Chapter 7 - Claire Was Alive
David flew to Portland the next morning with Rebecca and Detective Park.
He did not tell Noah why.
He had already made too many promises before having facts.
Helen Morrison’s office occupied the second floor of a brick building near the waterfront.
She was sixty-one, gray-haired, and visibly uncomfortable when David entered.
“You look like Richard,” she said.
“I wish people would stop saying that.”
“So did Claire.”
David sat.
“You spoke to her six months after she disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
Helen looked at Detective Park.
“I need to know whether I am violating privilege.”
Rebecca replied, “If Claire is alive, privilege still belongs to her.”
David’s hands tightened.
“If?”
Helen took a breath.
“I do not know where Claire is now.”
The hope that had exploded inside him collapsed slightly.
“What happened?”
Claire had contacted Helen two weeks before disappearing.
She brought evidence of false hotel invoices and a trust amendment she believed had been falsified.
She also described threats by Richard Ashford.
“What threats?”
Helen looked at David.
“Richard told her you had knowingly participated in the Monarch scheme.”
David stared.
“She believed him?”
“Not entirely.”
“Not entirely.”
“She had documents with your signature.”
Stonebridge.
The emergency financing.
Helen continued.
“Richard told Claire that if she reported him, federal investigators would interpret the structure as you laundering hotel funds through a related entity.”
“I didn’t know.”
“I am telling you what she feared.”
“And Noah?”
“Richard threatened to seek emergency custody through the family if both parents became targets of investigation.”
David laughed in disbelief.
“My father threatened to take my son?”
“Yes.”
Helen opened a file.
“Claire planned to report everything anyway.”
“What stopped her?”
“Leonard Voss.”
David leaned forward.
“Did he hurt her?”
“Claire told me he searched her hotel office and seized documents.”
“The red folder.”
“Probably.”
“He threatened her physically?”
“She said he cornered her in the service level.”
The same night as S-14.
“What happened after that?”
“Claire disappeared.”
“You knew she was alive.”
“Not immediately.”
Six months later, Helen received a call from a prepaid phone.
Claire.
She was in Maine.
She refused to reveal exactly where.
“She said Richard had sent people looking for her.”
“Why didn’t you call police?”
“I urged her to.”
“And?”
“She refused.”
David stood.
“For six months she stayed away from her son and refused police?”
Helen’s expression hardened.
“Fear does not become rational because you dislike what it costs.”
David stopped.
Claire had believed Richard could destroy him.
Perhaps Richard had spent decades convincing everyone he could destroy them.
“What did she want from you?”
“To preserve a package.”
“What package?”
Helen opened a safe.
Inside was a red envelope.
Not the full red folder Noah remembered.
Just one envelope.
Written across it:
FOR NOAH, WHEN DAVID FINALLY ASKS THE RIGHT QUESTIONS.
David closed his eyes.
Even frightened and gone, Claire had been angry with him.
Maybe deservedly.
“What was the right question?”
Helen handed him the envelope.
Inside was a photocopy of an ownership schedule.
Ashford Crown Holdings.
A twelve-percent interest had been allocated to the Claire Ashford Irrevocable Trust by David’s grandmother, Eleanor Ashford.
David stared.
“My grandmother left Claire hotel shares?”
Rebecca examined it.
“Not Claire personally.”
The beneficiary designation read:
For the benefit of any children of David Ashford.
Noah.
David whispered, “Twelve percent belongs to Noah.”
Helen nodded.
“It was supposed to transfer upon Eleanor’s death.”
“She died five years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Then where are the shares?”
“Claire believed Richard altered the estate schedule.”
David looked at Detective Park.
“This is what Claire found.”
Helen continued.
“The twelve percent was absorbed into Richard’s family trust.”
The same trust Celeste now co-controlled.
Rebecca did the math.
If Noah’s twelve percent was restored, Richard’s trust fell from thirty-two to twenty.
Celeste’s effective voting control disappeared.
The hotel could no longer be sold without David or outside shareholders.
David finally understood.
“This isn’t just embezzlement.”
“No.”
“Dad stole Noah’s ownership.”
“Claire believed so.”
“What happened after your last call with her?”
Helen looked down.
“She sent one more message.”
“When?”
“Two weeks later.”
“What did it say?”
Helen opened an archived email.
It contained only one sentence.
HE FOUND ME. I HAVE TO MOVE AGAIN.
“Who?”
“She didn’t say.”
“Richard?”
“Possibly.”
“Voss?”
“Possibly.”
“Celeste?”
Helen hesitated.
“Claire never believed Celeste was merely following Richard.”
David’s stomach tightened.
May you like
“What did she believe?”
“That Celeste was the reason Richard became frightened enough to make Claire disappear.”
