Chapter 5: Forty-Eight Hours
I called the only lawyer I had ever trusted.
Her name was Grace Ellison.
We had gone to the same church for twelve years before she moved her practice across the city.
She had handled my divorce.
She had been thorough, quiet, and completely without sentiment about David.
She picked up on the second ring.
"Sandra.
It's early."
"I know.
I need to see you today."
A pause.
"How bad?"
"I don't know yet.
Possibly very."
"Ten o'clock," she said.
"Bring everything."
I forwarded her the messages before I got dressed.
Michael met me at Grace's office with a manila folder and two cups of coffee.
He looked like he hadn't slept either.
He set the folder on Grace's desk without being asked.
Grace read through it without speaking.
She turned pages slowly.
She stopped twice and went back.
"When did you first become aware of Robert Calloway's involvement?" she asked.
"Last night," I said.
"And before that?"
"He was David's business partner.
I knew him socially.
Nothing more."
Grace looked at Michael.
"These phone records.
How were they obtained?"
"My great-aunt kept her own phone bills," Michael said.
"Paper copies.
She never threw anything away.
The calls from Chloe's number to Robert's number are on her bills because Chloe used her phone.
Aunt Patricia didn't understand what she had until I explained it."
"Patricia is willing to provide these?"
"She already signed a statement," Michael said.
He pulled a single page from the back of the folder.
"Last week.
Before the graduation."
Grace looked at me.
"Your son planned this carefully."
"He did," I said.
"Good." She closed the folder.
"Now.
The anonymous messages.
Do you have any instinct about who sent them?"
I had been thinking about nothing else since 6 a.m.
"Someone inside Robert's circle," I said.
"Someone who knows what he's about to do and doesn't want him to get away with it."
"Or someone who wants to use you to stop him," Grace said.
"Those are not the same thing.
We proceed carefully either way."
She picked up her own phone and made a call I wasn't expecting.
"Daniel.
It's Grace.
I need a financial forensics contact today, not next week." She listened.
"Yes.
That urgent." She hung up.
"The property developments Michael mentioned," she said.
"If Robert was siphoning from those accounts while David was distracted, there may be a paper trail that implicates David as well.
Knowingly or not."
The room went quiet.
"David," I said slowly, "may not have known."
"Or he may have known everything," Grace said.
"We don't assume either way.
We find the documents."
My phone buzzed on the desk between us.
The unknown number.
*He moved the first transfer this morning.
Check the Meridian account.
D knows.*
Grace and I looked at each other across the desk.
"D knows," Michael said quietly.
"That's Dad."
I picked up the phone.
I typed one word back to the unknown number for the first time.
*Who are you?*
Three dots appeared.
Then stopped.
Then appeared again.
The reply came twelve seconds later.
*Someone he hurt before you.
May you like
My name is Rachel.
I was his accountant.*
