Chapter 9 - What Sophie Found First.
Daniel was not allowed closer to Claire, so they spoke from opposite sides of the warehouse floor.
The distance suited her.
"Where is Sophie?" Claire asked.
Daniel looked at Elaine.
"You didn't tell her?"
Elaine stood abruptly.
"I don't know where she is."
Daniel gave a bitter laugh.
"That's convenient."
Claire stepped forward.
"Answer me."
Daniel looked back at her.
"Sophie came here three weeks ago."
Claire felt Rachel move closer beside her.
"Why?"
"She was following Dad."
Elaine whispered, "Sophie was following Martin?"
"She thought he was hiding money."
Daniel nodded toward the archive.
"She found the loose brick."
Claire's mind raced.
"Did she take anything?"
"She copied some files."
"And the recorder?"
"She listened to part of it."
Claire's throat tightened.
"What was on it?"
Daniel looked at the officers.
"I only heard one clip."
"What did it say?"
Daniel's eyes met Claire's.
"Your mother arguing with my father."
Claire did not move.
"About what?"
"The Vale deals."
Thomas Vale again.
Daniel continued.
"Your mother said the appraisals were manipulated."
"And Martin?"
"He told her she was destroying the partnership over numbers she didn't understand."
Claire almost laughed at the cruelty of the sentence.
Nora Bell had understood numbers better than anyone Martin had ever employed.
"How did you hear it?"
Daniel looked down.
"Sophie played it for me."
"Why would she trust you?"
His answer came quietly.
"Because she thought I would help."
Claire stared at him.
"And did you?"
Daniel's silence answered first.
"I told Dad."
Elaine made a sound of disbelief.
Claire felt surprisingly calm.
"Of course you did."
Daniel shook his head.
"I thought he would explain it."
"You keep saying that."
"What?"
"You thought he would calm down."
"You thought he would explain."
"You thought you could manage him."
Claire's voice hardened.
"Every terrible thing you do becomes something you thought would end differently."
Daniel looked as though he wanted to defend himself.
He did not.
"Sophie was furious with me," he said.
"She should have been."
"She said she had made copies and put them somewhere Dad couldn't find."
Rachel asked, "Where?"
"She never told me."
Claire looked at the disposable phone the officers had recovered.
"Did Sophie put that here?"
Daniel shook his head.
"I don't know."
"How did you know we were here?"
"Mom's car tracker."
Elaine stared at him.
"What?"
"Dad put trackers on the family cars after Sophie started disappearing for hours."
Elaine's face turned white.
Claire looked at her mother-in-law.
The woman had spent years calling Martin controlling while still acting surprised by the methods of control.
"Is that how Martin knew too?" Claire asked.
Daniel shook his head.
"Dad isn't with me."
"Where is he?"
"I don't know."
"You expect me to believe that?"
Daniel looked at her with a strange expression.
"Claire, Dad thinks I betrayed him."
"Did you?"
"This morning, yes."
He reached slowly into his coat.
An officer immediately told him to stop.
Daniel froze.
"It's a flash drive."
The officer retrieved it from his pocket.
Daniel looked at Claire.
"I copied Northline's account records before he locked me out."
Claire stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because I finally understood that paying my debt wasn't why he created Northline."
Rachel asked, "Then why did he create it?"
Daniel looked toward Elaine.
"To move money out before the property sale."
Elaine sat down again.
Daniel continued.
"The consulting payments were small compared with what was planned."
"How much?" Claire asked.
"Thirty-eight million."
No one spoke.
The number seemed too large for the dirty little secret Claire thought she had uncovered.
"Where was it going?"
"Harcourt buys the buildings below market value."
"Then refinances them."
"Northline gets a private participation payment."
Rachel's expression hardened.
"A kickback."
Daniel nodded.
Claire looked at him.
"And your share?"
His eyes dropped.
"Three million."
The truth landed harder than another excuse would have.
Daniel had been bought.
Not metaphorically.
There was a number.
Claire removed her wedding ring.
She placed it in the pocket of her coat.
Daniel watched.
"Claire."
"Don't."
"I came here to give you the records."
"After you spent weeks helping him take my vote."
"I know."
"After you helped him at that table."
"I know."
"You don't get credit for arriving late to your own conscience."
Daniel looked away.
Rachel quietly said, "That's the first useful thing anyone has said today."
Claire's phone vibrated.
Another message from Sophie appeared.
This one contained a photo.
It showed Daniel and Martin inside Apartment 18C two nights earlier.
A document was spread across the desk between them.
Daniel was pointing at Claire's signature.
Under the photo, Sophie had written one sentence.
May you like
HE DIDN'T JUST KNOW ABOUT THE PROXY.
HE PRACTICED SIGNING YOUR NAME.
