Chapter 5 - The Investigator
Victor Sloan had the nervous habits of a man who had spent forty years knowing other people’s secrets.
He met Emily and Olivia in a crowded Queens diner.
“I didn’t know who you were when I took the assignment,” he said.
“You followed me for three years.”
“Off and on.”
“Who hired you?”
“Serena Vale.”
“Why?”
“She said she represented an investor evaluating your father’s company.”
“I was a college student.”
“I asked the same question.”
“And?”
“She doubled my fee.”
Emily stared at him.
“What did she want?”
“Your routine. Friends. Relationships. Whether you used drugs. Whether you gambled. Boyfriends. Where you traveled.”
“Why would an investor care?”
Sloan looked embarrassed.
“I stopped asking.”
Olivia placed Nathan’s photograph on the table.
“Do you recognize him?”
Sloan’s face changed.
“Yes.”
Emily’s throat tightened.
“When?”
“He came to my office with Serena.”
“What year?”
Sloan calculated.
“About nine years ago.”
Emily had met Nathan eight years and nine months earlier.
Only three months after his meeting with Sloan.
“What did they want?”
“My complete file.”
Emily stared.
“You gave it to them?”
“They paid.”
“How much?”
“Forty thousand.”
Olivia asked, “Did Nathan say why?”
“He asked what kind of men you dated.”
Emily felt suddenly exposed in a way that had nothing to do with photographs.
Sloan continued.
“He wanted to know what made you trust people.”
“Did you answer?”
“Yes.”
“What did you say?”
Sloan hesitated.
Emily’s voice hardened.
“Say it.”
“That you disliked obvious wealth.”
She almost laughed.
Nathan had driven an eight-year-old Volvo when they met.
He told her he hated status symbols.
“You avoided men who mentioned your father too quickly,” Sloan continued. “You trusted people who asked about your work before your family.”
Nathan had done exactly that.
“You preferred small restaurants to flashy ones.”
Their first date had been at a tiny Italian place in Brooklyn.
“You volunteered anonymously at a literacy program.”
Nathan had “accidentally” joined the same program.
Emily closed her eyes.
Every charming coincidence.
Designed.
“What else?”
Sloan looked at her with genuine regret.
“You were lonely.”
Emily opened her eyes.
He continued carefully.
“Your mother had died. Your father was ill. You had friends, but you didn’t trust easily. Serena told Nathan that was the opening.”
Emily’s hands curled beneath the table.
“Were Serena and Nathan together?”
Sloan nodded.
“They seemed like a couple.”
Before the marriage.
Before the charity gala.
Before the first date.
Emily’s stomach twisted.
The affair had not begun after seven years of marriage.
The marriage had interrupted an existing relationship—or perhaps never interrupted it at all.
Olivia asked, “Would you testify?”
Sloan laughed bitterly.
“Against people who broke into your house last night?”
Emily stared.
“How do you know about that?”
He immediately realized his mistake.
“News.”
“It wasn’t reported.”
Sloan looked toward the window.
Emily understood.
“You’ve spoken to Serena.”
“No.”
“Victor.”
He stood.
“I’m done.”
Olivia remained calm.
“If they’re threatening you, we can involve law enforcement.”
“You can’t protect me.”
“Then why meet us?”
Sloan looked at Emily.
“Because I have a daughter.”
He reached inside his jacket and removed a small digital recorder.
“I started recording Serena after she refused my last invoice.”
“When?”
“Eight years ago.”
He placed it on the table.
“She called me after Nathan met you.”
Emily did not touch it.
“What’s on it?”
“Her instructions.”
They listened in Olivia’s car.
Serena’s younger voice played clearly.
He made contact. Stop physical surveillance. From now on, Nathan handles her directly.
Sloan’s voice asked:
You sure he can keep her interested?
Serena laughed.
He knows the script.
Then Nathan’s voice appeared in the background.
Don’t call it a script. Call it research.
Emily stopped the recording.
For several seconds she could not breathe.
Olivia said nothing.
There was nothing useful to say.
Nathan had known exactly how to become the man Emily would choose.
Later, Sloan explained Serena’s larger interest.
“She asked me to identify everyone connected with the Bennett family trusts.”
“Lawyers?”
“Yes.”
“Bankers?”
“Yes.”
“Trustees?”
“Yes.”
Emily looked at Olivia.
This was bigger than seduction.
Sloan gave them copies of invoices and archived emails.
One email from Serena mentioned a “Catherine fail-safe.”
Emily’s pulse quickened.
“What does that mean?”
“I never knew.”
Olivia thought of the necklace.
So did Emily.
They left the diner with the recorder.
At the curb, Sloan caught Emily’s arm.
“One more thing.”
“What?”
“Nathan wasn’t Serena’s first choice.”
Emily stared.
“What does that mean?”
“She tried something else before him.”
“What?”
Sloan looked frightened.
“She tried to get your father to sell the Hudson Crown portfolio.”
Emily frowned.
“When?”
“Sixteen years ago.”
“The year she was fired?”
“Yes.”
“Who was the buyer?”
Sloan gave her a name.
Emily had never heard it.
Northstar Capital Ventures.
Olivia went still.
Northstar.
The same name Nathan and Serena were using now.
May you like
The scheme had not started with Emily’s marriage.
It had started before Emily was old enough to understand the company she would someday inherit.
