Chapter 6 - THE LAWYER'S NAME
I ended the call.
Nora’s voice disappeared from the room.
For three seconds, no one moved.
Then Barbara smiled.
It was not the satisfied smile she had worn when she thought she controlled the noon deadline.
This one was smaller.
Sharper.
“You chose well, Sophie.”
I looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
“Your lawyer is very talented.”
Marianne stepped closer to the printed settlement.
“Let me see it.”
I handed her the pages.
She studied the final signature block.
Prepared By: Nora Elizabeth Hayes, Esq.
The document showed a creation date from eleven months earlier.
That was seven months before Nora and I had supposedly met.
I felt anger rise behind my ribs.
Ethan read over Marianne’s shoulder.
“You said she was independent.”
“She is.”
“Her name is on a settlement my mother printed from Dad’s computer.”
“I can see that.”
Barbara sat in Thomas’s old leather chair.
“You keep assuming people are on your side because they tell you they are.”
I turned to her.
“That includes your son.”
Ethan flinched.
Good.
I was finished protecting him from sentences that hurt.
Marianne placed the settlement on the desk.
“We need the computer preserved.”
“I know.”
“And the hardware key.”
“I know.”
Ethan looked toward the clock in the hall.
10:46 a.m.
“We have seventy-four minutes.”
I pulled out my phone.
“I’m calling Nora back.”
Barbara laughed.
“Of course you are.”
I ignored her.
Nora answered immediately.
“What did you find?”
“Your name.”
Silence.
I continued.
“Your full legal name is on a marital settlement printed from Thomas Warren’s old computer.”
Another pause.
Then Nora said, “What is the document date?”
“September seventeenth of last year.”
She swore.
“You recognize it.”
“Yes.”
Ethan looked at me.
I turned on speakerphone.
“Explain.”
Nora inhaled slowly.
“I drafted a template settlement for an anonymous client through a conflict-screened partner at my firm.”
“Anonymous client?”
“The request came through outside counsel.”
“What was the purpose?”
“A marital restructuring tied to intellectual property rights.”
“You drafted a document designed to take my Mercer rights?”
“I drafted a form based on facts I was given.”
“Did you know the wife was me?”
“No.”
Barbara tilted her head.
“Careful, Nora.”
Nora heard her.
Her tone changed.
“Barbara Warren is in the room?”
“Yes.”
“Then get away from that computer.”
Barbara’s smile faded.
“Why?”
“Because if that is the workstation I think it is, it can be wiped remotely through the old Mercer audit network.”
Almost on cue, the monitor went black.
I stared at it.
Then a white line appeared.
SYSTEM RECOVERY IN PROGRESS.
“No.”
I moved toward the computer.
Marianne caught my arm.
“Don’t touch it.”
The progress bar appeared.
3%.
Nora spoke quickly.
“Photograph everything.”
I raised my phone.
7%.
Ethan crouched beside the tower.
“What if I pull the network cable?”
“Do it.”
He reached behind the desk and yanked the Ethernet cord.
The progress bar stopped at 11%.
Then continued.
“It’s not stopping.”
“Wi-Fi.”
Marianne looked at the router light on a shelf.
Ethan unplugged it.
The progress bar stopped again.
17%.
For five seconds, nothing happened.
Then the screen flashed.
RECOVERY INTERRUPTED.
Nora exhaled through the speaker.
“Good.”
Barbara stood.
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
I looked at her.
“I know someone tried to destroy evidence while four witnesses were standing around it.”
“You cannot prove who.”
“No.”
Marianne raised her phone.
“But I recorded you smiling when it started.”
Barbara’s eyes hardened.
At 10:55, Nora emailed emergency instructions to a Mercer filing agent in New York.
At 11:03, Ethan found the workstation serial number beneath the tower.
At 11:08, I photographed the hardware token and its registration label.
At 11:16, Nora confirmed the token matched the certificate used at 2:13 a.m.
At 11:22, the filing agent requested a fraud hold.
At 11:31, the Mercer board secretary demanded a sworn statement from me.
I dictated it in Thomas Warren’s old office while Barbara watched from the hallway.
At 11:44, we had no answer.
At 11:51, Ethan’s phone began ringing nonstop.
His CFO.
His bank.
Two board members.
A lender in Chicago.
He ignored all of them.
At 11:56, Nora called.
“The filing agent has accepted the fraud hold.”
I closed my eyes.
“For how long?”
“Seventy-two hours.”
“What happens to the license?”
“Frozen.”
Ethan sat down hard on the edge of the desk.
Barbara did not react.
That frightened me.
I had expected rage.
Instead, she checked her watch.
11:58.
Then she looked toward the front windows.
Two police cruisers turned into the driveway.
Ethan stood.
“What did you do?”
Barbara adjusted the sleeve of her robe.
“I protected my son’s company.”
The doorbell rang.
She looked at me.
“You should have checked the cash in your suitcase more carefully.”
My stomach dropped.
I ran toward the foyer.
Two officers were already at the door.
Behind them stood a man in a gray suit holding a warrant.
He introduced himself as Detective Aaron Pike from the county financial crimes unit.
“Mrs. Warren?”
“Yes.”
“We received a report of missing corporate funds.”
I looked at Barbara.
She said nothing.
Detective Pike continued.
“The report alleges approximately six hundred thousand dollars was removed from Warren Culinary Group’s emergency payroll reserve.”
Ethan stared at his mother.
“That account is locked.”
Pike looked at him.
“Not anymore.”
Then he looked at my suitcase.
“Ma’am, I need you to step away from the luggage.”
My throat tightened.
“That money is mine.”
“We will determine that.”
He opened the suitcase.
The visible cash was exactly what I had packed.
Eighteen thousand dollars from my personal safe.
Pike counted the bundles quickly.
Then one officer pressed against the interior lining.
Something shifted beneath it.
I had never felt that before.
The officer pulled back the fabric panel.
Behind it were six vacuum-sealed bricks of hundred-dollar bills.
I stared at them.
Ethan whispered, “Oh my God.”
Detective Pike looked at me.
“Mrs. Warren, do you want to tell me how those got there?”
I could not.
May you like
Because I had never seen them in my life.
