Chapter 5 - THE ACCOUNT IN MARGARET'S NAME
The police did not place Margaret in handcuffs.
That did not make the ride downtown feel any less like an arrest.
Nathan insisted on going with her.
Margaret insisted he stay home.
Neither won completely.
Nathan followed in a second vehicle with his attorney while Margaret rode with Detective Lena Ward, who had handled enough cases involving wealthy families to be unimpressed by the Whitmore name.
By seven-thirty in the morning, Nathan sat in a gray interview room on the other side of mirrored glass and watched Margaret answer questions.
She did not ask for special treatment.
She did not blame Victoria.
She did not invoke Nathan's mother.
She simply said the account was not hers.
Detective Ward placed a printed bank form on the table.
"This account was opened with your full legal name, your date of birth, your Social Security number, and a scanned copy of your driver's license."
Margaret looked at it.
"Someone had access to my employment file."
"Who?"
"Mr. Whitmore's business office."
"Anyone else?"
Margaret hesitated.
"Miss Caldwell asked me to update household personnel files last year."
Nathan leaned forward behind the glass.
His attorney, James Mercer, wrote something on a yellow pad.
Detective Ward noticed Margaret's pause.
"Why did Caldwell need those files?"
"She said she wanted emergency contacts organized before the wedding."
"Did you give her access?"
"Yes."
Ward slid another paper across the table.
"The account received deposits every time household wages were reduced."
Margaret studied the transactions.
"I did not do this."
"I understand that is your position."
Margaret's eyes lifted.
"It is the truth."
Ward did not react.
"There was also a wire for forty-five thousand dollars from a Whitmore charitable foundation."
Margaret frowned.
Nathan frowned too.
He knew that foundation account.
"What was the stated purpose?" Margaret asked.
"Winter housing assistance."
Margaret closed her eyes.
The phrase was too specific to be random.
Nathan saw it immediately.
Someone was building a story around her history.
The sold house.
The winter.
The trust.
The ledger.
Every fact that made Margaret important could be rearranged to make her look corrupt.
Ward pushed a photograph across the table.
It showed a woman at a bank counter wearing a scarf and large glasses.
The image was grainy.
She was roughly Margaret's height.
"Is this you?"
Margaret stared at it for a long time.
"No."
"Can you prove where you were at eleven-sixteen yesterday morning?"
Margaret looked almost offended.
"I was arranging flowers in the blue sitting room."
Nathan shut his eyes.
There would be no official record of that.
Then he remembered something.
"The florist delivery."
James looked at him.
Nathan stood.
"The florist came at eleven."
James signaled through the glass for Ward to pause.
Ten minutes later, Marcus sent security footage from the house.
It showed Margaret in the blue sitting room at 11:11.
Then at 11:19.
She could not have been at a bank eleven miles away at 11:16.
The first piece of the frame cracked.
Detective Ward did not release her immediately.
She asked more questions.
She asked about the trust.
Margaret answered carefully.
She admitted that Evelyn Whitmore had named her as a beneficiary decades earlier.
She admitted she had never collected distributions.
She admitted she had not told Nathan until that night.
Ward leaned back.
"Why not?"
Margaret looked through the mirror even though she could not see Nathan.
"Because money can ruin the meaning of things people did before money existed."
Nathan felt the words like a rebuke.
Ward studied her.
"That is poetic."
"It is also true."
At nine-fifteen, Margaret was allowed to leave.
Outside the station, cameras were waiting.
Nathan stopped in the doorway.
"How did they know?"
James Mercer swore quietly.
Reporters shouted questions before Margaret took two steps.
"Mrs. Ellis, did you steal from Whitmore employees?"
"Mr. Whitmore, are you protecting a household manager accused of embezzlement?"
"Is your fiancee cooperating with police?"
"Did Margaret Ellis receive secret shares from your late mother?"
Nathan turned toward James.
"The trust information was not public."
James's face hardened.
"It is now."
Someone had leaked everything before the interview was finished.
By the time they reached the car, Margaret was trembling.
Nathan opened the rear door for her.
She stopped.
"I should not go back to the house."
"Yes, you should."
"They are making me the story."
"That is why you should not disappear."
Margaret looked at him.
"This could cost you the company."
Nathan almost laughed.
"The company survived my father."
"It might not survive you choosing an accused employee over your future wife."
Nathan's expression changed.
"Do not call yourself an employee like that."
Margaret looked exhausted.
"What would you prefer?"
Nathan glanced at the signet ring still on her hand.
"I am still figuring that out."
When they returned to the house, Victoria's attorney was waiting in the foyer.
Elaine Foster wore a navy suit and an expression that suggested she had already won something.
Victoria stood beside her in a cream dress.
She had changed from the silk robe.
Her hair was perfect.
Her face showed no sign that she had spent the night under observation.
Margaret looked as though she had aged five years.
Victoria smiled at the contrast.
"I heard the police had questions."
Nathan stepped between them.
"Do not."
Elaine raised one hand.
"My client would like to leave the property."
"She can."
Victoria blinked.
She had expected resistance.
Nathan continued.
"Her personal belongings will be inventoried and delivered to any address her attorney provides."
Victoria's mouth opened.
"You are throwing me out?"
"I am removing your access while the theft and security breach are investigated."
"We are engaged."
Nathan looked at the ring on her left hand.
He felt strangely detached from it.
"For now."
Victoria's face hardened.
Elaine stepped in.
"Mr. Whitmore, threats about the engagement while my client is being accused without charges could become relevant."
Nathan smiled slightly.
"Then write that down."
Elaine did not smile back.
Victoria looked past Nathan at Margaret.
"Enjoy the room while it lasts."
Margaret said nothing.
Victoria leaned closer.
"You should tell him about the other account."
Margaret froze.
Nathan turned.
"What other account?"
Victoria's smile returned.
"Ask her."
Elaine touched Victoria's arm.
"We are leaving."
Victoria allowed herself to be guided toward the door.
Nathan looked at Margaret.
Margaret's face had changed.
He knew immediately that Victoria had not invented the subject.
"What other account?"
Margaret sat down on the lower stair.
"It is not what she thinks."
Nathan waited.
Margaret rubbed the edge of the signet ring with her thumb.
"Your mother created a second account in 1998."
"In your name?"
"In both our names."
"How much?"
Margaret looked up.
"I do not know now."
Nathan's patience broke.
"How much was in it then?"
"Two million dollars."
The foyer went silent.
Ruth was still missing.
Victoria had been connected to a rival.
Someone had cloned Nathan's access.
And now Margaret had revealed another hidden fortune.
Nathan pressed two fingers against his forehead.
"Why?"
"Because your mother thought someone inside the company was helping Victor Rainer."
"She hid money with you."
"Yes."
"Where is it now?"
Margaret shook her head.
"I never touched it."
Nathan turned to Marcus.
"Find it."
Marcus began making calls.
Thirty minutes later, James Mercer joined them in the study with a laptop.
The account still existed.
It had grown through conservative investments.
The balance was a little over nine million dollars.
Nathan stared at the number.
Then James clicked another tab.
"There is a problem."
Nathan almost laughed at the phrase.
"Of course there is."
James turned the screen.
A withdrawal request had been submitted at 6:42 that morning.
For the entire balance.
The authorization carried Margaret's digital signature.
Margaret stared at it.
"I did not sign that."
James nodded.
"The bank stopped it because the trust terms require a second approval."
Nathan looked at him.
"Whose?"
James took a breath.
"Yours."
Nathan's phone rang.
The caller was the chair of Whitmore Holdings.
He answered.
"Nathan, we need to talk before the market opens."
"About what?"
"Your household manager."
Nathan's jaw tightened.
"What about her?"
"Three board members received documents this morning accusing her of stealing from company accounts for twenty years."
Nathan looked at Margaret.
The chairman continued.
"They are demanding an emergency vote."
"On what?"
There was a pause.
May you like
"On whether you are still fit to protect Whitmore assets while she remains in your house."
