Claire looked down.
Harrison became intensely interested in the bookshelves.
Anne’s voice returned to me.
You make people present you with finished versions of themselves.
I exhaled.
“That came out differently than I intended.”
Daniel looked surprised.
I rarely corrected myself that quickly.
“Let’s start again,” I said.
“Did you believe your mother guaranteed the loan?”
“Yes.”
“Did you ever speak to her about it?”
A pause.
“Not directly.”
“Why not?”
“Because she told me through someone else.”
“Who?”
Daniel looked toward Harrison’s image on his own screen.
“Peter.”
Nobody
spoke.
“Peter who?” Claire asked.
“Peter Alden.”
The name was familiar.
Very familiar.
Peter Alden had been Anne’s cousin.
For more than twenty years, he had worked as an accountant and later a financial adviser to several members of her family.
He wasn’t part of my business.
That had been important to Anne.
She liked having one financial person in her life who did not report to me.
