Marcus’s grief.
Marcus now wondered how much of that had been planned.
That afternoon, supervised visitation between Serena and Mia took place at a child-services center.
Marcus watched through one-way glass.
Serena entered carrying Mia’s favorite books.
Mia began crying immediately.
Serena sat on the floor.
“Mimi, Mommy loves you.”
Mia backed into the supervisor’s leg.
For several minutes Serena did nothing threatening.
Then she began singing a bedtime song.
Mia stopped crying.
Marcus hated the relief he felt.
Serena was still her mother.
That truth did not disappear because Serena was dangerous.
After twenty minutes, Mia took one step toward her.
Serena cried genuinely.
Marcus could tell.
That frightened him too.
People were easier to understand when they felt nothing.
Serena felt something.
And still did terrible things.
Then Serena noticed the gray elephant on a chair.
Her face changed.
Only slightly.
She asked the supervisor, “Can Mia have her elephant?”
The supervisor handed it over.
Serena hugged Mia.
While doing so, she squeezed the toy’s body.
Searching.
Marcus stood.
“She knows.”
Daniel beside him whispered, “Sit down.”
Serena found nothing.
Her eyes moved toward the observation glass.
She could not see Marcus.
But she looked directly at where he stood.
At the end of visitation, she handed Mia back calmly.
Then she gave the supervisor a sealed note for Marcus.
Naomi opened it first.
Inside was one sentence.
ANNA SHOULD HAVE MINDED HER OWN BUSINESS TOO.
Marcus read it twice.
Naomi said, “This is useful.”
“She threatened a dead woman.”
“She demonstrated knowledge.”
Marcus stared through the glass as Serena walked away.
“Knowledge of what?”
That night, Samuel called again.
He had found an old voicemail Anna left him shortly before her death.
Her voice was weak.
But clear.
“Sam, if anything happens to the files, check Marcus’s first boat.”
Marcus frowned.
His first boat.
He had sold it seven years earlier.
A twenty-eight-foot fishing boat named North Star.
Daniel traced ownership.
The boat still existed.
It was docked at a marina in Fort Lauderdale.
Marcus drove there with Daniel and Naomi.
The current owner allowed them aboard after Naomi explained that they were looking for property possibly left behind by a prior owner.
Marcus remembered every compartment.
Every scratch.
Anna had loved that boat.
Lucas had taken his first steps on the aft deck.
They searched for nearly an hour.
Nothing.
Then Marcus remembered Anna’s habit of hiding spare cash inside the old emergency flare locker.
The locker had been replaced.
But behind it was a narrow cavity in the fiberglass.
Daniel reached inside.
His fingers closed around plastic.
He pulled out a vacuum-sealed envelope.
Inside were bank records.
Invoices.
A handwritten ledger.
And a flash drive.
At the top of the first page Anna had written:
MARCUS — IF YOU ARE READING THIS, I WAS RIGHT ABOUT GRANT.
Marcus lowered himself onto the bench.
The sea moved gently beneath the hull.
Naomi began reading.
Then her expression changed.
“What?”
She turned the page toward him.
Anna had listed four names.
Grant Holloway.
Vincent Pike.
Elaine Porter’s late husband, Thomas.
And one more.
SERENA VOSS.
Marcus stared.
Serena had once used her mother’s surname professionally.
He looked at the date.
The entry was written six years ago.
One year before Anna died.
Three years before Marcus married Serena.
Anna had known Serena long before Marcus claimed to have met her.
And below Serena’s name, Anna had written:
May you like
SHE IS THE ONE GRANT IS AFRAID OF.
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