Chapter 3 - The Man Beside the Notary
The storm trapped them at the lodge until morning.
Claire had never hated snow before.
As a child, she had spent winters watching white drifts climb the windows while her father built fires, burned pancakes and insisted the mountain looked better when the road disappeared.
Now the same storm felt like a locked door.
She gathered every document from the hidden drawer, placed them in an empty archival box from Evelyn’s shelf, and carried it into the master bedroom.
Daniel followed.
“You should call Miriam.”
Claire stopped.
Miriam Sloan had been Nathaniel’s estate attorney for eighteen years.
“You knew she was handling the will?”
“Yes.”
“Of course you did.”
“Claire—”
“Stay out.”
She shut the door.
Then she called Miriam.
The attorney answered on the third ring.
“Claire?”
“Miriam, I found Dad’s will.”
A pause.
“Found?”
“Evelyn was trying to burn it.”
The silence on the line changed.
Claire told her everything.
The fireplace.
The hidden drawer.
The forged signature.
The photograph.
When she finished, Miriam’s voice was careful.
“Do not alter, reorganize or mark any of those papers.”
“I haven’t.”
“Photograph where each item was found if you can reconstruct it accurately. Don’t invent positions if you can’t.”
Claire almost laughed.
Trust a lawyer to find precision inside catastrophe.
“What happens if the original will is damaged?”
“I have a scanned copy and execution records. Nathaniel signed in my office with witnesses and a self-proving affidavit. Someone destroying an original after his death does not magically revoke what he executed while alive.”
Claire sat on the edge of the bed.
“So Evelyn accomplished nothing.”
“I wouldn’t say nothing. A missing original can create litigation and delay. But if what you’re describing happened, the fire is a problem for Evelyn, not a clean eraser.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Why was the original here?”
“Nathaniel insisted on keeping it himself after his final revision.”
“Why?”
“He said he had unfinished business.”
Claire looked at the box.
“Did you know what that meant?”
“Not completely.”
“Miriam.”
“I knew he was concerned about corporate transactions. I advised him to hire independent forensic counsel. He did.”
Claire stared toward the door.
“Did he tell you Daniel was involved?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
The word hurt despite everything she already knew.
“How involved?”
“That is something the documents may answer better than I can.”
“Did my father think my husband stole from him?”
“He believed Daniel had approved transactions he should not have approved.”
Claire pressed her fingers against her forehead.
“That sounds like lawyer language.”
“It is lawyer language because I am not going to accuse anyone of a crime based on partial information.”
Fair.
Infuriatingly fair.
Claire described the notarized option with her forged signature.
Miriam immediately asked for the notary’s name.
Claire read it.
“Leonard Price.”
“I know him.”
“Can we call him?”
“At eleven-thirty in a blizzard?”
Claire looked at the clock.
She had lost all sense of time.
“No.”
“I’ll contact him in the morning. For tonight, secure the documents.”
“And Daniel?”
“What about him?”
“Should I trust him?”
Miriam was silent long enough to make Claire’s chest tighten.
“That isn’t a legal question.”
“No.”
“And I’m not going to answer it like one.”
After the call, Claire photographed the documents.
Then she returned to the study.
Daniel sat alone at the desk.
Evelyn was gone.
“Where is she?”
“Guest room.”
“Did you take her phone?”
“I’m not her jailer.”
“She tried to destroy a legal document.”
“I told her not to leave.”
Claire laughed without humor.
“How commanding.”
Daniel stood.
“I know I don’t get to ask anything from you right now.”
“That’s the first accurate thing you’ve said tonight.”
“But you need to hear what happened with Leonard Price.”
Claire stopped.
Daniel looked exhausted.
“Your mother hired him?” she asked.
“No. Graymont’s local counsel arranged the notarization.”
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“Did you watch someone sign my name?”
“No.”
“Then explain why Dad wrote that you were there.”
“I arrived after it happened.”
“How convenient.”
“It’s true.”
“You told me you were in Boston.”
“I lied about that.”
“Again, very reassuring.”
Daniel flinched.
He deserved to.
“My mother called me,” he continued. “She said Nathaniel had discovered the Northstar payments and was threatening to fire me. I drove here.”
“From Boston?”
“I had been in Boston that morning. I drove back.”
“When you arrived?”
“Your father was here. Mom was here. Leonard was leaving.”
“Did you ask why a notary had been here?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“My mother told me Nathaniel had signed papers restructuring the Graymont deal.”
Claire stared at him.
“You believed her?”
“For about ten minutes.”
He looked at the fireplace room beyond the study.
“Then Nathaniel put the option agreement in front of me and showed me your signature.”
“What did you do?”
“I told him you hadn’t signed it.”
Claire searched his face.
“And then?”
“He asked me whether I had authorized Northstar’s invoices.”
“You had.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked away.
That question frightened him.
Claire knew it.
“What did the six hundred and forty thousand dollars really pay for?”
Daniel opened his mouth.
A hard pounding echoed from downstairs.
Both of them froze.
Someone was at the front door.
At nearly midnight.
Daniel moved first.
Claire followed him into the great room.
The pounding came again.
Daniel opened the door.
A man in a sheriff’s winter jacket stood outside with snow on his hat.
Behind him was Miriam Sloan.
Claire stared.
“Miriam?”
The attorney stepped inside.
“The state highway crew opened the lower road.”
Then she looked toward the scorched envelope.
“I thought waiting until morning was a bad idea.”
The deputy began asking questions.
Miriam walked directly toward Claire.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“I reached Leonard Price.”
“At midnight?”
“He was awake after I left him three messages.”
Claire’s fingers went cold.
Miriam lowered her voice.
“He remembers the notarization.”
“Was Daniel there?”
“Not when the signature was made.”
Claire looked toward her husband.
A flicker of relief crossed Daniel’s face.
Then Miriam continued.
“But Leonard says the woman who presented herself as Claire wasn’t Evelyn.”
Claire stared at her.
“Then who was it?”
Miriam’s expression hardened.
May you like
“That is exactly what we need to find out.”
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