Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN WHO ANSWERED HIS PHONE
Marla Quinn sat beneath fluorescent lights in a Mercer Island police interview room and looked nothing like the polished executive assistant Kais had trusted for eight years.
Her mascara had run.
Her hair was wet from the marina.
A thermal blanket covered her shoulders.
Lena sat beside Kais behind the observation glass.
“You don’t have to listen to all of this.”
“Yes, I do.”
Inside, Detective Bell began.
“When did Julian Hart approach you?”
Marla swallowed.
“Four years ago.”
Kais closed his eyes briefly.
Four years.
Not three months.
Not one bad decision.
Four years.
“At first it was small,” Marla said.
“Explain.”
“Calendar information. Who Kais met with. Which directors supported him. What banks he was speaking to.”
“For money?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Ten thousand here. Twenty thousand there.”
Bell stared at her.
“You made more than two hundred thousand dollars a year.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Marla looked down.
“Because he made me feel important.”
Kais’s mouth hardened.
Bell continued.
“When did it become criminal?”
“Two years ago.”
“What happened?”
“Julian asked me to duplicate Kais’s internal authentication.”
“How?”
“I had access to his device-management profile.”
“And you gave Julian control?”
“Temporary control.”
Bell’s expression did not change.
“There is no temporary version of stealing someone’s identity.”
Marla cried quietly.
Then she told them everything.
Julian built shadow accounts.
He intercepted Rian’s calls.
He instructed Marla to tell Kais his wife was busy, angry, or unavailable.
He created fake messages from Rian saying Isa was enjoying summer programs and did not want to interrupt Kais’s work.
Kais had read those messages in Stockholm hotel rooms.
He remembered them.
One had said:
Isa says you owe her three ice creams when you get home. We’re fine. Focus on Europe.
Rian had never written it.
Kais put a hand over his mouth.
Lena touched his shoulder.
Inside the room, Bell asked, “The medical reports?”
“Fabricated.”
“The psychiatrist?”
“Paid consultant.”
“Rian’s medication?”
Marla hesitated.
Kais’s attention sharpened.
Bell leaned forward.
“Marla.”
“Julian wanted her tired.”
The words hung there.
“What did he give her?”
“He found a doctor willing to prescribe sedatives after a ten-minute telehealth call.”
“Did he intend to harm her?”
“No.”
Marla said it too quickly.
Bell noticed.
“So what did he intend?”
“To make her look unstable.”
Kais turned away from the glass.
Lena spoke quietly.
“Stay.”
He did.
Bell continued.
“And Isa?”
Marla began crying harder.
“I never agreed to hurt Isa.”
“You helped isolate her family.”
“I know.”
“You blocked calls.”
“I know.”
“You helped freeze household money.”
“I didn’t know there would be no food.”
“But when you found out?”
Silence.
“When did you find out, Marla?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“And what did you do?”
“Nothing.”
Kais stared through the glass.
That answer mattered.
People loved to imagine cruelty required hatred.
Often it required something simpler.
Cowardice.
Bell placed a photograph on the table.
The silver drive.
“Where is it?”
“Julian carries it in a carbon-fiber case.”
“What’s on it?”
“Offshore access credentials. Vendor account keys. The original forty-eight-million transfer records. Payments to board intermediaries.”
“And evidence concerning Alistair Hart?”
Marla nodded.
“What evidence?”
“A voicemail.”
Kais stopped moving.
Bell asked, “Whose?”
“Alistair’s.”
Marla looked toward the observation glass as if she knew Kais stood behind it.
“He left Julian a voicemail the night before he died.”
“What did it say?”
“I only heard it once.”
“Tell me.”
Marla whispered.
“Alistair told Julian he had discovered the vendor fraud. He said he was removing him from Hart Global the next morning.”
Kais felt sick.
Bell asked, “And Julian tampered with the boat?”
“He paid a mechanic.”
“Name?”
“Steven Maddox.”
Bell wrote it down.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Oregon, I think.”
“Why has he never spoken?”
“Julian paid him.”
“Eleven years?”
“Yes.”
Bell looked at her.
“That is a long time to trust blackmail money.”
Marla laughed bitterly.
“Julian doesn’t trust people. He collects things on them.”
She described a system.
Bribes.
Affairs.
Tax evasion.
Corporate secrets.
Private recordings.
Julian kept everyone compromised enough to keep them useful.
The board vote that morning had not merely been persuasion.
Several directors had been trapped.
Including Robert Lane.
Including their mother.
Kais frowned.
“Evelyn?”
Lena looked at him.
“Ask.”
Bell did.
“What does Julian have on Evelyn Hart?”
Marla hesitated.
“A loan.”
“What loan?”
“Twenty million dollars.”
Kais stared.
His mother had inherited more than enough wealth.
Why would she need twenty million dollars?
Marla explained.
Evelyn had secretly covered debts accumulated by Julian years earlier.
She had taken money from an old family foundation without proper authorization, intending to replace it.
Julian had evidence.
He had been blackmailing his own mother ever since.
Kais felt anger rise.
Then something more complicated.
Pity.
His mother had made terrible choices.
But Julian had wrapped everyone around him in shame.
Bell asked, “Where will he go?”
“Private aviation.”
“Which airport?”
“He uses Boeing Field, but not if police are watching.”
“Then where?”
Marla thought.
“Renton.”
Bell stood.
Police were already moving.
Kais left the interview room and called Rian.
She and Isa were at Lena’s guesthouse under police protection.
“How is she?”
“Asleep.”
“Nightmares?”
“She asked me to leave the light on.”
Kais closed his eyes.
“I’m coming soon.”
“Kais.”
“Yes?”
“Catch him.”
He heard everything beneath the words.
Not revenge.
End it.
“I will.”
Before he could disconnect, Lena’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
Kais looked at her.
“What happened?”
She listened.
Then slowly lowered the phone.
“That was my family-law partner.”
“So?”
“Julian filed an emergency child-protection petition before the marina.”
Kais stared.
“What?”
“He filed it electronically this morning.”
“Based on what?”
“The forged medical records. The financial theft allegations. Claims of domestic instability.”
“He kidnapped her.”
“That may not be in the court system yet.”
Kais laughed in disbelief.
“He kidnapped the child he’s asking the court to protect?”
“I know.”
“What does the petition request?”
Lena did not answer quickly enough.
Kais’s face changed.
“Lena.”
“Temporary removal of Isa from both parents pending evaluation.”
He went still.
“That isn’t happening.”
“A judge already signed an emergency review order.”
“Review is not removal.”
“No.”
She hesitated.
“But CPS is legally required to make contact.”
“When?”
Lena looked toward the hallway.
Footsteps approached.
A woman wearing a county identification badge entered beside two officers.
“Mr. Hart?”
Kais stared at her.
“My name is Dana Pierce. I’m with Child Protective Services.”
His blood turned cold.
“I need to speak with you regarding your daughter.”
Lena stepped forward.
“My client has counsel.”
Dana nodded.
“That’s fine.”
Then she said the sentence Kais had feared from the moment Isa told him about the custody plan.
“The court has authorized temporary protective placement if our immediate safety assessment cannot be completed.”
Kais looked at Lena.
“Meaning?”
May you like
Dana answered.
“Meaning I need to see Isa tonight.”
