Chapter 9 - Eliza’s Name on the ContractThe agreement was dated twenty-one months earlier.
Three months before Eliza’s death.
Her signature appeared on the final page.
Leonard rejected it immediately.
“Eliza would never sign this.”
Nora did not argue.
They sat in a private conference room at the hotel while detectives examined copies.
The agreement purported to give Bellwether Development a future right to purchase Eliza’s Ashcroft Hospitality shares along with a participation interest in Riverbend if ownership ever passed through Eliza’s estate.
In exchange, Eliza supposedly received $1.2 million.
No such payment had entered her accounts.
Nora pointed to the signature.
“Look at the E.”
Leonard did.
It was close.
Very close.
But Eliza always crossed the horizontal stroke at a slight upward angle.
This signature did not.
Sadie leaned over.
“That’s fake too.”
Nora nodded.
“Probably.”
“Grandma forged Mom’s name?”
“We don't know who did.”
Sadie looked at Leonard.
“Grandma had it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
No adult in the room wanted to answer.
Leonard did anyway.
“Because somebody wanted it to look as if your mother agreed to something she did not agree to.”
Sadie stared at the contract.
“Can they take Mom’s shares?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because we will fight it.”
“That's not the same.”
Leonard paused.
The child was right.
He corrected himself.
“Based on what we know, this document does not appear valid.”
Sadie nodded.
She appreciated precision.
Another trait inherited from Eliza.
The flash drive from Box 314 produced its first breakthrough that afternoon.
A forensic technician created a copy.
On it were photographs of Dolores and Gavin entering hotels together.
Scans of emails.
And an audio recording.
Eliza had apparently left her phone recording during a conversation in Dolores’s sitting room.
Dolores’s voice emerged first.
“You’re making this personal.”
Eliza answered weakly.
“It is personal. They are my shares.”
“You won't be around to manage them.”
Leonard stopped breathing.
The recording continued.
Eliza said, “Sadie will.”
“She’s a child.”
“She won't always be.”
Then Gavin spoke.
“Sign the participation agreement. Your father never needs to know.”
“No.”
“Eliza,” Dolores said, “think about your daughter.”
“I am.”
A chair moved.
Eliza continued.
“If you ever use Sadie to get to Dad, I will make sure everything I know survives me.”
The recording ended.
Sadie was not permitted to hear the full clip.
Leonard was grateful.
He could barely endure it himself.
Nora looked at him.
“Eliza didn't sign.”
“No.”
“Which means the contract recovered from Gavin is forged.”
“Yes.”
“And Dolores knew exactly what document she was removing from the bank.”
Leonard rubbed his face.
“Why keep it instead of destroying it?”
“Leverage.”
“Against whom?”
“Gavin, perhaps.”
That possibility mattered.
If Dolores distrusted Gavin, she may have kept the forged original to control him.
The affair did not mean partnership without fear.
Criminal conspiracies often survived on mutual distrust.
Late in the afternoon, Detective Pike returned.
“Gavin is not under arrest for the financial matter yet.”
Leonard’s eyes hardened.
“He was leaving the country with forged documents.”
“Which investigators are examining. He agreed to postpone travel.”
“Agreed?”
“His attorney advised him.”
Leonard disliked how law worked when emotion wanted immediate punishment.
Pike continued.
“But he talked.”
Nora leaned forward.
“What did he say?”
“He claims Dolores orchestrated the property documents.”
Leonard laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
“And Dolores claims Gavin did.”
“Of course.”
“More importantly, Gavin says the $870,000 was not all for him.”
Leonard stopped.
“Where did it go?”
“Some went through Bellwether Advisory, then out again.”
“To whom?”
Pike placed a list on the table.
Several payments.
Consultants.
A private medical practice.
A notary service.
Franklin.
And a company named Crescent Evaluation Partners.
Nora recognized it.
“They conduct competency assessments.”
Leonard looked up.
Pike nodded.
“Your wife paid them eighty-five thousand dollars.”
“For what?”
“We're obtaining records.”
Leonard remembered the neurological appointments.
The memory tests.
Dolores sitting beside him answering questions he could answer himself.
“What was she building?”
Nora whispered.
“A case.”
Sadie appeared at the conference-room doorway.
Maribel stood behind her.
“Grandpa?”
Leonard immediately covered the documents.
“You should be resting.”
“I heard my name.”
He looked at Maribel.
“She woke up.”
Sadie entered.
“Why would Grandma want people to think you’re sick?”
Leonard hesitated.
“Money.”
Sadie frowned.
“But she already has money.”
Leonard almost smiled at the innocence of the observation.
“Some people stop measuring what they have and only measure what they don’t control.”
Sadie thought about that.
Then said something nobody expected.
“She made me do memory tests too.”
Leonard went still.
“What?”
“At breakfast.”
“When?”
“A lot.”
“What kind?”
“She’d ask me what you said the day before. Where you put things. Whether you forgot names.”
Nora slowly stood.
Sadie continued.
“She told me to write it down.”
“Where?”
“In a notebook.”
“What notebook?”
“Grandma kept it.”
Leonard felt his pulse pounding.
“What did she call it?”
May you like
Sadie answered.
“Grandpa’s mistakes.”
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