Chapter 11 - A Witness Who Would Not Hide
Sarah's first formal interview lasted six hours.
I was not present.
Ortiz later explained the portions she could lawfully share.
Sarah had first met Victor at a charity fundraiser eighteen months earlier.
Claire approached her afterward with an offer to finance the literacy foundation she'd always dreamed of starting.
At first the donations were real.
Then Claire asked Sarah to sign routine documents.
Those documents had been used to create accounts and move money.
When Sarah questioned them, Victor showed her copies bearing her signatures.
He threatened to accuse her of fraud and take the children into temporary care.
Sarah said she had believed him.
She also admitted she had hidden the scheme from me for months.
On Friday Victor promised she could leave with him for one night, sign a confession drafted by his attorneys, and end the threats.
Instead she was driven to a clinic where she was told to surrender her phone.
Her explanation was complicated and full of choices I could not excuse.
She had packed a suitcase.
She had left no adult with Ethan and Emma.
She had listened when Victor told her the children would be collected by a nanny, without ever verifying that anyone arrived.
That failure nearly killed Emma.
When Sarah's attorney asked whether I would support her, I said I supported a fair investigation.
I did not offer forgiveness as a legal defense.
For our children's sake, I wanted her safe.
For their sake, I also wanted her held accountable.
Rachel approved of the distinction.
The next day Claire vanished before detectives could execute a search warrant.
Her apartment was empty except for furniture and a wall calendar.
Someone had circled October 17.
Under the date were two words.
FINAL SIGNATURE.
October 17 was the day Victor planned to hold an emergency shareholders' vote.
If he controlled enough proxies, he could authorize a sale of the patent subsidiary before anyone stopped him.
Naomi calculated the likely sale price.
Sixty-eight million dollars.
My forty-million-dollar deal had been a discount purchase of something worth far more.
Then Julian sent an additional document.
It showed a payment to Claire from a company I recognized immediately.
The payer was not Hale Meridian.
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It was Marcus Bell's family trust.
