Ruby listened closely.
She expected the name to mean something.
It did not.
Claire’s expression suggested it did.
“Voss.”
“You remember him?”
“He came to the building.”
Nathaniel nodded.
“He told the residents the cooperative agreement had never been formally approved.”
“He told us my mother had misunderstood.”
“She hadn’t.”
Claire looked down at her mother’s letter.
For years, she had apparently carried one version of the past.
Now another version lay on Nathaniel’s coffee table.
Ruby moved closer to her.
Claire put an arm around her automatically.
“What happened to Voss?” Claire asked.
“He resigned during the audit. There wasn’t enough evidence at the time to prove criminal misconduct concerning Aldridge. Some records were missing. Others appeared legitimate.”
“And you let it go.”
Nathaniel accepted the accusation without arguing.
“Yes.”
Claire looked surprised by the answer.
“I spent years telling myself we’d investigated as far as we could,” he continued. “Legally, perhaps we did. Personally, I stopped asking questions because every answer exposed another mistake made while my name was on the company.”
