Chapter 2 - The Money Lily Was Never Supposed to Lose
Daniel called 911 before he asked another question.
Vanessa protested immediately.
“Claire’s conscious. She doesn’t need an ambulance.”
Daniel looked at her as if she had spoken in another language.
“She was locked inside a wall.”
“I didn’t lock her inside a wall.”
Claire gave a dry laugh from the floor.
“You closed the door and slid the wardrobe back.”
“That room has an interior release.”
“It doesn’t anymore.”
Vanessa’s eyes flicked toward the broken wall.
Daniel noticed.
So did Claire.
By the time Winnetka paramedics arrived, Daniel had taken Lily upstairs and placed her with Mrs. Hanley, their retired neighbor, who had watched her since preschool. He told Lily only that Aunt Claire needed a doctor and that Dad would come get her soon.
Lily resisted.
“She’ll put the wall back.”
Daniel knelt until they were eye level.
“No one is putting anything back.”
The promise felt larger than the room.
Police officers separated the adults for statements. Claire was dehydrated but otherwise stable. She said she had been inside approximately seven hours.
Vanessa said there had been an argument.
Claire said Vanessa had shoved her into the old safe room after Claire threatened to call Daniel about unauthorized withdrawals.
Vanessa denied shoving her.
Then she stopped denying the money.
That frightened Daniel more.
He stood in the kitchen later that evening while an officer finished photographing the damaged storage room.
Vanessa sat at the breakfast table with a glass of water she hadn’t touched.
“You knew about Lily’s trust?” Daniel asked.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“You showed me the estate binder when we got married.”
“That doesn’t give you access.”
Vanessa pressed her lips together.
Daniel waited.
Finally she said, “I didn’t take it for myself.”
Claire, wrapped in a paramedic blanket despite refusing transport to the hospital, looked over from the opposite counter.
“That’s supposed to help?”
Vanessa ignored her.
“My mother’s care costs nine thousand dollars a month. You knew that.”
Daniel did know Vanessa’s mother, Judith, had suffered a severe stroke two years earlier and lived in an assisted-living facility in Glenview.
He also knew Vanessa had told him Judith’s long-term-care policy covered most of it.
Apparently, it didn’t.
“How much?” he asked.
Vanessa looked down.
“How much did you take?”
“I was going to replace it.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Claire spoke quietly.
“One hundred twenty-one thousand that I can prove.”
Daniel turned toward her.
Claire did not look triumphant.
That bothered him.
“You said almost a quarter million.”
Claire stared at the hardwood floor.
“Because Vanessa didn’t move all of it.”
Daniel felt the first small shift in the story.
Not enough to understand.
Enough to know he was missing something.
Vanessa finally looked at Claire.
“Tell him.”
Claire’s jaw tightened.
“Not tonight.”
“You wanted the truth so badly.”
“Vanessa.”
“No. Tell your brother why you noticed the withdrawals in the first place.”
Daniel looked between them.
“What is she talking about?”
Claire pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders.
Their father had taught both of them that hesitation in business usually meant someone was deciding how much truth they could afford.
Claire hesitated now.
Then Daniel remembered something.
Eight months earlier, Claire had asked him whether the millwork company’s fall contract had “finally covered the shortfall.”
He had assumed she meant the company’s operating line.
Now she wouldn’t meet his eyes.
Daniel stepped away from Vanessa.
May you like
“Claire.”
She swallowed.
