Chapter 2 - The Voice Behind Richard
Victor Shaw recovered before anyone else.
“Everyone,” he announced smoothly, turning toward the nearest guests, “there has clearly been a misunderstanding involving old family documents. Please continue enjoying the evening.”
No one moved.
Eleanor almost admired him.
Richard had always said Victor could put a silk glove over a knife and make the victim thank him.
Maya reached for the recorder.
Victor moved faster.
Eleanor caught his wrist.
The salon went completely silent.
Victor stared down at her hand.
“Let go.”
“No.”
His eyes lifted.
“You are making a mistake.”
Eleanor released him slowly.
“Then explain it.”
“Not here.”
“Why not?”
“Because your father is dead.”
“And Anna is dead.”
Maya’s voice cracked on the name.
Victor ignored her.
“Eleanor, grief produces opportunists.”
Maya laughed once.
“Of course.”
She pulled another paper from the folder.
“This opportunist spent thirty-one years living in a two-bedroom house in Providence while the trust my mother supposedly surrendered became worth hundreds of millions.”
Eleanor’s stomach tightened.
“How much are you claiming?”
Maya stared at her.
“That is your first question?”
“It is a necessary question.”
“No. Your necessary question is whether your sister signed anything.”
Eleanor looked away.
She hated Maya for being right.
Victor seized the opening.
“Anna accepted money when she left.”
Maya turned sharply.
“What money?”
“A settlement.”
“There was no settlement.”
“There most certainly was.”
“Show me.”
Victor smiled thinly.
“Estate documents are confidential.”
Maya moved closer.
“Because they don’t exist?”
Eleanor raised one hand.
“Enough.”
Her voice carried the authority that had made lenders renegotiate nine-figure loans.
“Captain Foster.”
The yacht’s captain appeared near the salon entrance.
“Yes, Ms. Vale?”
“No one leaves.”
Victor’s head snapped toward her.
“You cannot detain guests.”
“I’m not detaining anyone. I’m asking that the crew suspend departure arrangements until I say otherwise.”
“Eleanor.”
She ignored him.
“And get me Robert Hale.”
Victor frowned.
“Who?”
“My personal attorney.”
“I am your family attorney.”
“That distinction suddenly matters.”
Maya watched her carefully.
Twenty minutes later, most guests had migrated toward the upper deck under the polite fiction of dessert service.
Victor remained in the salon.
So did Maya.
Eleanor called her travel office.
“Find my itinerary for September 1994.”
Her assistant hesitated.
“Ms. Vale, those records would be archived.”
“Find them.”
Victor sighed.
“You remember being in Paris. That proves nothing.”
“It proves I did not witness Anna signing this in Newport.”
“Dates can be wrong.”
Maya immediately said, “So now the document is wrong?”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
Eleanor noticed.
Another small crack.
She looked at the release again.
The signature resembled hers almost perfectly.
Yet a strange curl appeared at the end of the V in Vale.
She had stopped signing that way at nineteen.
“How did you get this?” Eleanor asked Maya.
“My mother kept it.”
“Why?”
“To prove what was done.”
“Why didn’t she sue?”
Maya’s face hardened.
“She tried.”
Eleanor looked at Victor.
He remained expressionless.
“When?”
“2002.”
Eleanor frowned.
“I would have known.”
“No,” Maya replied. “You were told she wanted money.”
Something stirred in Eleanor’s memory.
Richard complaining over breakfast.
Anna wants five million now.
After all these years.
She’ll never get near you.
Eleanor had been furious.
Had she asked to see Anna’s letter?
No.
She had said, “Handle it.”
Maya watched recognition spread across her face.
“My mother didn’t ask for five million.”
“What did she ask for?”
“To meet you.”
Eleanor sat down.
Victor stepped forward.
“You cannot verify that.”
Maya opened the folder.
“This is her copy.”
She handed Eleanor a letter.
Dear Eleanor,
I don’t know what Father has told you, but I never signed away my share. I don’t want a public fight. I want twenty minutes with you, alone, without him or Victor.
Please remember who I was before they told you who I became.
Anna
Eleanor felt cold.
There was a handwritten annotation in the margin.
RETURNED PER R. VALE.
She looked at Victor.
“Did you receive this?”
“No.”
“Was it sent to your office?”
“It appears to have been.”
“Did you return it?”
“I handled thousands of letters.”
Maya snapped, “Do you remember helping steal three hundred million dollars?”
Victor’s face flushed.
Eleanor stood.
“Maya.”
“What?”
“I believe you were wronged.”
Maya’s eyes flashed.
“Were?”
Eleanor corrected herself.
“Your mother was wronged.”
“And you benefited.”
The accusation struck exactly where Eleanor had been trying not to look.
Richard’s estate plan left her controlling interest in Vale Maritime.
If Anna’s interest had been stolen, Eleanor’s control might itself be built on fraud.
Her phone rang.
Her assistant.
“We found the itinerary.”
Eleanor put the call on speaker.
“Read it.”
“September twelfth through twenty-third, 1994. Paris, Geneva, Milan. Corporate travel records confirm hotel charges and meetings. Your passport scan shows entry into France September thirteenth and return to New York September twenty-third.”
Maya looked at Victor.
Eleanor’s voice became very quiet.
“So I was not here.”
Victor replied, “Then the witness line may have been completed later.”
“You said the dates might be wrong.”
“I’m saying we need professionals before reaching conclusions.”
Maya picked up the recorder.
“I brought another professional.”
She pressed PLAY.
Richard’s voice again.
Anna signs tonight, or she leaves with nothing.
Victor’s younger voice replied.
She’ll never agree.
Richard:
She doesn’t have to.
Victor:
And Eleanor?
Richard:
She’ll believe Anna chose the dockworker over her. She always wants to believe she’s the loyal one.
Victor:
You still need a witness.
Richard laughed.
Then came the sentence Eleanor had not yet heard.
“Use Eleanor’s signature from the yacht transfer. She’s in Paris. By the time she comes home, Anna will be gone.”
No one moved.
Victor’s face went gray.
Eleanor looked at him.
“My yacht transfer?”
Victor opened his mouth.
Nothing emerged.
Eleanor remembered signing ownership papers for North Star, Richard’s previous yacht, days before leaving for Europe.
Dozens of specimen signatures would have been available.
Maya switched off the recorder.
Victor straightened his jacket.
When he spoke, the smoothness was gone.
“You have no idea what Anna was threatening to do.”
Eleanor stared at him.
“And you have no idea how much I suddenly want to find out.”
Victor turned toward the door.
Two crew members blocked it.
His eyes hardened.
“You cannot keep me here.”
Eleanor stepped closer.
“No.”
She lowered her voice.
“But I can remove you as my counsel before you reach the gangway.”
Victor stared at her.
Eleanor smiled without warmth.
“Consider yourself fired.”
May you like
And from behind them, Maya whispered:
“That’s the first thing my mother wanted you to do thirty years ago.”
