Chapter 9 - The Christmas Wish Margaret Left Behind
Arthur spent the night staring at Margaret’s photograph. She was smiling on the porch of their first house, holding a string of Christmas lights while Lucy made rabbit ears behind her head. He had loved Margaret. He had also believed her incapable of keeping secrets from him.
Miriam arrived with the foundation’s original charter. Margaret had created North House long before Frederick became involved. Its stated purpose was to help families during emergencies. Its early records showed legitimate placements, reunifications, and grants. The trouble began later, when the board outsourced case management to Leonard Shaw.
“Lucy said Margaret ordered the transfers,” Arthur told Miriam.
“She may have meant a document signed in Margaret’s name,” Miriam said. “Don't turn a fragment of a phone call into a verdict.”
Arthur knew she was right. He hated hearing it.
Ruiz found that Margaret’s signature appeared on transfer authorizations dated two years after her death. They were forged. The documents had been used to conceal who approved the children’s relocation.
“Frederick?” Arthur asked.
“Possibly. We’re tracing access and payments.”
Then a surviving former board member came forward. He remembered Margaret confronting Frederick about suspicious billing shortly before her final hospitalization. She had demanded an outside audit. Frederick told the board she was confused by medication.
Arthur went to the cemetery. Snow covered the granite angel beside Margaret’s grave. He brushed the inscription clean with his glove.
“I believed him,” he said aloud. “About you. About Lucy. About everyone.”
He could not apologize to the dead in a way that repaired the living. He left the cemetery and returned to the people who still needed him.
At the hotel, Rosie was making paper snowflakes with Anna. Arthur asked whether he could join them. Rosie handed him scissors with rounded tips.
“You can make the big ones.”
“I'm better with small things,” he said, thinking of the bird.
“Then make a little one.”
They worked until the table was covered in white scraps. Anna hung the snowflakes in the window. The room looked less temporary.
Rosie asked, “If Lucy comes back, does Anna have to leave?”
“No,” Arthur said. “Not because I say so, and not because someone has money. The adults will work out what is safe and right with you.”
Anna squeezed his hand under the table.
That afternoon Owen arrived carrying an old briefcase. He had found it in Frederick’s office after investigators executed a search warrant and the company permitted him to retrieve his personal effects. Inside was a copy of the North House audit Margaret commissioned, marked DO NOT DISTRIBUTE.
The report showed a pattern of falsified placement fees and missing follow-up records. Its final page identified an outside accountant who had approved the transactions: Martin Vale.
Arthur frowned. “Martin isn't a Vale.”
Owen shook his head. “Martin is the name Frederick used for the shell company. But the accountant's signature belongs to your chief of staff.”
Arthur thought of the call he made outside Bellweather Market: Martin, bring the car.
Martin Ellis had worked for Arthur for twenty-six years. He had coordinated every search for Lucy. He knew Arthur’s schedule, his doctors, his travel, and the people he trusted.
“Where is Martin?” Arthur asked.
Owen looked sick. “He resigned this morning.”
Ruiz issued an alert. Martin’s car was found abandoned near the lake house. On its passenger seat lay a blue-and-gold wooden bird, newly painted.
May you like
A note was tied to its wing.
THE WRONG CHILD WAS FOUND FIRST.
