Diane's Visit
Chapter 08 - Diane's Visit
Diane did not contact Sophia for six days.
Instead, flowers arrived.
A dozen white roses stood in a square glass vase at the gallery desk, wrapped with a cream ribbon. The card carried no signature.
Grace read it aloud.
"For what was lost, and for what may still be preserved."
She dropped the card onto the counter.
"Subtle. Like a snake in pearls."
Sophia touched one petal with the back of her finger.
The roses smelled faintly sweet and already had brown edges.
"Photograph everything."
"Done."
"Then throw them out."
Grace lifted the vase.
"With pleasure."
The flowers returned twice that week in different forms. Lilies on Tuesday. An orchid on Thursday, delivered by a driver who said the sender had paid cash.
Sophia documented each gift and gave the records to Muñoz.
On Friday afternoon, Diane called from a blocked number.
"I would like ten minutes," she said.
"No."
"I have a proposal."
"Send it through your attorney."
"Attorneys make simple matters expensive."
"This isn't simple."
Diane exhaled through her nose.
"The rear office at five thirty. Grace can remain in the gallery if that makes you feel safer."
"It does."
"Then we agree."
The call ended before Sophia could refuse again.
Grace listened to the recording and frowned.
"She knew you were recording last time."
"Probably."
"Then she thinks she can phrase the offer safely."
Sophia picked up a metal caliper from her workbench and ran her thumb along the smooth outer jaw.
"Let her try."
---
At five twenty-eight, Diane entered carrying a thin leather folder.
No coat this time. She wore a dark green suit and low black heels that made almost no sound on the concrete.
Grace locked the front door after the last visitor left.
"We're closed," she said.
"I can read the sign."
"Good. We've had trouble with boundaries."
Diane ignored her and followed Sophia into the rear office.
The room held two mismatched chairs, a printer, and shelves stacked with exhibition catalogs. A small fan rattled in the corner, pushing warm air without cooling it.
Sophia had placed her phone beneath a catalog on the desk. Grace had started a second recording from the gallery.
Diane sat without being offered the chair.
"Marcus has agreed to cooperate against his own company."
"Against people who used the company to steal."
"Words chosen by police."
"Numbers chosen by bank records."
Diane opened the folder.
Inside was a typed agreement with yellow tabs marking signature lines.
"Hale and Voss is willing to resolve all outstanding claims related to the incident at your opening."
Sophia did not touch the document.
"My insurance company is handling the sculpture. The criminal charges belong to the state."
"You have influence over both."
"Not enough to make charges disappear."
"You can decline to cooperate. You can state that Marcus's conduct was an isolated domestic matter caused by alcohol and emotional distress."
Sophia looked at the first page.
The offer included payment for Blue Current at twice its insured value, coverage of gallery repairs, and a separate consulting fee paid over twelve months.
"Consulting for what?"
"Public relations guidance."
"I don't work in public relations."
"You would be advising on how your experience is described."
"You mean I would be paid not to describe it."
Diane folded her hands.
"I mean you would stop allowing a private divorce to be used as a doorway into a company investigation."
"The drive opened that doorway."
"The drive was stolen."
"Marcus recovered it from the woman who copied it."
Diane's eyes narrowed.
"He told you that?"
"The police did."
"Police tell witnesses what keeps them cooperative."
Sophia turned to the second page.
A confidentiality clause barred her from discussing Hale and Voss, Diane, Marcus, or the gallery incident with investigators except under subpoena.
"This asks me to refuse voluntary interviews."
"It asks you to protect yourself from being drawn deeper into a matter you don't understand."
"And the consulting payments?"
"Compensation for disruption."
"One hundred eighty thousand dollars."
"Your sculpture was valuable."
"The sculpture payment is separate."
Diane's gaze moved to Sophia's thumb, which traced the paper's edge.
"You were never careless," she said. "That's what Marcus admired until he began resenting it."
Sophia looked up.
"Did you write this agreement?"
"Counsel prepared it."
"Did counsel know the drive had already been decrypted?"
Diane's expression did not move.
"I don't discuss privileged communications."
"Did counsel know you were asking a material witness to stop cooperating in exchange for monthly payments?"
"Don't make this sound uglier than it is."
"I'm trying to make it exact."
The fan clicked with every rotation.
Diane looked toward the office door.
"Your gallery is barely solvent."
Sophia said nothing.
"The lease increases next year. Your insurance premium will rise after the claim. Press attention fades quickly, and collectors prefer artists whose lives don't create complications."
"You researched me."
"I read public filings."
"You looked for the number that would frighten me."
"I looked for the number that would help you."
Sophia slid the agreement back across the desk.
"No."
Diane did not pick it up.
"Read the complete terms."
"I did."
"You read two pages."
"The first clause pays me for art. The second pays me for silence. The rest explains what happens if I speak."
"It is not silence."
"Then remove the cooperation clause."
Diane's mouth tightened.
"This is a family matter."
"You keep saying that as if family is a room where laws stop working."
Diane leaned forward.
"Do you know what happens if Hale and Voss collapses? Your pretty principle won't cover a foreman's mortgage. It won't pay medical insurance for a welder's child."
"Neither will money sitting in your shell companies."
The small fan rattled.
Diane blinked once.
Sophia watched the calculation happen behind her composed face.
"Marcus told you more than he should have."
"Bank addresses told investigators."
"You enjoy this."
"No. I enjoyed my opening until your nephew smashed it."
Diane stood.
"The offer expires Monday."
"It expired when you put it on the desk."
"Keep a copy."
"I intend to."
That stopped her.
Sophia held the agreement by one corner.
"The police will want the original too."
Diane looked toward the catalog beneath which Sophia's phone was recording.
Her face changed very slightly.
"You are making an enemy you cannot afford."
Sophia's voice became quiet.
"You came into my workplace and offered to pay me not to cooperate with an investigation. I don't have to make you anything."
Diane picked up her leather folder but left the agreement.
At the door, she paused.
"Marcus will disappoint you again."
"He would have to matter to me in the same way. He doesn't."
Diane left through the gallery without looking at Grace.
The front lock clicked behind her.
Grace entered the office and held up her phone.
"Clean audio. Every word."
Sophia sat back down.
Only then did she notice that her thumbnail had cut a crescent into the pad of her hand.
A small bead of blood appeared.
Grace handed her a tissue.
"Was the offer real?"
"Real enough to frighten her."
May you like
Sophia wrapped the tissue around her hand and looked at the unsigned agreement.
The next morning, she placed the recording, the flowers, and Diane's private settlement in Detective Muñoz's hands.
