Chapter 7
Julian’s company distributions were not the biggest financial issue anymore.
That did not make them disappear.
Meridian had profited.
Not enormously by Bellafonte standards.
Enough to create an undisclosed conflict.
Julian had signed foundation resolutions authorizing Northfield arrangements while knowing his investment benefited indirectly.
He called the amount insignificant.
Daniel calculated approximately $146,000 in distributions connected to foundation-related work.
Conrad looked at him.
“If it’s insignificant, returning it should be easy.”
Julian did not appreciate the sentence.
He agreed through counsel to freeze the disputed amount pending review.
The larger question remained Riverfront.
Leah hired an independent engineering firm to review the old records.
Their conclusion was cautious.
No one could responsibly say the collapse was caused by a single decision.
Defective contractor work mattered.
Site changes mattered.
Project sequencing mattered.
Management pressure may also have mattered.
The missing engineering correspondence was material enough that the original liability picture might have been different if all documents had been disclosed.
That was serious.
Then Daniel completed the hidden-payment map.
Almost seventy percent of the $3.1 million went to Riverfront families.
Another twenty percent went to former employees who had knowledge of the project but were not physically injured.
Legal expenses.
Mortgage support.
Medical costs.
Education.
The final ten percent went to ordinary hardship cases with no connection.
“Why mix unrelated cases?” Conrad asked.
Daniel shrugged.
“To make the pattern less obvious?”
Leah corrected him.
“Possibly.”
Conrad nodded.
He was learning.
The payments themselves were often compassionate.
The records around them were not.
Several beneficiary files contained notes written by Agatha.
Keep handled privately.
No outside case manager.
Do not route through standard committee.
One file contained something more direct.
A former site manager received $84,000 in legal support.
Agatha wrote:
He remains cooperative regarding Riverfront history.
Conrad read it twice.
There was no longer a plausible way to describe every payment as simple kindness.
The support network had two functions.
Help people.
Keep them close.
Sometimes those functions aligned.
Sometimes they became impossible to separate.
That night Julian requested a meeting.
He looked exhausted.
“Agatha was trying to take care of them.”
“And you?”
“I knew she was paying some bills.”
“Through falsified invoices?”
“No.”
Conrad watched him carefully.
“Did you know Michael Walsh warned you before the collapse?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you disclose the letter?”
“I never received that exact letter.”
“Teresa says he wrote it to you.”
“He may have drafted it. I don’t remember seeing it.”
Possible.
Conrad hated that it was possible.
“What about the engineering report?”
“I saw it.”
“You kept work moving.”
“I allowed limited work.”
“People died.”
Julian’s eyes flashed.
“One person died because a subcontractor installed something wrong.”
“You don’t know that’s the whole reason.”
“Neither do you.”
True.
Conrad let the silence stand.
Then Julian said something unexpected.
“My mother thinks she saved me.”
Conrad looked at him.
“From what?”
“From being blamed for everything.”
“Did she?”
Julian’s voice dropped.
“She made it worse.”
That was the first time he sounded less afraid of punishment than of the story his mother had built around him.
“What does that mean?”
Julian looked toward his attorney.
The attorney shook his head.
May you like
Julian stopped.
Again, the truth reached a door and waited.
