Chapter 4 - The Name Under Northstar

Victor Hartwell arrived at Hawthorne House the next morning carrying a cane he did not need and outrage he had not earned.

He was seventy-two, silver-haired, immaculate, and still capable of making a room feel like a board meeting simply by entering it.

Daniel met him in the library.

“You called the police before you called me?” Victor demanded.

“I found Evelyn bound inside a hidden room.”

“And that concerns the family.”

“It concerns the police.”

Victor’s mouth thinned.

“You have always had Mara’s instinct for drama.”

Daniel stared at him.

“Don’t say her name like you admired her.”

Victor stopped.

“What has happened to you?”

“Four years late, I started asking questions.”

Victor leaned on the cane.

“About what?”

“Northstar Advisory.”

For one second, nothing changed.

Then Victor’s left thumb rubbed the head of his cane.

Daniel remembered Mara saying that when Victor lied, he touched something expensive.

A watch.

A cuff link.

A pen.

Now the cane.

“I don’t know the name,” Victor said.

Daniel turned his laptop around and played the recording.

Victor listened to his own voice say, Mara, I think you and I should have a conversation.

When the file ended, he sat down.

“Where did you get that?”

“Mara left it.”

“Where?”

“You first.”

Victor studied him.

“Daniel, there are things your father did to keep the foundation alive that you never wanted to know.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

“Northstar was a consulting vehicle.”

“For what?”

“Political access. Negotiations. Sensitive work.”

“Money laundering?”

Victor’s eyes flashed.

“Be careful.”

“I’m done being careful with people who hid things from my wife.”

Victor stood.

“She was reckless.”

“She was right.”

“She was digging through accounts she did not understand.”

“Then explain them.”

Victor walked to the window.

“Your father established Northstar twenty years ago to handle private settlements. Labor disputes. Property problems. Situations where public litigation would have cost the foundation more than quiet resolution.”

“Why were millions moving through it after he died?”

Victor turned.

“What millions?”

Daniel watched him.

“You really don’t know.”

Victor’s expression changed.

Not guilt.

Alarm.

Daniel opened Mara’s Northstar folder.

A spreadsheet listed seventeen transfers over six years. The total exceeded eight million dollars.

Victor leaned over the screen.

“These numbers are wrong.”

“Mara pulled them from foundation statements.”

“No. Northstar was closed after your father died.”

“It wasn’t.”

Victor took out his glasses and read more closely.

His face lost color.

“Who authorized these?”

“According to the records, me.”

“You were never a signatory on Northstar.”

Daniel stared at him.

“What?”

“The account required two signatures. Mine and the foundation’s general counsel.”

“Aaron?”

“No. Before Aaron. Robert Blake.”

Daniel’s mind snagged on the name.

Aaron’s father.

Robert Blake had been the Hartwell family attorney for thirty-five years. He died of a stroke three months before Mara’s accident.

Victor continued.

“When Robert died, Northstar should have been dissolved.”

“Should have been?”

“I signed the closure papers.”

“Who handled them?”

Victor sat slowly.

“Aaron.”

Daniel’s stomach tightened.

The pieces were beginning to form a pattern, but Mara’s letter echoed in his head.

Do not trust a confession without proof.

“What happened when you came into the room in Mara’s recording?” Daniel asked.

Victor looked away.

“She accused me of stealing.”

“Were you?”

“No.”

“You’ve hidden Northstar for twenty years.”

“That is not the same thing.”

“To the rest of us, it looks very similar.”

Victor breathed through his nose.

“I told her what I just told you. She didn’t believe me.”

“And Vanessa?”

“She left.”

“Why was she there?”

“I don’t know.”

“You walked into a conversation where Mara was confronting Vanessa about foundation fraud.”

“I did not hear the beginning.”

“What happened after?”

“Mara asked for Robert Blake’s files. I told her they were privileged.”

“Then?”

“We argued.”

“Then?”

Victor’s hand tightened on his cane.

“She said if I wouldn’t help her, she would go to the police.”

Daniel leaned forward.

“And?”

“I told her she would destroy the foundation.”

“Did you threaten her?”

Victor met his eyes.

“I told her to think about Lily.”

Daniel rose.

“That is a threat.”

“It was a warning about scandal.”

“She died two weeks later.”

Victor’s face hardened.

“I did not kill Mara.”

“Did you follow her that night?”

“No.”

“Did you know where she was going?”

“No.”

“Did you know she had evidence?”

“Yes.”

“Did you tell Aaron?”

Victor hesitated.

That was enough.

Daniel stepped back as if struck.

“You told him.”

“He was your lawyer.”

“He was Mara’s lawyer too.”

“I believed he could calm her down.”

“Did he?”

Victor said nothing.

Daniel’s phone buzzed.

Ortiz.

He answered.

“We found Marcus Cole’s car,” she said.

“Where?”

“Abandoned near the old quarry.”

“The ledger?”

“Not in the car.”

“Marcus?”

“Gone.”

Daniel looked at Victor.

“Anything else?”

“Yes. We found blood in the trunk.”

Daniel’s mouth went dry.

“Whose?”

“Testing will take time. But there was enough to concern us.”

“Vanessa is still in custody.”

“She was released this morning pending charges.”

Daniel turned sharply.

“What?”

“Her attorney produced text messages supporting her claim that someone threatened her. The prosecutor wasn’t comfortable holding her on the evidence we had overnight.”

“Where is she?”

“We don’t know.”

Daniel swore.

Ortiz ignored it.

“Did Victor Hartwell contact you?”

“He’s standing in front of me.”

Victor raised an eyebrow.

Ortiz’s voice became clipped.

“Do not let him leave.”

Daniel covered the phone.

“Sit down.”

Victor laughed.

“Excuse me?”

“Police want to speak with you.”

Victor’s expression went flat.

“About what?”

Daniel uncovered the phone.

“Why?”

Ortiz said, “Because Marcus Cole made six calls yesterday. Five were to prepaid numbers. One was to Victor Hartwell’s private office.”

Daniel looked at his uncle.

Victor stopped touching the cane.

“Detective says Marcus called you yesterday.”

Victor said nothing.

“When?” Daniel asked into the phone.

“Six-oh-eight p.m.”

Daniel repeated it.

Victor slowly removed his glasses.

“He asked for money.”

Daniel felt anger rise.

“You told me you didn’t know about the theft.”

“I didn’t.”

“What did he want money for?”

“He said he had something that belonged to Mara.”

“The ledger.”

“I didn’t know what it was.”

“Did you agree to pay him?”

Victor looked older suddenly.

“Yes.”

Daniel nearly threw the phone.

“Why?”

“Because I thought it might contain information about Northstar.”

“It does.”

“I know that now.”

Ortiz said, “Ask him where they were supposed to meet.”

Daniel did.

Victor’s answer came reluctantly.

“The Starlight Motor Lodge on Route Nine. Room twelve. Noon.”

Daniel looked at the clock.

Eleven twenty-six.

Ortiz swore softly.

“Keep him there. I’m sending officers to the motel.”

She disconnected.

Victor sat heavily.

Daniel paced.

“You were going to buy my dead wife’s evidence from Vanessa’s brother and say nothing to me.”

“I intended to protect the foundation.”

“You keep saying that like the foundation is a child.”

“It employs three hundred people.”

“So did companies run by criminals.”

Victor flinched.

Daniel stopped walking.

“Did you know about the hidden room?”

“Yes.”

There it was.

Another lie collapsing.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Your grandfather built it during the Cold War. Your father used it as a document vault. After Mara died, Aaron suggested sealing it during renovation.”

Daniel stared.

“Aaron suggested it.”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“About a month after the funeral.”

“Why?”

“He said the room was a liability. Mold, old wiring, no proper ventilation.”

“And you agreed?”

“I did not own the house.”

“But you knew.”

Victor looked ashamed for the first time.

“I knew.”

Daniel sat across from him.

“What else?”

Victor did not answer.

“What else did you let Aaron handle?”

“Most legal matters after Robert died.”

“Including Mara’s estate?”

“Yes.”

“Her personal effects?”

“Yes.”

“The insurance?”

“Yes.”

“The police liaison?”

“Yes.”

Each answer tightened the same knot.

Daniel opened the folder labeled SIGNATURES on Mara’s drive.

There were scanned examples of his signature, Victor’s signature, Robert Blake’s signature, and Aaron’s.

One subfolder was called OVERLAYS.

Mara had layered signatures from different documents to show where exact duplicates appeared.

Daniel clicked through them.

His signature had been copied onto transfer authorizations.

Victor’s had too.

Then he saw Robert Blake’s.

Used four months after Robert’s death.

Daniel whispered, “That’s impossible.”

Victor leaned in.

“What?”

Daniel showed him.

The dead attorney’s signature authorized a transfer of six hundred thousand dollars from Northstar.

The receiving company was called Calder Strategic Services.

Daniel searched Mara’s notes.

A handwritten annotation had been scanned beside the transaction.

C.S.S. registered agent: A. Blake?

Question mark.

Below that:

Check old Cambridge address.

Daniel looked up.

“Aaron owned an apartment in Cambridge after law school.”

Victor frowned.

“So?”

Daniel pulled up the corporate registration document.

Calder Strategic Services had been formed using a mailing address on Brattle Street in Cambridge.

He recognized it.

He had helped Aaron move into that apartment sixteen years earlier.

Victor went pale.

“No.”

Daniel’s phone rang again.

Ortiz.

He answered.

Her voice was urgent.

“We’re at the Starlight.”

“Is Marcus there?”

“No.”

“The ledger?”

“No.”

“What did you find?”

“A room registered under a false name. Door was open. Signs of a struggle.”

Daniel looked at Victor.

“And?”

“Vanessa Cole is here.”

“Alive?”

“Yes. Barely conscious.”

Daniel stood.

“She says Marcus didn’t take the ledger for himself.”

“Who did he take it for?”

May you like

[COMPLETED] She waited ten years for her fiancé, but the night she marri...

[COMPLETED] Five Years After My Mafia Husband Chose Another Woman, He Me...

[COMPLETED] I CALLED MY HUSBAND 18 TIMES WHILE OUR SON WAS DYING. EIGHT...

Ortiz paused.

Then she said, “Aaron Blake.”