Chapter 13 - THE PRICE OF COOPERATING
Detective Ruiz traced the call for eleven seconds.
Not enough.
Martin hung up before Victoria could answer.
The room went very quiet.
“What does he think you have?” Ruiz asked.
Victoria looked at me.
Then at the floor.
“I know where Elise’s original files went.”
I felt my patience snap.
“You said the ledger copy was all you knew about.”
“I said I didn’t know where the original ledger was.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No.”
Ruiz rubbed her forehead.
“Please tell me we are done discovering new layers of dishonesty.”
Victoria almost smiled.
Almost.
Elise had mailed a packet to a woman named Marjorie Bell shortly before she died. Marjorie had been Elise’s older sister and Victoria’s aunt.
Victoria had not spoken to her in fifteen years.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because Martin told me she betrayed my mother.”
Ruiz muttered something I did not catch.
We found Marjorie in New Mexico.
Alive.
Seventy-two.
And furious.
Her first words to Victoria over video call were, “So you finally figured out that man is poison?”
Victoria looked like she had been slapped.
Marjorie still had Elise’s packet.
She had kept it unopened in a fireproof box because Elise’s note said to give it to Victoria only when Victoria came asking without Martin’s help.
“That sounds insane,” I said.
Marjorie shrugged. “Your families were rich. Rich people make everything complicated.”
Fair.
The packet contained original bank printouts, Elise’s signed statement, and a handwritten page naming Martin directly.
It was enough to strengthen the fraud case.
It was also enough to hurt Victoria.
Elise’s statement said Martin had been cultivating her daughter’s resentment.
“I am afraid he will use Victoria to get close to the Ashfords someday.”
Victoria read that line and went pale.
Her own mother had predicted it.
Ruiz looked at her.
“If you cooperate fully, the prosecutor will consider it. But your conduct with Florence is still your conduct.”
Victoria nodded.
“What are you saying?” I asked.
Ruiz answered instead.
“She may have to testify against Kessler and admit under oath why she married you.”
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