Chapter 7 - THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
For the first time since entering the room, Julian Rainer looked old.
Not weak.
Not frightened.
Just tired.
He glanced at Dominic.
“You're letting these people interrogate me?”
Dominic's voice remained quiet.
“These people include the woman my mother trusted with her life.”
Julian looked at Claire.
“And Adrian Cross, who built an empire on his father's crimes.”
Adrian did not react.
Julian smiled faintly.
“Ask him where Thomas Cross got the money to expand sixteen years ago.”
Dominic's attention shifted.
Claire saw it.
So did Julian.
There was the reversal he wanted.
Doubt.
Julian pulled out a chair.
“If we're exchanging family secrets, let's exchange all of them.”
Adrian stepped forward.
Claire raised one hand.
“No.”
He stopped.
She looked at Julian.
“Sit.”
Something almost like respect appeared in Julian’s eyes.
He sat.
Claire remained standing.
“How did you know my mother changed cars?”
Julian folded his hands.
“Because I arrived at Celeste's house after the crash. People were talking.”
“Mason's father?”
“Perhaps.”
Mason shook his head.
“My father was already at the crash scene.”
Julian glanced at him.
“Then a housekeeper.”
Arthur spoke from the doorway.
“Celeste dismissed her staff at eight.”
Julian's eyes hardened.
He was running out of harmless explanations.
Dominic placed the red appointment book before him.
“Six point four million.”
Julian barely looked at it.
“Your mother made financial notes about everything.”
“North Harbor Holdings.”
This time Julian paused.
Dominic saw it.
“So you remember that.”
“I remember hundreds of companies.”
Adrian said, “You owned that one.”
Julian laughed.
“According to whom?”
“My father.”
“Your father stole from his own people.”
Adrian's expression did not change.
Claire looked at him.
“Did he?”
Adrian met her eyes.
“My father stole many things.”
Dominic blinked.
Julian smiled.
“There.”
Adrian continued.
“But not the pension money.”
Julian's smile vanished.
Claire studied Adrian.
It would have been easy for him to turn his dead father into a saint.
He did not.
That mattered.
Adrian reached into his coat and removed an old black ledger card.
He placed it beside Margaret's book.
“I've had this for sixteen years.”
Claire stared at him.
“You had evidence?”
“Not enough.”
The card showed North Harbor paying Thomas Cross's company eleven million dollars.
Then, forty-eight hours later, the exact amount moved out again.
To dozens of employee trust accounts.
Claire understood.
“Thomas was putting it back.”
“Yes.”
Julian shrugged.
“Or hiding it.”
Claire picked up the red book.
Her mother had marked the same eleven million with a slash.
Returned.
Two separate records.
Two families.
Same amount.
Dominic looked at Julian.
“My mother and Thomas were returning stolen money.”
Julian's face tightened.
“You don't understand what was happening then.”
“Explain.”
“Our companies were collapsing. Banks were pulling credit. Competitors were circling. Your mother wanted to expose everything immediately.”
Dominic whispered, “Everything you stole.”
Julian's voice rose for the first time.
“Everything that would have destroyed thousands of jobs.”
There it was.
Not greed alone.
A justification.
Perhaps one he had repeated for eighteen years.
“I moved the pension money temporarily,” Julian said. “Yes. I did.”
Dominic stared at him.
“Six million?”
“More.”
“How much?”
“Twenty-three.”
Arthur sat down heavily.
Julian continued.
“I was keeping businesses alive. Celeste called it theft. Thomas understood the situation at first.”
Adrian shook his head.
“No. He discovered it later.”
Julian's gaze sharpened.
“You weren't in those rooms.”
“Neither were you for every conversation.”
Claire watched Julian's hands.
Steady until now.
They trembled once when he touched the train ticket.
She noticed.
“So my mother discovered the transfers.”
Julian said nothing.
“Celeste was going to expose you.”
“She was going to destroy the family.”
“And you wanted to scare my mother.”
Julian's head snapped up.
“I never said that.”
“No. Mason did.”
Julian looked toward him.
Betrayal filled his face.
Mason did not look away.
“My father deserved his name back.”
Julian's mouth tightened.
“Your father agreed to protect this family.”
“My father agreed to drive cars.”
Silence.
Claire took another step toward Julian.
“Who tampered with Celeste's car?”
“I don't know.”
“Did you order it?”
“No.”
“Did you order someone to scare Margaret?”
Julian looked at the photograph of Celeste and Margaret.
His face changed.
For the first time, Claire saw regret.
“I told a man to frighten her.”
Dominic went motionless.
“What man?”
“A contractor.”
“What did ‘frighten’ mean?”
“Make her believe the car was unreliable. A cut tire. A warning.”
Adrian's voice turned cold.
“You hired a criminal to sabotage a car and expected careful interpretation?”
Julian looked at him.
“I was trying to buy time.”
“A woman died.”
“I know.”
Dominic's voice cracked.
“My mother died.”
Julian looked at his nephew.
“I have known that every morning for eighteen years.”
The answer did not absolve him.
But Claire believed the grief.
That made it worse.
Julian had loved Celeste.
And still created the circumstances that killed her.
Dominic turned away.
Claire asked the final question.
“Why plant the watch on me?”
Julian looked at her.
“I didn't tell Mason to plant it.”
Mason stepped forward.
“You told me to put it where police would find it.”
“I told you to recover it.”
“You said she could not leave with it.”
Julian's eyes flashed.
“Because I believed Margaret hid the missing ledger pages inside the watch.”
Adrian frowned.
“Missing pages?”
Julian laughed bitterly.
“You still don't know.”
He looked directly at Claire.
“Your mother had the only record that could prove who ordered the sabotage.”
Claire's heartbeat changed.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“You expect us to believe that?”
“Yes.”
Julian leaned back.
“Because Margaret never gave it to me.”
Claire looked at Adrian.
Something in his expression frightened her.
Julian saw it.
And smiled sadly.
“Ask him.”
Claire turned fully.
“Ask him what?”
Julian looked at Adrian.
“Tell her who paid Margaret Bennett's hospital bills for the final three years of her life.”
Adrian went still.
Claire's voice became a whisper.
“Adrian?”
May you like
Julian's next words cut deeper.
“And ask him what your mother gave him in return.”
