Chapter 14 - Cold Coffee and Bloodlines
We sat across from Gabriel in Eleanor’s formal parlor, the tension thick enough to suffocate the warmth of the roaring hearth.
Gabriel placed his investigator badge and the state court seal on the polished marble coffee table between us.
He refused the tea I offered, opting instead for a plain glass of tap water.
"I didn't come here to steal your inheritance, Nora," Gabriel began, his tone measured, devoid of the theatrical arrogance Julian always displayed.
"I know how Julian treated you.
I have monitored his overseas shell corporations for four years while tracking the illegal dividends Charles Vance set up in the eighties.
Julian is a fool who drove the core businesses into insolvency because he thought his surname made him invincible."
"If you know Julian is guilty, why are you freezing the hospice foundation?" I countered, leaning forward with fierce determination.
"Eleanor suffered fifty years in silence to build a sanctuary out of this blood money.
The hospice is meant for dying women and children who have nowhere else to turn.
It is the only clean thing left of this entire family."
Gabriel’s eyes softened momentarily, but his jaw remained set like stone.
"Because the foundation charter was signed using funds derived from the 1981 promissory note sitting on your desk.
That note wasn't Charles's money to bequeath.
It was my mother's survivor settlement, stolen from her bank account three days after Malcolm's car plunged off the Narrows Bridge.
My mother died in a public ward in Spokane while Julian was attending private boarding schools in Switzerland.
Eleanor was an accessory after the fact, Nora.
She stayed quiet because Charles threatened to take Julian away from her if she testified."
Arthur leaned forward, placing his weathered hands flat on the mahogany table.
"Eleanor left a full sworn deposition on that cassette tape, Gabriel.
She gave it to Nora because she knew you would eventually find the paper trail.
She didn't run from your justice.
She preserved the evidence so you could finally expose Charles Vance’s empire without letting Julian squander what rightfully belonged to you."
May you like
Gabriel paused, his hand hesitating above the cassette tape.
For the first time, the armored composure of the federal investigator slipped, revealing the wounded child who had watched his mother scrub floors to buy groceries.
