Chapter 4 - NorthbridgeDetective Morales separated everyone.
Claire stayed with Rosie in the family room while a child-interview specialist drove over from the county advocacy center.
George was taken into the library.
Maria went to the breakfast room.
Ethan was interviewed in his office.
Claire wanted to hear every word.
She heard almost none.
Instead, she sat on the carpet while Rosie leaned against her.
“Do you remember the man’s face?” Claire asked carefully.
The detective had warned her not to lead Rosie, but Claire could barely tolerate the silence.
Rosie shook her head.
“He had black.”
“Black what?”
Rosie touched her head.
“A hat?”
Another nod.
Claire’s chest tightened.
“Was it someone you knew?”
Rosie’s face crumpled.
“I don’t know.”
That answer frightened Claire more than a name would have.
A stranger might have entered her home.
Or someone Rosie knew might have hidden his face.
By late afternoon, Morales returned.
“We need to talk privately.”
Claire asked Maria to sit with Rosie.
Maria immediately agreed.
When Claire entered the library, George and Ethan were both already there.
That surprised her.
Morales closed the door.
“The key Rosie found is for a safe-deposit box.”
Claire looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“The manufacturer and number sequence are consistent with a regional bank chain. We’re confirming which branch.”
George rubbed his forehead.
Ethan said nothing.
Morales placed a printed sheet on the table.
“Northbridge Consulting was formed in Delaware in 2017.”
George looked at the floor.
“It received approximately eleven million dollars in payments from Bennett Development over three years.”
Claire felt physically sick.
“Eleven?”
“Some payments may have been legitimate. Some may not.”
Morales looked at George.
“Mr. Bennett admits he controlled Northbridge.”
Claire stared at her father.
“You told me two-point-four.”
“I told you what your mother discovered first.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
George’s shoulders sagged.
“The company was drowning.”
Ethan laughed once.
Claire turned sharply.
“What’s funny?”
“Nothing.”
“No. Say it.”
Ethan leaned against the bookcase.
“Your father is doing what he always does. Giving you ten percent of the truth and hoping you’ll mistake it for all of it.”
George stepped toward him.
“You should be very careful.”
“Why?”
Ethan’s jaw hardened.
“Afraid I might tell her what you did with the rest?”
Claire looked from one man to the other.
“What rest?”
Morales watched silently.
George spoke first.
“After your mother became ill, one of our largest commercial developments collapsed. We were exposed on guarantees. If lenders discovered the full extent, we would have lost the company.”
“So you moved money?”
“I moved assets into Northbridge.”
“Illegally?”
George hesitated.
“Without proper board approval.”
Claire stared.
“That means yes.”
“I intended to return it.”
“Did you?”
“Most.”
Ethan scoffed.
George turned on him.
“You benefited from those transfers.”
Claire froze.
“What?”
Ethan’s expression changed.
George pointed at him.
“Ask your husband why Northbridge paid a company called Red Harbor Systems nine hundred thousand dollars.”
Ethan stepped forward.
“That was a technology contract.”
“There was no technology.”
“Prove it.”
“I can.”
Silence.
Claire felt as if the floor had opened beneath her.
“You two were working together.”
Neither answered.
Claire whispered, “While Mom was dying.”
George’s eyes filled.
“Claire—”
“While she was dying, you were moving money through shell companies?”
“I was trying to save what she built.”
“And Ethan?”
George looked at her husband.
“I trusted him.”
Ethan’s mouth tightened.
“Don’t rewrite history.”
Morales intervened.
“Whatever happened with the company may or may not be connected to Rosie. Right now we have two overlapping investigations.”
She looked directly at Ethan.
“You said you passed Rosie’s room at seven.”
“Yes.”
“House alarm records show your personal code disarmed the side entrance at 5:18 a.m.”
Claire turned.
Ethan didn’t move.
Morales continued.
“You rearmed it at 5:31.”
Claire’s heart accelerated.
“Where did you go?”
Ethan took a breath.
“For a run.”
“You don’t run,” Claire said.
“I started.”
“This morning?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
Morales placed another photograph on the table.
A security still from a neighbor’s camera.
At 5:23 a.m., Ethan’s SUV was visible at the end of the driveway.
Claire stared at him.
“You took the car.”
Ethan’s eyes flicked toward George.
Just once.
But Claire saw it.
“So where did you go?” Morales asked.
Ethan remained silent.
George whispered, “Tell them.”
Claire turned toward her father.
“You know?”
George closed his eyes.
Ethan finally spoke.
“I went to the bank.”
“At five in the morning?” Claire asked.
“To the twenty-four-hour ATM vestibule.”
“Why?”
May you like
Ethan looked directly at her.
“To see whether someone had already emptied box 317.”
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