Chapter 7

By one in the morning, the house had emptied except for staff, board members, and Helena’s security. The gala china sat stacked in the kitchen. The sea room smelled of melted candles and rain. I stood in the ballroom’s side office, listening to a prosecutor’s voicemail.

The assistant district attorney offered me a deal. Plead guilty to a reduced charge of unauthorized transfer. Resign from Kestrel Maritime. Forfeit all claims under the trust. In exchange, no prison time, no trial, no public humiliation beyond what I had already suffered.

“He says the evidence is overwhelming,” I told Voss after I hung up. “My signature. My account. My notary stamp.”

“Because Helena built it that way.”

“If I take the deal, she wins. If I don’t, I could go to prison and she still wins.”

Voss leaned against the desk, arms crossed. “Then we need to make sure she can’t separate the crimes. The forged guarantee, the Black Tern sale, the wire transfer, the charity money-they have to be seen as one scheme.”

“And the foreclosure?”

“A threat. Black Tern is a shell company registered in Delaware. It has no operations, no ships, no history. Helena’s lawyer is using it to pressure you into dropping the trust.”

I thought of Port Blakely at dawn, the cranes rising over the water, the union men who had voted to take a pay cut two years ago because I had asked them to trust me. I thought of Helena cutting their jobs to save herself.

“I’m not taking the plea,” I said.

Voss’s eyes flickered with something like approval. “Then we need the wire records.”

“Margaret Doyle.”

“And someone inside Helena’s circle who can get them before she destroys them.”

My phone buzzed. A text from Vivian. Can we meet alone? The conservatory. Ten minutes.

I stared at the message. Vivian had stood beside Helena at the gala and let her point past me. Vivian had smirked while I was served with a criminal complaint. But Vivian was also the only one of Helena’s daughters who had not joined the parlor attack.

“Do you trust her?” Voss asked.

“No,” I said. “But I’ll listen.”