Chapter 3 - The Paper Sienna HidColin read the document three times.
The name at the top was Bellweather Residential Services LLC.
He had never hired them.
The transfers ranged from forty-eight thousand dollars to ninety-seven thousand dollars.
Every payment had been issued from a family-office account used to maintain his properties.
The approval column showed:
C. Mercer — Authorized
Colin looked at Valerie.
“What is Bellweather?”
Valerie’s face hardened.
“I don’t know.”
Sienna made a tiny sound.
Colin looked down.
“What, sweetheart?”
Sienna pressed her lips together.
Valerie answered for her.
“She doesn’t know anything.”
One of the officers lifted a hand.
“Ma’am, let him speak to his daughter.”
Valerie’s eyes flashed.
Sienna looked at Colin.
“I heard her say it.”
“Say what?”
“Bellweather.”
Valerie shook her head.
“This is unbelievable.”
Colin crouched.
“When?”
Sienna glanced toward Valerie and immediately looked away.
Colin noticed.
He shifted so his body blocked Valerie from her view.
“You can tell me.”
Sienna’s voice became a whisper.
“Last week.”
“Where?”
“Your office.”
Colin’s stomach tightened.
Sienna was not allowed inside his office without permission.
Not because there was anything dangerous there, but because he often had confidential business materials on the desk.
“I was looking for my blue tablet,” she said.
“What tablet?”
“The one Mom gave me.”
Colin stopped.
Audrey.
His first wife.
Sienna’s mother had died almost four years earlier after a short illness.
The tablet was old now.
Colin had nearly forgotten it existed.
Sienna had not.
“She gave it to me before she went to the hospital,” Sienna continued. “I use it for drawings.”
“Why was it in my office?”
“I left it in the little room next to yours.”
The sunroom.
Sienna sometimes drew there because Audrey used to sit beside those windows.
“What happened?”
“I heard Valerie.”
Valerie’s voice cut in.
“She is eight years old, Colin. Do you really intend to build a financial conspiracy out of—”
“Stop talking.”
His tone silenced the room.
Sienna swallowed.
“She was with Mr. Elliot.”
Colin straightened slightly.
Elliot Crane.
The controller of Colin’s private family office.
A man Colin had trusted for twelve years.
“What did they say?”
“I don’t know all of it.”
“That’s okay.”
“She said Bellweather. And she said something about the lake house.”
Valerie walked toward the staircase.
One officer stepped sideways.
“Ma’am, please remain here.”
“I’m getting my attorney.”
“You can make a call from here.”
Valerie stared at him.
Then turned back.
Colin barely noticed.
“What did you do after you heard them?” he asked Sienna.
“I went inside.”
“To my office?”
She nodded.
“Mr. Elliot wasn’t there anymore.”
“Valerie was?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Sienna’s eyes filled again.
“She asked why I was listening.”
Colin’s jaw tightened.
“I said I wasn’t.”
Her voice cracked.
“She told me liars lose things.”
“What things?”
“My tablet.”
Valerie said sharply, “Enough.”
The officer closest to her turned.
“Ma’am.”
Sienna continued.
“She took it.”
Colin looked at Valerie.
“Where is it?”
“I have no idea.”
Sienna shook her head.
“She hid it.”
Valerie laughed once.
“Do you understand what you’re doing? You’re interrogating a frightened child until she gives you the answers you want.”
Colin stood.
“No.”
He held up the transfer sheet.
“I’m asking why my daughter found a document showing hundreds of thousands of dollars in transactions I never authorized.”
“It could be anything.”
“In my office?”
“You have staff.”
“With my electronic approval?”
Valerie said nothing.
One of the officers asked Colin if he could photograph the document.
Colin agreed.
Then Mercedes entered the room.
Her face was pale.
“Mr. Colin.”
He turned.
She held her phone.
“I need to tell you something.”
Valerie’s eyes narrowed.
Mercedes glanced at the officers.
“I have more videos.”
Colin felt the room change.
“How many?”
“Not of the treadmill.”
Mercedes swallowed.
“Of Mrs. Valerie going into your office.”
Valerie moved toward her.
“That is a lie.”
Mercedes stepped backward.
The officer intervened.
“Stay where you are.”
Mercedes unlocked her phone.
“I started recording after I noticed strange things.”
“What strange things?” Colin asked.
“Your office door open after midnight. Papers moved. Mrs. Valerie asking me whether Sienna still used her mother’s tablet.”
Colin looked toward Sienna.
She was staring at the floor.
“When did this start?”
“About three weeks ago.”
Mercedes’ eyes shifted to Valerie.
“And twice I saw Mr. Elliot leave through the side entrance after midnight.”
Colin stared at her.
Elliot had told him he had not been inside the mansion in months.
Mercedes selected a clip.
“Look.”
On the screen, the hallway was dark.
The timestamp showed 1:18 a.m.
Valerie appeared.
A few seconds later, Elliot followed her into Colin’s study.
Colin’s breathing slowed.
The video continued.
Before the door closed, Elliot’s voice was faint but audible.
“Find Audrey’s folder.”
Valerie answered.
“If the girl took it, we have a problem.”
Sienna suddenly looked up.
“I didn’t take the folder.”
Everyone turned toward her.
Sienna’s eyes widened.
“I took something else.”
Colin crouched again.
“What?”
May you like
She whispered:
“My tablet was recording.”
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