Chapter 9 - JULIAN RETURNS
Julian stopped speaking voluntarily to police.
His lawyer advised it.
Evelyn hated that.
His lawyer was right.
He did agree to speak with Evelyn.
With attorneys present.
No hidden recording.
No family ambush.
They met in Hart Global's empty boardroom.
Nora did not attend.
She had stopped letting Evelyn and Julian make her paternity the center of Adrian's death.
Also correct.
Evelyn sat across from Julian.
“Why did you go back?”
Julian looked at his lawyer.
Evelyn almost laughed.
“Fine. Ask permission to remember your brother.”
The lawyer said:
“Julian can answer factual questions that do not compromise the investigation.”
Julian looked at Evelyn.
“I forgot my phone.”
“That took twenty-three minutes?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
He stared at the table.
“When I came back, Adrian was on the floor.”
Evelyn's stomach tightened.
“Conscious?”
“Yes.”
“Did you call 911?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“He told me not to.”
The sentence hung there.
Evelyn whispered:
“You listened?”
Julian looked ashamed.
“He was sitting up. Talking.”
“What did you do?”
“Helped him onto the sofa.”
“Then?”
“He accused me of taking Conrad's letter.”
“Had you?”
“No.”
“Did you tell him you had it?”
“No.”
“You had it in your files.”
“Yes.”
“So you lied while he was bleeding.”
Julian's jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
Then the rest.
Adrian tried to stand.
Julian told him to stay down.
Adrian shoved his hand away.
Julian grabbed Adrian's shoulder.
Adrian swung at him.
Not a punch exactly.
An angry attempt to get free.
Julian pushed him back.
Adrian stumbled.
Struck the bookcase.
Not the fireplace this time.
Julian insisted Adrian did not hit his head in that second contact.
Police would decide what physical evidence supported.
Evelyn asked:
“Why didn't you tell paramedics?”
“Because when the housekeeper came in ten minutes later, Adrian had collapsed again.”
“And?”
“And I knew how it would look.”
The family refrain.
How it would look.
Never:
what happened.
Evelyn leaned across the table.
“You spent twenty-three minutes deciding whether helping my husband would make you look guilty.”
“No.”
Julian's voice broke.
“I spent maybe four minutes arguing with him.”
“Then?”
“I called Dr. Cross.”
“The family physician.”
“Yes.”
“Before 911.”
“Yes.”
Dr. Cross told him if Adrian had lost consciousness after a head injury, call emergency services immediately.
Julian went back toward the study.
Before he reached it, the housekeeper found Adrian unresponsive and called herself.
Delay:
roughly seven minutes.
Not an hour.
Still seven minutes during a medical emergency.
“Why lie later?”
Julian looked at her.
“Because Adrian was dead.”
“And you were afraid.”
“Yes.”
There.
Julian's human motive was cowardice.
Not grand murder.
Maybe more dangerous because it was ordinary.
Evelyn asked:
“Did you deliberately hurt him?”
“No.”
“Did you push him?”
“Yes.”
“Could that have killed him?”
“I don't know.”
Neither did the medical examiner.
The afternoon fall with Nora could have caused the hemorrhage.
The later struggle could have worsened it.
An arrhythmia could have contributed to the final collapse.
Medicine refused to organize itself around Evelyn's need for one villain.
Then Julian said:
“There is one thing I did after he died that I haven't told police yet.”
His attorney stiffened.
“Julian.”
He ignored him.
“I asked Samuel Price to move the funeral quickly.”
Evelyn stared.
“Why?”
“Because Adrian had told me he wanted an autopsy.”
There.
The boardroom went still.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You knew before I signed.”
“Yes.”
“And you gave me the iPad anyway.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn stood.
Julian did not.
“Get out.”
“This is my boardroom too.”
“Not today.”
He left.
His attorney followed.
Evelyn stood alone after the door shut.
Adrian's funeral directive had not simply been lost by a clerk.
May you like
One person in the family had known it existed—
and had chosen speed anyway.
