Chapter 13 - The Pool House
Detective Shaw called Marcus back before he could leave the lab.
"Elliot is alive."
Marcus gripped the phone harder.
"Where is he?"
"His house. Officers found him in the garage."
"Injuries?"
"Head wound, bruised ribs, possible concussion."
"Who did it?"
"He says he didn't see the attacker's face."
Marcus closed his eyes.
Relief came first.
Anger followed immediately behind it.
"I'm going to him."
"Meet us at St. Anne's."
"You're taking him to a hospital?"
"Already on the way."
Marcus looked through the glass at the frozen nursery footage.
His brother's face remained on the final usable frame.
For the first time since the investigation began, Marcus did not know whether he wanted to embrace Elliot or demand the truth from him.
He would have to do both.
Elena returned to her sister's apartment rather than accompany him.
She had spent nearly twenty-four hours inside Marcus's catastrophe.
She needed one room in the city where nobody had ever lied to her about a camera, a trust, or a dead woman.
Before she left, Detective Shaw stopped her in the hallway.
"Keep your phone on."
Elena looked at her.
"Is that a request or an order?"
"A request."
"Why?"
"Felix's attorney says his proffer includes you."
Elena's face hardened.
"Of course it does."
"We don't know what he plans to say."
"I do."
"What?"
"Whatever Victoria needs him to say."
Shaw studied her.
"Felix may be trying to save himself, not her."
"Same result if he thinks blaming me buys him something."
"That's possible."
Elena looked toward Marcus, who was waiting by the elevator.
"If he says I pushed Theo, you have the video."
"Yes."
"If he says I planned it with Victoria, you have the video."
"Yes."
"If he says I forged anything, I don't know Marcus's passwords."
"We know."
Elena exhaled.
"Then what are you warning me about?"
Shaw's answer was careful.
"He says you were paid."
Elena stared at her.
"Paid for what?"
"He hasn't given the full statement yet."
"By whom?"
"A company called Northline Consulting."
Elena laughed once in disbelief.
"I have never heard of it until today."
"I believe you."
"Then why say it like that?"
"Because when his lawyer says he has bank records, I want you to know before I show them to you."
Elena went still.
"Bank records?"
Shaw nodded.
"Three deposits totaling twelve thousand dollars into an account bearing your name."
Elena's stomach dropped.
"I don't have another account."
"Maybe you don't."
"What does that mean?"
"It means forged signatures are not the only kind of identity fraud in this case."
Elena thought of Victoria entering her bedroom.
Nothing stolen.
A silver button beneath the bed.
Maybe Victoria had not gone there to take something.
Maybe she had gone there to find something.
Identification.
Tax forms.
Bank information.
Documents employees kept in locked drawers because they assumed a locked bedroom inside a gated estate was safe.
"My passport copy was in my desk."
Shaw's eyes sharpened.
"Was?"
"I haven't checked since that day."
"Do not go back to the house for it."
"I know."
"Send Grant the location. Police will retrieve it."
Elena nodded.
Then she looked at Marcus.
He had heard enough to understand.
"She opened an account in Elena's name."
Shaw held up a hand.
"Possibly."
Marcus's jaw clenched.
"To make her look paid."
"Possibly."
"Stop saying possibly."
Elena turned on him.
"No."
Marcus looked at her.
"She's doing her job."
Elena's voice was sharp.
"You want certainty because uncertainty scares you."
He froze.
"That is exactly how you hit me."
The corridor went silent.
Marcus lowered his eyes.
"You're right."
Elena had expected him to defend himself.
Again, he did not.
"Let her say possibly."
"Fine."
He looked at Shaw.
"Possibly."
Shaw nodded once.
"Thank you."
Elena left.
At St. Anne's, Elliot was conscious but heavily medicated.
A bandage wrapped around his head.
His wife, Claire, sat outside the room crying into both hands.
When she saw Marcus, she stood and slapped him.
The sound cracked across the hallway.
Marcus did not move.
Claire's face twisted.
"This is because of you."
Grant stepped forward.
Marcus stopped him with one hand.
"Maybe."
Claire stared at him.
"Maybe?"
"I don't know yet."
Her anger broke into tears.
"He kept saying he should have told you."
Marcus looked through the small glass panel in Elliot's door.
"Told me what?"
Claire shook her head.
"He wouldn't say."
Detective Shaw arrived and asked Claire to wait outside while she interviewed Elliot.
Marcus was allowed inside only after Elliot explicitly requested him.
Elliot looked smaller in the hospital bed than Marcus remembered.
His younger brother had always seemed restless, clever, and impossible to pin down.
Now bruises spread along his throat and jaw.
"You look terrible," Elliot whispered.
Marcus almost laughed.
"You look worse."
Elliot closed his eyes.
"Fair."
Marcus sat beside the bed.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Marcus asked the question that had been waiting fourteen months.
"What were you doing in Isabel's nursery the night she died?"
Elliot opened his eyes.
Fear appeared before the answer.
"Stealing."
Marcus stared at him.
"What?"
"Not jewelry."
Elliot swallowed.
"A ledger."
Detective Shaw leaned forward.
"What ledger?"
Elliot looked at Marcus.
"The foundation account Isabel was auditing."
Marcus's face hardened.
"Why would you steal it?"
Elliot looked toward the ceiling.
"Because my name was in it."
Silence.
Marcus spoke slowly.
"For what?"
Elliot's eyes filled with shame.
"I borrowed money."
"From the foundation?"
"I told myself it was temporary."
"How much?"
Elliot did not answer.
"How much?"
"Four hundred thousand."
Marcus stood.
"You stole four hundred thousand dollars from a children's charity?"
"I paid most of it back."
"That is not an answer."
"My company was collapsing."
"That is not an answer either."
"I was going to lose everything."
Marcus turned away before rage swallowed him.
He paced to the window.
Elliot continued.
"Victoria knew."
Marcus stopped.
"When?"
"Before Isabel did."
"How?"
"She helped set up the vendor invoices."
Marcus turned slowly.
"You knew Victoria before she entered my life."
Elliot looked away.
"Yes."
The admission hurt more than Marcus expected.
"How long?"
"Two years."
"Under what name?"
"Vanessa Calder."
Marcus laughed softly in disbelief.
"You knew."
"Yes."
"You knew who she was when she started coming to my house."
"Yes."
"You watched me date her."
"I tried to keep her away at first."
"You gave her a household job after Isabel died."
"Because she threatened me."
Marcus stepped toward the bed.
"With what?"
"The money."
Elliot's voice cracked.
"She had every transfer. Every false invoice. Every email."
"So you helped her get closer to me to protect yourself."
"Yes."
Marcus stared at him.
He wanted to shout.
He wanted to ask how his brother could sit at his table, hold Theo, toast his engagement, and say nothing.
Instead he remembered Elena on the patio.
He sat down again.
"Keep talking."
Elliot stared at him, surprised.
"The night Isabel died, she called me."
"When?"
"Around six thirty."
"Not on her call log."
"She used the house line."
Shaw made a note.
"What did she say?"
"She knew about the four hundred thousand."
Elliot closed his eyes.
"She said she had proof Vanessa created fake vendors and moved money through Northline."
"Did she threaten to report you?"
"She said I had until the next morning to tell you myself."
Marcus's face tightened.
"And instead you went to the house."
"Yes."
"At 7:28."
"Yes."
"After she had already left."
"I didn't know she was gone."
"You entered the hidden nursery."
"The bookcase was open."
"How did you know the room existed?"
Elliot hesitated.
"Vanessa told me."
Marcus stared at him.
"Of course she did."
"She said Isabel kept the ledger under the rocking chair."
"So you took it."
"Yes."
"And looked directly into the camera."
Elliot frowned.
"What camera?"
Marcus studied his face.
"You didn't know?"
"No."
Shaw watched him carefully.
"What did you take from beneath the rocking chair?"
"A small black ledger."
"Where is it now?"
Elliot looked at Marcus.
"I burned it."
Marcus's face went blank.
"You destroyed evidence after my wife died."
"I didn't know she was dead yet."
"The crash was reported two minutes later."
"I was in my car when I heard sirens."
"What about the blood on your shirt the next morning?"
Elliot looked confused.
"Blood?"
"Owen saw it."
Elliot looked down.
Then understanding came.
"Claire's."
Marcus stared at him.
"What?"
"She cut her hand on a broken wineglass that night."
"Can she confirm that?"
"Yes."
Detective Shaw made another note.
"Medical treatment?"
"Urgent care. Three stitches."
That could be verified.
Marcus felt some of the pressure shift, but not disappear.
His brother had still concealed crimes, destroyed evidence, and helped Victoria enter Marcus's life.
"Why did you say the pool was not Victoria's real plan?"
Elliot's expression changed.
"Because she called me yesterday morning."
Marcus leaned forward.
"What did she say?"
"She wanted the original estate plan."
"Why did you have it?"
"I didn't."
"You told me on the phone that you kept the original."
"I kept a copy Isabel gave me."
"Same question. Why?"
Elliot swallowed.
"Because the original plan proves the amendment is fake."
"We already know I didn't sign it."
"That isn't the important part."
"Then what is?"
Elliot looked at Detective Shaw.
"The real estate plan has a clause Victoria did not know about."
Marcus frowned.
"What clause?"
"If Theo dies before his first birthday, his designated inheritance does not go to Marcus's spouse."
"I know."
"Do you?"
Marcus looked at him.
Elliot's voice lowered.
"It goes to the Hale Children's Fund."
Marcus stared.
The foundation.
The same foundation Victoria had been siphoning through fake vendors.
Elliot continued.
"More than ninety million dollars would flow into an entity she had already learned how to drain."
Detective Shaw's expression sharpened.
"That is motive."
"Yes."
Marcus felt sick.
"Then why forge the amendment to benefit herself as spouse?"
"Backup plan."
Elliot grimaced with pain.
"If she married you first, she could try to take it directly. If she couldn't, the foundation was still there."
"And the pool?"
"She told me she needed Elena gone before the wedding."
Marcus's face hardened.
"Why Elena?"
"Because Elena saw the blue envelope."
"She could have fired her."
"You liked Elena."
Marcus looked toward the floor.
"I trusted her."
"Exactly."
"So Victoria was going to make me distrust her."
"Yes."
"By risking Theo's life."
Elliot closed his eyes.
"She told me Elena would jump in."
The room became very still.
Marcus's voice went dangerously quiet.
"She planned on Elena saving him?"
"She said Elena was predictable."
Elliot opened his eyes.
"She said, 'The maid will be wet, the stroller will be in the pool, and Marcus will see exactly what I tell him to see.'"
Marcus could barely breathe.
That was exactly what had happened.
Except for the red light in the hedge.
"What confession were you warning me about?" Marcus asked.
Elliot looked at Shaw.
"Felix has a statement."
"What statement?"
"One Victoria made him prepare weeks ago."
"Saying what?"
"That Elena and Owen were stealing from the foundation and tried to blackmail Victoria."
Marcus laughed bitterly.
"That's ridiculous."
"It doesn't have to be true."
Elliot's voice tightened.
"It has to create enough confusion that people stop looking at her for a few days."
Detective Shaw's phone buzzed.
She read the message.
"He just gave it."
Marcus stared at her.
"Felix?"
"Yes."
"And?"
"It says exactly what Elliot said it would."
Elena was across town when Detective Shaw called.
She listened without speaking.
When the detective finished, Elena walked to her sister's kitchen table and opened her laptop.
"I can prove part of it is fake."
"How?"
"Felix says I met Owen at the pool house on August third, right?"
"Yes."
"I wasn't in the state."
"Where were you?"
"My sister had surgery in Arizona."
"Can you prove it?"
"Airline tickets, hospital visitor log, photos."
Shaw exhaled.
"Good."
Elena paused.
"But why would Felix give a confession that easy to disprove?"
The same question reached Marcus five minutes later.
Elliot answered.
"Because Felix is not trying to save Victoria."
"Then what is he doing?"
Elliot looked toward the door.
"He's trying to make police seize the pool house."
Shaw's eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
Elliot swallowed.
"Because that's where he hid the one thing Victoria cannot let anyone find."
"What?"
"Her original ledger."
"The foundation ledger?"
"No."
Elliot shook his head.
"A list of every person she paid, threatened, or used."
Marcus stared at him.
"Where in the pool house?"
"Behind the electrical panel."
Detective Shaw was already standing.
"How do you know?"
May you like
Elliot gave a weak smile.
"Because Felix told me right before someone hit me in my own garage."
