Chapter 12 - What Margaret Knew
The hotel evacuation began at dawn. Shah moved us through a service corridor while agents blocked the elevators. By the time we reached the garage, the dark sedan was gone.
“She is testing the perimeter,” Shah said.
“Celia herself?” I asked.
“People like Celia rarely touch the door. They pay someone else to open it.”
We relocated to a federal safe apartment overlooking the Monongahela. For two days, investigators interviewed us separately. Margaret emerged from her sessions with a stiff back and red-rimmed eyes. I did not ask what she had said until she asked me first.
“Did you tell them about the call?”
“Yes.”
“And about the blood?”
“Yes.”
She nodded. “I told them I found David on the kitchen floor when he came home before the crash. He had been struck in the mouth. He said Victor wanted the ledger.”
“Why did you leave him?”
“He told me to.”
“You believed him?”
“I believed he was afraid.”
She pressed her palms together. “He said Celia had threatened to make me the face of the fraud. He said if I went to the police, the trust would be used against me. Then he drove away.”
“And you never told anyone.”
“I was ashamed.”
The confession explained the blood, but not the crash. Shah believed Victor had pursued David after leaving the house. The brakes had been sabotaged earlier that evening. Celia had planned to scare David into silence, but the chase had turned fatal.
Owen’s attorney offered testimony. In exchange, Owen described the company’s accounts, the payoffs, and the board meeting where Celia ordered the destruction of David’s records.
“He says Celia wanted the final evidence,” Shah told us. “She believes David hid it in the trust.”
“She still thinks it is in my name,” Margaret said.
“Which makes you valuable.”
That night, Margaret and I sat on the apartment roof beneath a weak moon. The river moved below us, black and silent.
“You should go home,” she said.
“I don’t have one.”
“You have an apartment.”
“Someone shot it apart.”
“Then find another.”
I looked at her. “Are you asking me to leave?”
“I’m asking you to consider what happens after this. You were David’s employee. I was his wife. Every time we stand beside each other, people will wonder if this began before he died.”
“Did it?”
She looked away.
“No,” she said. “Not for me.”
The answer should have relieved me. Instead, it left an ache behind my ribs.
“Margaret.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m not asking for anything.”
“That is what makes it dangerous.”
Her voice broke. She turned toward the stairs, but I caught her hand. I released it immediately.
“I’m sorry.”
“So am I.”
She stayed.
We sat without touching. The restraint felt like a promise neither of us was ready to make.
In the morning, Margaret was gone.
On the table, she had left the brass disk and a note.
I need to meet Celia before she finds another way to hurt someone.
Lena called before I could reach Shah.
“James,” she said, breathless. “Margaret’s phone just activated at the old Henderson Meridian headquarters.”
I grabbed my coat.
May you like
“She may be walking into a trap.”
“No,” Lena said. “She may be the trap.”
