Chapter 6: What Daniel Knew
He was waiting outside my mother's house at eight the next morning.
I saw him through the kitchen window before he knocked — standing at the gate in a dark jacket, hands in his pockets, looking at the pavement.
He looked like a man who had not slept either.
My mother saw him too.
She set down her tea.
"Do you want me to send him away?"
"No," I said.
"I'll hear what he has to say."
I went to the door.
He looked up when it opened.
"Thank you for seeing me," he said.
"Come in."
He sat at the kitchen table.
My mother made a fresh pot of tea and placed a cup in front of him without asking, then sat at the far end of the table with her own.
She was not leaving.
He didn't ask her to.
Daniel wrapped both hands around the cup and looked at it.
"I knew about the transfers," he said.
"Not all of them.
Not the amount.
But I knew something was wrong with Eleanor's account about eight months ago."
I looked at him.
"Eight months."
"Yes."
"And you said nothing."
He looked up.
"I confronted Maverick.
In private.
He told me it was a short-term loan — that he'd had a business problem, that Eleanor had agreed to it verbally, that it would be repaid within ninety days." He paused.
"He was very convincing."
"He usually is," I said.
"I asked him twice more after that.
Both times he said it was almost resolved.
The third time I asked, he told me I was being paranoid and that I was going to damage the family over a misunderstanding." Daniel set down the cup.
"And I let it go.
That's what I need to tell you.
I let it go, and I should not have."
My mother looked at him steadily over her tea.
"Why are you telling Amy this?" she asked.
"Why not go directly to Eleanor?"
"I'm going to Eleanor today," he said.
"I'm telling Amy first because—" He stopped.
He started again.
"Because Maverick called me last night.
After you left the inn."
I went still.
"What did he say?"
Daniel reached into his jacket and placed his phone on the table, screen up.
He had already found the message.
He turned it toward me.
I read it.
*She's going to the bank tomorrow.
Once she does that it's official and there's no walking it back.
I need you to talk to her tonight.
Tell her Eleanor agreed to the transfers.
Tell her you were there when Eleanor signed.
Dad will back it up if you ask him.
This stays in the family or it destroys everything.
You owe me this.*
I read it twice.
My mother leaned forward and read it without touching the phone.
The kitchen was very quiet.
"He asked you to lie," I said.
"Yes."
"Did your father agree to it?"
Daniel's jaw tightened.
"I called my father at midnight.
He said—" He paused.
"He said he needed to think about it."
I sat back in my chair.
Gerald Bennett.
The man who had stood at the window and said *get a lawyer, Maverick* with such finality.
The man whose expression I had read as the closing of a door.
Still thinking about it.
"I'm not going to lie," Daniel said.
"I want to be clear about that.
I'm not here to protect Maverick.
I'm here because you deserve to know what he asked, and because if my father does decide to back his story, you need to be prepared."
"Why does it matter to you?" I asked.
"You barely know me."
He was quiet for a moment.
"Eleanor called me six months ago," he said.
"When she first started to suspect something was wrong with the account.
She asked me to look into it quietly, without alarming anyone." He looked at his hands.
"I looked into it.
I found enough to confirm she was right.
And then I went to Maverick instead of going to her, because I thought I could fix it quietly and protect everyone." He looked up.
"I protected the wrong person.
Eleanor spent six more months not knowing whether she could trust her own family.
That's on me."
My mother set down her cup.
"It is," she said simply.
Daniel nodded.
He didn't flinch from it.
"I know," he said.
"That's why I'm here."
I looked at the message on his phone again.
*This stays in the family or it destroys everything.*
"Forward that to me," I said.
He picked up the phone and sent it without hesitating.
My phone buzzed on the table.
I picked it up and saved the message.
"I'm calling the bank at nine," I said.
"And then I'm calling the solicitor."
"I know." He stood up.
"I'll go to Eleanor this morning.
She should hear about last night's message from me, not from a stranger." He pushed the chair in.
"I'm sorry, Amy.
For October.
For every month after that."
I looked at him.
"Go to Eleanor," I said.
"That's the apology that matters."
He nodded.
He thanked my mother for the tea.
She walked him to the door.
I sat at the table and looked at my phone.
Maverick's message to Daniel.
The bank's number already in my recent calls.
The solicitor's card propped against the sugar bowl, where I had placed it the night before.
My mother came back and sat down.
"Well," she said.
"Well," I said.
She refilled my cup.
"Gerald might still protect him," I said.
"He might," she agreed.
"It won't change what the documents show.
Or what Eleanor's examiners found."
"No," she said.
"It won't."
May you like
I picked up my phone.
At nine o'clock exactly, I made the call.
