Chapter 4 - The Woman Walter Had Failed
Anna Carter lived in a second-floor apartment above a laundromat.
Walter learned that at eleven-fifteen that night.
By eleven-forty, despite the worsening snow, he was sitting in the back of his car with Lily beside him and Maria driving because Walter’s hands were shaking too badly.
Daniel Cho followed in another vehicle.
Lily’s aunt Rachel had protested.
Walter had insisted.
“I owe her mother nine years.”
When they arrived, the apartment windows were dark except for one lamp.
Rachel unlocked the door.
Walter entered slowly.
The apartment was clean but painfully modest.
A secondhand couch.
Children’s drawings taped to the refrigerator.
A space heater rattling near the kitchen.
Prescription bottles lined the counter.
Walter saw a photograph beside the television.
Anna.
She was older than he remembered, but unmistakable.
Beside her stood Lily, missing two front teeth and laughing.
Walter felt ashamed.
Nine years ago, Anna had lived beneath his roof.
She had made Eleanor tea during chemotherapy.
She had sat outside Eleanor’s bedroom on nights when the pain was unbearable.
And when Richard accused her of theft, Walter had dismissed her without allowing her to explain.
“Where is she?” he asked.
Rachel pointed toward the bedroom.
“She came home from urgent care because she couldn’t afford admission.”
Daniel muttered something under his breath.
Walter entered.
Anna lay beneath two blankets, pale and sweating.
Her eyes opened.
For several seconds she stared at him as if he were a ghost.
“Mr. Bennett?”
Walter removed his hat.
“Hello, Anna.”
Fear replaced confusion.
She tried to sit.
“No.”
Walter moved closer.
“Please. Don’t.”
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“I should have been here nine years ago.”
Anna looked toward the doorway.
Lily stood there.
Realization struck.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
“I found the letter,” Lily admitted.
Anna closed her eyes.
Walter sat beside the bed.
“I read Eleanor’s letter.”
Anna turned away.
“I promised her.”
“And you kept that promise.”
“I tried.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
A bitter smile touched Anna’s face.
“I did.”
Walter froze.
“What?”
“The night you fired me.”
His memory returned in fragments.
Anna crying in the study.
Richard beside the fireplace.
The sapphire bracelet on Walter’s desk.
Anna saying, Please, sir, there’s something you need to know.
Walter had been grieving already. Eleanor had died only six weeks earlier.
He had wanted silence.
So he had said the sentence he now wished he could tear out of history.
Get out of my house.
“I tried again afterward,” Anna said.
“I sent letters.”
“I never received them.”
“I called.”
“Richard told me you were demanding money.”
Anna nodded slowly.
“That sounds like him.”
Walter bowed his head.
“I failed you.”
Anna looked surprised.
Powerful men rarely apologized to her.
“I should have listened.”
“You were grieving.”
“That explains my mistake. It doesn’t erase it.”
Anna’s eyes filled.
Walter looked toward Lily.
“Your daughter walked into my birthday party tonight.”
“I’m going to have a very serious conversation with her about traveling across town during a snowstorm.”
“She brought flowers.”
Anna smiled weakly.
“That sounds like Lily.”
“She also brought something I needed more.”
“What?”
“The truth.”
Daniel entered carrying his laptop.
“Walter.”
His expression was grim.
“We have a problem.”
Walter stepped into the living room.
Daniel turned the screen.
Richard had not transferred eighty-six million dollars once.
He had initiated a chain of transfers through holding companies over six years.
The total exposure could exceed one hundred and forty million.
“How?” Walter whispered.
“Some documents appear to have your electronic authorization.”
“Forged?”
“Possibly.”
Anna spoke from the bedroom doorway.
Everyone turned.
She had wrapped herself in a blanket.
“It wasn’t just Richard.”
Walter frowned.
“Who else?”
“Graham Pike.”
Walter recognized the name immediately.
Chief financial officer of Bennett Industrial Systems.
Richard’s closest ally.
Anna continued.
“Mrs. Bennett found invoices from Pike-controlled vendors. Richard approved them. The vendors billed the company for equipment that never existed.”
Daniel looked stunned.
“Do you still have the copies?”
Anna hesitated.
“Yes.”
Richard had searched her room nine years earlier.
That was why he had planted Eleanor’s missing bracelet in her purse.
But Anna had anticipated him.
She had hidden the records somewhere nobody in the Bennett family would look.
“Where?” Walter asked.
Anna smiled faintly.
“Your first factory.”
Walter stared at her.
The original Bennett warehouse had been abandoned for fifteen years.
“In the old locker room,” she explained. “Locker seventeen. Eleanor chose it because seventeen was the number painted on the first machine you ever bought.”
Walter’s chest tightened.
Of course she had.
Even while dying, Eleanor had remembered.
Daniel closed his laptop.
“We need those documents tonight.”
Anna shook her head.
“There’s another problem.”
“What?”
“Richard knows.”
Walter’s blood chilled.
“How?”
Anna looked toward Lily.
“Someone broke into this apartment yesterday.”
Rachel gasped.
“You never told me.”
“They didn’t take money. They searched.”
Walter looked around.
“Then Richard may already be going to the factory.”
Daniel grabbed his phone.
“I’ll call the police.”
Anna caught Walter’s sleeve.
“There’s one more thing.”
Walter looked at her.
“Eleanor didn’t hide only financial records.”
“What else?”
Anna’s eyes moved toward Lily.
The little girl stood near the Christmas cards on the refrigerator.
“There was a second letter.”
“For me?”
Anna shook her head.
“For Richard.”
Walter stared.
“What did it say?”
“I never read it.”
“Why?”
“Because Eleanor sealed it.”
Anna’s voice softened.
“But before she died, she told me something.”
“What?”
“She said if Richard ever became the man she feared he was becoming, the letter might be the only thing left that could bring her son back.”
Walter felt something he had not expected.
Not anger.
Hope.
Small.
Dangerous.
Possibly foolish.
But hope nonetheless.
He looked at Daniel.
“Call the authorities.”
Then he turned toward the window.
Snow swallowed the road.
“And get the car.”
Anna frowned.
“You’re eighty years old.”
Walter picked up his cane.
“Yes.”
Lily appeared beside him.
“Where are you going?”
May you like
Walter looked at the child who had accomplished in three hours what his fortune had failed to do in decades.
“To finish something my wife started.”
