Chapter 6 - Camille’s VersionCamille requested a meeting two days later.
Through her attorney.
Claire almost refused.
Maya convinced her.
“You don’t have to forgive her to hear what she knows.”
“I don’t want Sophie anywhere near this.”
“She won’t be.”
Claire agreed.
The meeting happened at a federal interview facility.
Camille entered without the polished confidence she wore on the plane.
Hair tied back.
No makeup.
Still controlled.
Claire sat across from her.
Camille’s attorney began.
“My client is prepared to cooperate.”
Claire looked at Camille.
“Why?”
Camille answered herself.
“Lorraine stopped paying my lawyer.”
Claire almost laughed.
“So loyalty ended at the invoice.”
Camille flinched.
“I’m not asking you to like me.”
“Good.”
Camille looked down.
“I was supposed to retrieve the envelope.”
“And record Sophie.”
“Yes.”
“Anything else?”
“No.”
Claire leaned forward.
“What was the cloth?”
Camille’s attorney immediately intervened.
“We’re not discussing technical details.”
Claire didn’t need them.
“Did you intend to hurt her?”
Camille’s face tightened.
“No.”
“You pressed something against a terrified child until she went limp.”
“I know.”
“Did you expect that?”
“I expected her to become easier to manage.”
Claire’s hands tightened under the table.
Camille saw.
“I’m not defending it.”
“Good.”
“I panicked.”
“You planned a forged travel authorization.”
“Lorraine gave me that.”
“You changed our seats.”
“Yes.”
“You watched Sophie’s mother get moved away from her.”
“Yes.”
“You still sat down.”
“Yes.”
Claire’s voice dropped.
“And when Sophie fought you?”
Camille looked away.
“I chose the job.”
There.
No excuse.
Claire respected the sentence more than apology.
“Why six hundred thousand?”
Camille swallowed.
“I helped structure the NorthBridge file.”
“You’re an executive assistant.”
“I was a paralegal before Lorraine hired me.”
That explained more.
“Did you forge Arthur’s signature?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wrong answer.”
Camille looked at her attorney.
Then back at Claire.
“I know who arranged the document.”
“Who?”
“Lorraine.”
Claire felt no surprise.
Camille continued.
“She gave me a signed copy of an old Arthur memo.”
“A signature sample.”
“Yes.”
“Like Daniel gave her mine.”
Camille looked confused.
Claire waved it off.
“Keep going.”
“Lorraine had the amendment prepared by a document service outside the company.”
“Name?”
“I gave investigators everything.”
“Did you know it was false?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Before I copied it into the board file.”
“Why do it?”
Camille’s answer came quietly.
“Money.”
Not family.
Not fear.
Money.
“I had debt.”
“What kind?”
“Student loans. Credit cards. Nothing dramatic.”
Claire stared.
“So this wasn’t desperation.”
“No.”
“Good salary wasn’t enough?”
Camille’s face flushed.
“No.”
“You wanted more.”
“Yes.”
The honesty was brutal.
Then Claire asked:
“Why did Arthur know about you?”
Camille looked surprised.
“He confronted me.”
“When?”
“About six months before he died.”
“What did he say?”
“That Lorraine would burn anyone she could replace.”
Camille almost smiled sadly.
“I thought he was being theatrical.”
“Was he?”
“No.”
Arthur offered Camille a choice.
Tell the board what she had copied.
Keep her job long enough to cooperate.
He would protect her from immediate termination.
Camille refused.
Why?
Lorraine had already promised the $600,000 closing payment.
Arthur’s protection was ethical.
Lorraine’s offer was profitable.
Camille chose profitable.
Then Arthur told her:
“One day she’ll ask you to do something you can’t file away as paperwork.”
Claire went still.
Camille’s eyes filled.
“On the plane, I remembered that.”
“And still did it.”
“Yes.”
Claire hated her.
But she believed her.
“What was the second assignment exactly?”
Camille explained.
Once Sophie was calm, she was supposed to tell her Claire was trying to keep her from Daniel.
Ask whether she wanted more time with her father.
Record answers.
Not an outright scripted confession.
Something ambiguous enough Lorraine’s attorneys could later characterize as Sophie expressing fear of Claire’s restrictions.
“Did you think that would work?”
Camille looked ashamed.
“Not by itself.”
“Then why?”
“Because Lorraine never builds one lie.”
Claire stared.
“What does that mean?”
Camille leaned forward.
“She builds five small things that point in the same direction.”
The forged travel authorization.
Statements from former employees.
Claire’s work calendar.
Sophie’s recorded words.
Maybe more.
Claire felt cold.
“What else?”
Camille hesitated.
“Lorraine has been paying someone close to you.”
Claire’s pulse changed.
“Who?”
“I don’t know the name.”
“You just said—”
“I know the function.”
“What function?”
“Someone who tells her when you meet with Maya.”
Claire stared.
“My attorney?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
Camille continued.
“They knew when you planned to review Arthur’s trust documents.”
Claire felt a new kind of fear.
Not airplane fear.
Home fear.
Someone in Claire’s ordinary life had been feeding Lorraine information.
Camille’s attorney shifted.
“We should stop.”
Claire ignored him.
“What did Lorraine call this person?”
Camille answered:
“The Neighbor.”
Claire’s skin went cold.
Only one person in Lorraine’s messages needed no real name.
May you like
Someone close enough to watch Claire without looking suspicious.
And Camille had just revealed that the airplane plan began long before anyone found a blue envelope.
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