“I solved the mystery.” Mrs. Rothman’s voice over the line radiated satisfaction. “I tracked down Laila and met her in the south of France. It was awkward at first, but then we saw two other women chatting, and I said they looked like us when we were younger. Then it was like old times. Laila said that she’d asked Pierre for a divorce at the beginning of the year. That was a shock, but less so because of those magazine pictures you showed me. Laila suspected that Pierre had filed the lawsuit to alienate her from me and her best friends as revenge, but she’s not sure. She doesn’t discuss investments with him, so she has no way of knowing. All her energy is being consumed by their still-private divorce battle, so she didn’t want to get involved in this too. And she’d been embarrassed to reach out to me because of Pierre’s despicable behavior.”

“I thought there had to be another reason, but I’m not sure I expected to be right,” Audrey said.

Mrs. Rothman laughed. “Trust your instincts. Both John and I felt it couldn’t be the stock trade. John feels much better about it all now, except he feels bad that his friendship wasn’t worth more. But as I told him, Pierre’s right that we would take Laila’s side.”

“And is your friendship now okay?”

“Yes, we won’t let Pierre succeed in tearing us apart,” Mrs. Rothman said. “We wanted to thank you again. John wrote a letter expressing his gratitude for your work to Howard, Parker & Smith. He understands that you’re up for partner. We just wanted to do our part to help. I’ll tell his assistant to send you a copy.”

“Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Also, this call. Thank you for telling me what you found out.”

“It was you who found the first clue. And you validated our sense that it couldn’t be about the money. You know, cancer has taught me that you can never be sure how much time you have. You helped me set right an important friendship and avoid regrets. Thank you.”

After a few more minutes, they hung up. Audrey felt vindicated. She was happy that Laila and Mrs. Rothman had also managed to rekindle their friendship. It gave her hope that she and Jake could reignite their relationship. But she’d wait until after the partnership decision to call him, because if their talk didn’t go well, she could take only so much bad news at a time. She turned back to researching a new angle in the British case.

At 5 p.m., just as she was packing up to leave early, Malaburn called. As she saw his name flash up, her head throbbed.

“Audrey, I’ve got another case I’d like you to work on,” Malaburn said, outlining the case.