Chapter 6: What Amber Knew
I called Okafor directly.
"Brandon just left my house," I said.
"I've received a message from an unknown number telling me he's contacted Pruitt and that I need to move faster than I think."
"Can you forward that message to me?"
"Already done."
A brief pause.
"Mr.
Harlan, we were already moving.
But I want you to understand — if Pruitt attempts to destroy or alter any documentation, that becomes obstruction.
It compounds his exposure significantly." Another pause.
"Do you have any reason to believe Brandon would take direct action against Diane Marsh?"
The question sat in the air.
"I don't know," I said honestly.
"I didn't think he was capable of what he's already done."
"I'm going to ask that we have someone reach out to Ms.
Marsh today," Okafor said.
"As a precaution."
"I'll call her myself first."
Diane answered on the second ring.
I told her about Brandon's visit, about the message, about Pruitt.
She was quiet for a moment.
"He called me this morning," she said.
"Before you called.
I didn't answer."
"Did he leave a message?"
"He left three." She paused.
"The last one said that if I had taken anything from his office, I needed to return it quietly and we could forget this happened."
"That's a threat, Diane."
"I know what it is." Her voice was steady.
"I made copies of the copies.
Everything I gave you, I also gave to my own attorney yesterday afternoon."
I sat back in my chair.
"You already have an attorney."
"I've been preparing for this for six weeks," she said.
"I wasn't going to walk into your house with one envelope and nothing else behind me."
For the first time since the birthday dinner, something in my chest loosened slightly.
"Diane," I said.
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet," she said.
"There's something I didn't include in the envelope because I wasn't sure it was relevant.
I'm sure now."
"Tell me."
"About four months ago, Brandon had a meeting at the house.
River Oaks.
I wasn't there, but I handled the calendar.
The meeting was with a man named Stuart Vance.
He's a property developer.
The meeting was listed as a consultation." She paused.
"I found a follow-up email two weeks later.
Brandon had told Vance that the River Oaks property would be available for development within six months.
He quoted a price."
I was very still.
"He had already sold it," I said.
Not a question.
"He had already promised it," Diane said.
"Whether money changed hands, I don't know.
But Vance was told the property would be his."
I thought about the $400,000 Brandon had demanded at the birthday dinner.
The vague investment.
The way he had said *none of your business* when I asked what it was for.
"He needed the four hundred thousand to cover a deposit," I said.
"That would be my guess."
I ended the call and sat with the new shape of it.
Brandon had not simply wanted money.
He had already made a commitment to a developer using a property he did not own, on the strength of a forged document that had not yet been tested.
The birthday dinner had been a deadline, not a request.
I called Gerald.
"Stuart Vance," I said when he answered.
"Property developer.
I need to know if he has any financial agreement with Brandon related to the River Oaks property."
Gerald was quiet for three seconds.
"How certain are you?"
"Certain enough to ask."
"I'll find out today." A pause.
"If there's a development agreement in place, Brandon's exposure just became significantly larger.
Vance may also have legal exposure depending on what he knew."
"Find out what he knew."
I set the phone down.
Through the window, the afternoon light was flat and bright.
I thought about Amber's four-word reply: *Make sure it holds.* She had known about the forgery.
She had known about the plan.
She had sat on my couch the night of the birthday dinner and watched her husband sl\*p me thirty times, and she had not said a word, because the plan was already in motion and she needed it to hold.
Gerald called back in two hours.
"Vance has a signed letter of intent," he said.
"Dated seven months ago.
Brandon signed it as managing director of Redwood Capital Holdings."
"He had no authority to sign anything as managing director."
"No.
He did not." Gerald's voice was careful and precise.
"Vance paid a hundred and fifty thousand dollars as a preliminary deposit against the development agreement."
The room was very quiet.
"Brandon took a hundred and fifty thousand dollars from a developer," I said, "using a title he forged his way into, for a property he never owned."
May you like
"That is correct," Gerald said.
"And Vance is going to want that money back."
