Chapter 12 - What He Chose to Lose|
Duly had spent twenty minutes arguing about the canceled sale in Edmund's study before a telephone call interrupted them.
He followed his father-in-law toward the dining room, expecting the argument to continue.
Instead, he found fresh papers laid across the table and Helen sitting beside a cold cup of tea.
A guard stood between her and the hallway.
Edmund ended the call with Naomi and set the phone facedown.
“Your wife has become unreasonable.”
Duly looked toward Helen.
“Do you want that man there?”
She shook her head.
The guard was one of the men Lyall had formerly assigned to outside contracts.
He straightened when Duly looked at him.
“Step away from the door,” Duly said.
Edmund moved between them.
“This is my house.”
“Then you can explain why your wife can't leave it.”
For a moment, Edmund seemed honestly confused by the objection.
“We need Naomi here.”
He pointed toward the documents.
“She withdraws her allegations, approves the transaction, and we settle the claims before this gets worse.”
Duly glanced at the signature page.
There was a space waiting for Naomi's name.
All the furniture had been arranged to make the conversation look civilized.
He remembered telling Lyall to bring her home.
The difference between that order and this room was smaller than he wanted it to be.
Helen stood.
The guard moved automatically.
“Let her pass,” Duly said.
This time, the man obeyed.
Duly called his attorney and described what he had found.
His attorney put him on hold to contact Mara.
When he returned, he confirmed that police were already responding to Naomi's report.
He put the call on speaker and gave the location of the guards and the gate controls.
Edmund stared at him.
“Do you understand what they will find if they start opening everything?”
“Yes.”
“Your money went through those accounts.”
“Yes.”
The second answer seemed to disturb Edmund more than a denial would have.
He reached for the papers, then dropped them.
“She isn't going to love you because you do this.”
Duly looked toward Helen, who was holding her coat without putting it on.
“She told me the marriage is over.”
Edmund gave a short, incredulous laugh.
“Then what are you doing?”
Outside, the first lights appeared beyond the trees.
Duly instructed the security men to open the gate, set their weapons down, and follow the officers' directions.
He kept his own hands visible when the police came through the door.
There was no speech worth giving then.
Helen told an officer that she had asked to leave and had been stopped.
She described the demands Edmund had made her read into the phone.
When her husband interrupted, she waited until the officer asked him to be quiet.
Then she finished.
Edmund was taken into custody while the officers secured the house and preserved the scene.
Duly remained with investigators and waited for his lawyer before making a formal statement.
He was no longer directing the room.
Across the state, Naomi sat beside June while the biscuits cooled untouched on the counter.
When the call finally came, she could barely hold the phone.
“Your mother is safe,” Mara said.
Naomi bent forward until her forehead touched her knees.
June stayed beside her.
There were details afterward, arrangements and names and the question of where Helen could spend the night.
Naomi listened to all of them.
She learned Duly had opened the gate and remained for questioning.
“Does he want to speak to me?” she asked.
“He hasn't requested that.”
She closed her eyes.
For once, something decent had happened without arriving as a bill she was expected to pay.
Near midnight, Helen called from a safe room with an officer nearby.
“I told them,” she said.
Naomi looked at the untouched dinner, the scattered flour, and June's hand resting beside hers.
May you like
“I know, Mom.”
Then, because both of them needed to hear it, she added that she was glad her mother was out.
