Chapter 8 - MARGARET RUNS
Margaret left the mansion through the service garage at 5:52 p.m.
She did not take her usual car.
She used a sedan registered to one of the household staff.
By the time Andrew discovered she was gone, security footage showed her twenty miles south.
Andrew paced through the foyer.
“Why would she run?”
Mariana stood near the staircase with two investigators.
“Because the audit found something she doesn’t want explained.”
Andrew looked at her.
“You think my father is alive.”
“I think money has been sent to a company connected to his name.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No.”
Mariana remained careful.
“I’m not going to invent facts because we’re angry.”
Andrew stopped pacing.
The words hurt because they exposed the difference between them.
He had reacted without facts the night before.
He had believed his mother.
He had believed Brenda.
He had struck Mariana before asking a single meaningful question.
Now Mariana had every reason to hate him, yet she was still refusing to make accusations she could not prove.
Andrew looked down.
“I’m sorry.”
Mariana’s expression remained still.
“I know you’ve said that three times today.”
“I don’t know what else to say.”
“Then stop saying things.”
He looked up.
She continued.
“Do something useful.”
Andrew nodded slowly.
“What?”
“Tell me everything your mother ever said about your father’s death.”
Andrew took a long breath.
“He was on a boat near Lake Michigan.”
“Alone?”
“With two business associates.”
“Bodies?”
“One was recovered.”
“And your father?”
“No.”
“What did Margaret say happened?”
“That the boat caught fire.”
“Insurance?”
Andrew’s face changed.
“There was a policy.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
Mariana stared at him.
“Think.”
Andrew walked toward the library.
He pulled open a drawer where old family records were kept.
After several minutes, he found a brown folder.
Inside was a copy of an insurance settlement.
He read the number.
“Twenty-five million.”
Mariana looked at Evelyn.
Evelyn was already typing.
Andrew turned another page.
Then he stopped.
“What?”
Mariana stepped closer.
Andrew held up the document.
“The beneficiary wasn’t my mother.”
“Who was it?”
He stared at the name.
“Northstar Meridian.”
The same company that had quietly extracted millions from Whitmore International.
Andrew sat down.
“My father’s insurance money went to the same company receiving money from my business.”
Mariana said nothing.
Andrew looked at her.
“Was my entire life built on this?”
Before she could answer, Evelyn’s phone rang.
She listened for less than ten seconds.
Then she looked at Mariana.
“We found Margaret’s car.”
“Where?”
“At a private airfield.”
Andrew stood immediately.
“Is she there?”
“No.”
“Then where is she?”
Evelyn looked toward him.
“She boarded a charter flight forty minutes ago.”
“To where?”
“New York.”
Mariana frowned.
Evelyn continued.
“The aircraft filed a second international flight plan before takeoff.”
Andrew’s face tightened.
“Destination?”
May you like
“Geneva.”
*
