The Bank Video

Westport Bank's board did not want to give Elise anything.

They sat in a ninth-floor conference room with bottled water and the faces of people trying to calculate liability in real time. Theo sat across from them as a former employee. Elise sat beside Roslyn as a restored person with a court order. That irritated everyone in different ways.

The board chair, a woman named Pamela Stroud, folded her hands. "We sympathize with what occurred."

Elise said, "Sympathy does not open archives."

Pamela blinked. "The requested video may be privileged bank material."

Roslyn slid a warrant draft onto the table. "Then we can make the privilege discussion longer and less private."

Theo did not smile. He knew these people. That made his quiet more dangerous.

"Vivian Hart used our custody system because she believed the bank had already been compromised," he said. "If the board hides the video now, every victim lawyer will ask whether she was right."

A younger board member whispered to counsel. Counsel whispered back. Pamela's expression changed by half an inch.

"We will produce a copy for law enforcement review," Pamela said.

"Now," Elise said.

Counsel objected. Roslyn lifted the warrant draft again. The copy appeared in fourteen minutes.

The video showed Vivian seated in a bank room, Mara on one side, Theo on the other. Vivian looked tired, angry, and completely aware.

"I am Vivian Hart," she said on screen. "I am amending the trust of my own free will. I am naming Elise Hart as controlling successor because she is the only beneficiary with a professional duty to question claims. If I die before telling her why, assume I was stopped."

On screen, Theo asked, "Stopped by whom?"

Vivian looked straight into the camera.

"Martin Vale and Silas Greer."

The room went silent.

Elise felt Theo's hand under the table, not touching her, just there.

Pamela Stroud whispered, "We need counsel."

Roslyn stood. "You have counsel. I have evidence."

Elise looked at the frozen image of her mother.

Vivian had named the men before they killed her.