Chapter 15 - What Sloane Wanted
Sloane asked to speak with Graham.
Ruiz advised against it.
Graham agreed only after prosecutors arranged a recorded interview with attorneys present.
Sloane entered wearing county-issued clothes instead of a wedding gown.
Without the dress, the makeup, and the practiced confidence, she looked smaller.
Graham felt nothing comforting about that.
"Why Maisie?" he asked.
Sloane swallowed.
"At first, she wasn't the plan."
"Don't lie to me again."
"I'm not. Victor sent me to find Julia's files. I got close to you. Then you proposed. Victor realized marriage gave us access to the trust structure."
"And you agreed."
"I thought I could control it."
Graham laughed once, without humor.
"You chained a five-year-old to furniture."
Tears filled her eyes.
"She kept trying to get to you before the ceremony. The transport team was already coming. I panicked."
"That is not an explanation."
"No."
For once, she did not defend herself.
Graham leaned forward.
"Did you help kill Julia?"
Sloane's face collapsed.
"No. But I knew my father threatened her. And after she died, I stayed quiet."
"That makes you part of what happened."
She nodded.
Then she said something Graham did not expect.
"Your wife left another recording. Victor kept it because it protected him from Nolan."
"Where?"
"Lake house. Old Mercer property. There's a safe behind the basement wine rack."
Ruiz leaned closer.
"What's on the recording?"
Sloane looked at Graham.
"The night Julia told my father she had already copied everything."
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Then she added, almost in a whisper:
"And the night he told her what would happen on the road."
