Chapter 4 - Lillian’s WarningThe cassette could not be played immediately.
Detective Brooks had it copied professionally to preserve the original.
Darius hated waiting.
By afternoon, the digital recording was ready.
Simone returned.
Malik stayed upstairs with Darius’s longtime friend and attorney, Evelyn Price.
Darius, Simone, Brooks, and Evelyn sat around the dining table.
Brooks pressed play.
Static.
Then Lillian Bennett’s voice.
Darius closed his eyes.
He had forgotten exactly how she sounded.
Warm.
Precise.
A little breathless when angry.
“If Darius or Simone is hearing this,” Lillian began, “then I failed to resolve something privately.”
Simone gripped the table.
Lillian continued.
“Everett has been moving money out of the Ashford Trust.”
Evelyn looked sharply at Darius.
The Ashford Trust had been created by Lillian’s father.
It held investments, land, and securities inherited from her family.
Darius knew it existed.
He believed it had been dissolved after Lillian’s death.
The recording continued.
“I discovered three transfers totaling one million eight hundred thousand dollars.”
Darius stared at Brooks.
Lillian named two shell companies.
Neither was familiar.
Then she said:
“Estelle Ward knows.”
Simone inhaled sharply.
“Estelle saw Everett remove records from my desk. She came to me voluntarily. She told me she had seen him meet with someone from the bank.”
Darius looked at his sister.
This did not sound like the Estelle they knew now.
On the tape, Lillian continued.
“At this moment, I believe Estelle is helping me.”
Darius leaned back.
Simone whispered, “At this moment.”
Exactly.
Lillian sounded careful.
“If anything happens to me before I can correct the trust records, do not assume Everett will tell you everything.”
Darius felt something twist inside him.
His parents’ marriage had always seemed stable.
Not affectionate in later years.
But stable.
Lillian continued.
“I am placing copies of the original trust schedules with Darius’s suitcase because Everett believes I sent it away.”
Then the recording changed.
Lillian’s voice became quieter.
“And there is something else.”
Static scratched across the audio.
“Estelle has asked me for money.”
Everyone became still.
“She says helping me places her employment at risk. I offered reasonable severance if she wished to leave. She asked for one hundred thousand dollars.”
Simone looked at Darius.
The tape continued.
“I refused.”
A long pause.
“Yesterday she told me that if I could not protect her, Everett could.”
Darius’s stomach tightened.
Lillian ended the first recording with a warning.
“I no longer know which of them is more dangerous to trust.”
The room stayed silent after the audio stopped.
Darius spoke first.
“How much was in the Ashford Trust?”
Evelyn answered.
“Originally?”
“Yes.”
“Adjusted for the period? Approximately eleven million.”
Darius stared.
“What happened to it?”
“That’s what we need to determine.”
Simone stood and walked toward the window.
“You told me Mom was paranoid.”
Darius looked at her.
“When?”
“After she died.”
“I never said that.”
“You said she had been under stress. That she was imagining things about Dad.”
“That’s what he told me.”
“And you believed him.”
“I was twenty-four.”
“So was I.”
Darius rose.
“You knew something.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
Simone turned.
“Mom came to me two weeks before she died.”
Darius stopped.
“She told me never to let Dad destroy the suitcase.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because the day after the funeral, Estelle told me the suitcase had been burned.”
Darius stared.
“She lied.”
“Yes.”
“Why would you believe her?”
Simone laughed bitterly.
“For the same reason you trusted her for twelve more years.”
The accusation was deserved.
Detective Brooks examined the envelope.
“Your mother said three transfers totaled $1.8 million. If those records are here, we can trace them.”
Darius nodded.
Then Evelyn opened one of the original trust schedules.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
She pointed to a handwritten notation.
The Ashford Trust had not been dissolved after Lillian’s death.
At least not legally.
It had been amended.
The amendment transferred significant control to Everett.
But the signature at the bottom was supposedly Lillian’s.
Darius stared.
Simone whispered, “Mom would never have signed that.”
Evelyn looked closer.
May you like
“I’m not sure she did.”
Because the witness signature belonged to Estelle Ward.
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