Chapter 117 - The Ringing Phone
By three o'clock that afternoon, I was sitting in the quiet lounge of the Hotel Baur au Lac, overlooking Lake Zurich. The gray clouds of the morning had parted, revealing the snow-capped peaks of the Alps in the far distance, gleaming like diamonds against an azure sky.
In front of me sat a pot of hot Earl Grey, a plate of warm scones with clotted cream, and my burner phone, which had been buzzing continuously for the last twenty minutes.
I let it ring until the vibration stopped, then picked up my primary phone.
There were fourteen missed calls from Caleb. Seven from Tori. Three frantic voice messages from Arthur’s personal attorney in Concord, and a single, terse text from Patrice in Lisbon:
*The Swiss wire cleared. Federal agents in Boston just raided Arthur’s shell office on State Street. Caleb is panicking. Enjoy your tea.*
I smiled, took a sip of tea, and pressed Caleb’s contact.
He picked up on the half-ring. "Mom?! Mom, where are you?! What have you done?!"
His voice was cracked, frantic, edged with the kind of primal panic that only comes when the ground underneath a man's feet completely dissolves.
"Good afternoon, Caleb," I said smoothly. "I'm in Zurich. The weather is quite brisk, but the view of the lake is lovely."
"Mom, this isn't funny!" Caleb screamed through the receiver. I could hear Tori sobbing hysterically in the background, along with the distinct sound of someone frantically tearing through file cabinets. "Federal marshals just showed up at my office! They served an injunction freezing my company accounts! They said Dad is alive in Switzerland and that he’s under arrest for fraud and tax evasion! What the hell is going on?!"
"Your father was very careless with his paperwork, Caleb," I replied calmly. "And so were you."
May you like
"Mom, Tori and I had to cancel the rest of our trip! We flew back early! We landed in Boston two hours ago and our credit cards were declined at the terminal! We had to borrow cash from a stranger to pay for parking! When we got home to Bow, there was a sheriff's notice taped to the front door saying the house is entering receivership!"
"Well, yes," I said, buttering a piece of scone. "The house in Bow belonged to the Pendleton Trust. Since the trust is being dissolved following the criminal indictment of the principal trustee, the properties are being liquidated. You have thirty days to vacate the premises."
