CHAPTER 4: THE CHAMPAGNE THEY BROUGHT TO A CRIME SCENE
Diane Cole did not look at the belt.
She looked at the champagne in Victor’s hand, then at Ethan, then at me. Her eyes moved quickly, not with fear, but with the efficiency of a woman inventorying damage.
“This is embarrassing,” she said.
Mara blinked once.
“That is one word for it.”
Diane turned to me with a soft smile that had probably worked on teachers, neighbors, and every woman Ethan had ever doubted.
“Nora, sweetheart, newlyweds have arguments. These things can look terrible out of context.”
I looked at Diane.
“You instructed him to frighten me into signing over my property.”
She laughed gently.
“My dear, I said no such thing.”
Grant touched the tablet.
Diane’s voice played again.
Once she understands consequences, have her sign the property authorization.
Victor’s face hardened.
“Turn that off.”
Mara looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because you have no right to record private family matters.”
Private.
That word had done so much work for men like him.
Mara nodded to Grant.
“Show me the authorization.”
Grant opened the file.
The sale agreement listed my training center, the adjoining parking lot, and the old warehouse behind it. The buyer was Kingston Urban Development.
Victor Cole’s real estate firm represented the transaction.
My signature sat on page eight.
Nora Reyes Cole.
I stared at it.
It was close.
Too close.
Victor cleared his throat.
“My office receives drafts every day. That document has not closed.”
“It has a deposit,” Mara said.
“Refundable.”
“Based on an allegedly authorized sale by an owner who says she did not authorize it.”
He smiled.
“You’re a prosecutor, Ms. Singh, not a real estate attorney.”
Mara smiled back.
“I’m both.”
That was the first time Victor looked uncomfortable.
The older officer asked Ethan to sit. Ethan refused until Mara said his next step would determine whether this stayed orderly. He sat.
Diane moved toward him.
The officer blocked her.
“My son is injured.”
“No, Diane,” I said. “He is inconvenienced.”
Her head snapped toward me.
Then Leah spoke.
“She told me to call it a misunderstanding too.”
Diane turned slowly.
Leah’s voice shook but held.
“After Ethan hurt me, you came to my apartment. You said if I pressed charges, Victor would make sure my landlord found out I had unpaid medical debt. You said nobody likes dramatic girls.”
Camille added, “She used the same phrase with me.”
Diane’s mouth tightened.
“Both of you received money.”
Camille lifted her chin.
“Settlement money after threats.”
Mara wrote something down.
Victor set the champagne bottle on the console table.
“Enough. We came because Ethan said his wife was acting irrational. Clearly, that was accurate.”
I looked at the room.
My phone.
The cameras.
The belt.
The forged document.
“Irrational,” I repeated.
Ethan leaned forward.
“Nora, please. Tell them this was role-play.”
For a moment, silence held us all.
He wanted me to erase myself to save him.
That was the marriage he had planned.
I looked at Mara.
“No.”
Mara nodded.
The officers moved.
Ethan stood too fast.
“Wait. Wait. This is insane.”
The younger officer took his arm.
Diane shouted, “He did nothing!”
Mara’s eyes never left Victor.
“Your son is being detained pending charges. Financial crimes will handle the documents.”
Victor smiled thinly.
“You are making a career mistake.”
Grant turned the tablet around one final time.
“There is one more problem with the authorization.”
Victor’s smile faded.
“What problem?”
“The notary stamp belongs to a woman named Helen Price.”
Diane stopped moving.
Grant continued.
“She died eleven months ago.”
Mara looked at Victor.
“So now I have a question.”
May you like
She pointed to the forged signature.
“Who notarized a dead woman’s stamp?”
