The Woman Who Kept the Books
Chapter 13 - The Woman Who Kept the Books
Naomi Pierce asked to speak with Nora without Ethan’s attorneys present.
They met in a federal interview room divided by a narrow table. Naomi wore no jewelry. Without the polished armor of the boardroom, she looked older and frightened.
“I knew about the vendor payments,” Naomi said. “I did not know the bridge would fail.”
Nora said nothing.
Naomi had admired Ethan before becoming involved with him. He made recklessness look like confidence. When she discovered the company’s debt crisis, he told her Nora was unstable and secretly draining funds. Naomi helped move payments because she believed Ethan was protecting the business.
“Then I learned Northstar was yours,” she said. “I realized every story he told me required you to be weak.”
“You still signed the substitutions.”
“Yes.”
The admission arrived without excuse.
Naomi offered access to a private accounting server Ethan maintained under Arthur Blackwell’s old foundation. It contained records from Westhaven, including payments made after Samuel’s death. In exchange, she wanted consideration for cooperation.
Nora felt no sympathy for her. But truth was not a reward for likable people.
“Give the server to investigators,” she said. “They decide what your cooperation is worth.”
Naomi slid a handwritten password across the table.
Before Nora stood, Naomi spoke again.
“He did not marry you because of the company.”
Nora stopped.
“Arthur was terrified Samuel had sent evidence to someone. Ethan believed you knew where it was. He stayed close to find the archive.”
The room seemed to narrow.
“He spent twelve years looking?”
“He thought grief would eventually make you remember something.”
Nora thought of birthdays, hospital visits, quiet mornings, and the years she had interpreted Ethan’s attention as love. Had every tender question been an investigation?
Naomi’s eyes filled, but Nora refused to comfort her.
“Why tell me now?”
“Because last week he asked me to arrange a site tour for you beneath Pier Four.”
The message photograph returned to Nora’s mind.
Naomi continued. “When I hesitated, he said accidents had saved Blackwell before.”
That evening, investigators opened the private server.
Among the files was a scanned letter Samuel had written to Arthur Blackwell. It named a witness to the warehouse meeting—a young Blackwell employee who had tried to stop the fraud and disappeared after the collapse.
The witness was Ethan’s mother, Eleanor.
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Officially, Eleanor Blackwell had died in a boating accident eleven years earlier.
No body had ever been found.
