Chapter 5 - A Mother's Signature.
Margaret denied everything before Ethan finished placing the burned transfer on her desk.
"That is not my signature."
Her voice was calm, but her hands shook against the polished wood.
"You witnessed a transfer of twelve million dollars from the Conservancy to a Sinclair shell company," Ethan said.
"I witnessed dozens of documents during the restructuring."
"Three days after Caroline died?"
Margaret looked toward Lily, who stood beside Daniel near the door.
"The child should not hear this."
"The child has heard enough lies."
Lily took the braided headband from her hair.
"Mommy said Grandma always chose the company."
Margaret's face collapsed for a fraction of a second.
Then the old hardness returned.
"Your mother did not understand what was at stake."
Ethan felt the room tilt beneath him.
"You told me she had no evidence."
"She had suspicions."
"She wrote Vivienne's name."
"Caroline wrote many things when she was frightened."
Daniel placed his phone on the desk.
"I checked the filing history."
He displayed the corporate record.
"Grant submitted the transfer, but Vivienne's brother Marcus received the money."
Margaret closed her eyes.
"We were six days from default."
"So you stole from the protected land fund."
"I borrowed money to save this family."
"And Caroline discovered it."
Margaret did not answer.
Lily's voice trembled.
"Did you hurt my mommy?"
"No."
The answer came fast and fierce.
"I swear to you, Lily, I did not."
A crash sounded in the hallway.
Daniel opened the door and found a stone lying among broken glass.
A note had been tied around it with black ribbon.
Return what Caroline stole, or the next window will not be empty.
Ethan searched the grounds while Daniel called the police.
The blue sedan was gone.
Tire tracks crossed the service road behind the greenhouse.
Detective Nora Hayes arrived twenty minutes later and read Caroline's note without changing expression.
She had investigated the crash and remembered Lily's claim about a woman near the road.
"Why wasn't that included in the final report?" Ethan asked.
Hayes looked at Margaret.
"Your family attorney delivered a psychologist's letter calling Lily's memory unreliable."
"Grant," Ethan said.
"The letter was signed by a doctor who died six months before the accident."
Margaret covered her mouth.
Hayes opened her case file.
Before showing the transcript, she photographed Caroline's note beneath ultraviolet light.
The paper came from a hotel notepad used at Sinclair Capital's private retreat.
Caroline had attended a board dinner there the week before her death.
The black warning was newer, but the ash contained cedar resin found only in the north greenhouse furnace.
Someone had burned documents there within the previous forty-eight hours.
The threat through the window had not been meant to scare them away.
It was meant to make them search too late.
"Caroline called me the afternoon before she died."
"You never told me that."
"The recording vanished from evidence."
Ethan laughed once without humor.
"Does anything in this town stay where it belongs?"
Hayes handed him a transcript she had kept at home.
Caroline had reported a blue sedan following her.
She also said she had hidden an original ledger where no Sinclair would look.
The recording ended with four words.
Ask Lily about Eden.
Ethan turned toward his niece.
Her face had gone pale.
May you like
"Eden is not a place," Lily whispered.
"Eden is my father."
