She laughed bitterly.
“Karen.”
Arielle’s face stayed flat.
“Internet labels will not do your thinking for you.”
Lydia stopped.
“You do not need to decide what type of person you are.”
“You need to account for what you did.”
Lydia nodded.
“I planted the bracelet four times.”
“I called police twice.”
“Malcolm called once.”
“Colton once.”
“I lied in two written statements.”
“Did you receive store credit after each?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Seventy-four thousand, three hundred.”
“Anything else?”
“Travel.”
Arielle looked up.
“What travel?”
“Paris.”
“Milan.”
“Fashion Week.”
“Paid by Bellrose?”
“Through a marketing partner.”
“Which partner?”
Lydia gave the name.
Arielle wrote it down.
Her phone vibrated.
Priya.
URGENT. W IS PROBABLY NOT A PERSON.
Arielle stepped into the hall and called.
“What?”
Priya answered:
“The marketing partner Lydia just identified.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I found payments.”
“To whom?”
“Welles Advisory.”
Arielle became still.
Margaret Welles.
Board chair.
No.
Priya continued:
“Not Margaret.”
“Her son.”
Arielle closed her eyes.
Ethan Welles.
Forty-four.
Bellrose board member.
Chair of audit committee.
The person who approved Arielle’s engagement paperwork.
The person who had access to her travel schedule.
The compromised investigation was no longer theoretical.
“How much?”
Priya said:
“Four point six million from Bellrose marketing and consulting budgets over three years.”
“To Welles Advisory?”
“Yes.”
“What does the firm do?”
“On paper?”
“Luxury market intelligence.”
“In reality?”
“I’m still figuring it out.”
Arielle looked through the interview-room window.
Lydia sat with her attorney.
Daniel watched.
Arielle whispered:
“W.”
Priya said:
“I think so.”
The board had hired Arielle.
One board member may have hired her knowing he was inside the scheme.
Why?
Control?
Misdirection?
Find out what investigators knew?
Or Margaret had hired Arielle over her son’s objections and Ethan decided to monitor the investigation.
Arielle called Margaret.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Elena.
“Where is Margaret?”
“I thought she was with you.”
“She isn’t.”
Arielle felt cold.
“Find her.”
At 3:38, Margaret’s driver answered Elena’s call.
He had dropped Margaret at her townhouse at one.
She had canceled her afternoon meetings.
At 3:44, Arielle called Margaret’s house.
No answer.
At 3:49, building staff entered with emergency authorization from family counsel.
Margaret was found unconscious on her kitchen floor.
Alive.
Blood sugar dangerously low.
She was diabetic.
Her insulin kit lay on the counter.
No immediate evidence of violence.
Paramedics transported her.
Arielle did not believe in convenient timing.
Police did not either.
But suspicion was not evidence.
Margaret regained consciousness that evening.
She had accidentally double-dosed insulin after becoming distracted by calls.
At least that was the medical assessment.
No poisoning.
No forced entry.