Chapter 7: The Missing Witness
Sarah learned about Rosa’s disappearance from a television report.
She turned toward Daniel.
“They took her because she spoke.”
“We don’t know that.”
“Yes, we do.”
Daniel closed the hospital room door.
“Bennett thinks Jason may have help.”
“My father.”
“Richard is being watched.”
“He has employees. Friends. People who owe him.”
Sarah looked toward the NICU.
“Rosa protected us for years, and I never even noticed.”
“You were a child when this started.”
“I was an adult when I left that house.”
“You survived it.”
Sarah shook her head.
“I escaped. That’s different.”
Detective Bennett arrived later that evening.
“We found Rosa’s car at the bus station.”
“Was she inside?” Sarah asked.
“No.”
Bennett placed a photograph on the table.
A security camera showed Rosa entering the station with a man wearing a baseball cap.
His face was partly hidden.
Daniel studied the image.
“That’s not Jason.”
“No.”
Sarah stared at the man’s wrist.
A heavy silver watch was visible beneath his sleeve.
She recognized it.
“That belongs to Martin Hale.”
“Who is Martin Hale?” Bennett asked.
“My father’s chief financial officer.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“The man controlling the company accounts.”
Bennett nodded.
“Hale boarded no bus. Neither did Rosa.”
Police searched Martin Hale’s house.
He was gone.
His office had been cleared.
But investigators found evidence that millions of dollars had been transferred from Whitmore Industries into offshore accounts.
The transfers began shortly after Miriam’s death.
One account belonged to Richard.
Another belonged to Jason.
A third account was registered to someone named Evelyn Cross.
Sarah had never heard the name.
Bennett showed her the documents.
“Do you recognize it?”
“No.”
Daniel read the date of birth.
Then his expression changed.
“What?”
He pointed to the form.
“Evelyn Cross is only twenty-nine.”
Sarah looked at him.
“So?”
“Martin Hale is fifty-eight. Richard is sixty-two. Jason is thirty-three.”
Bennett understood.
“You think she’s connected to the family.”
Sarah looked again at the birth date.
Then she remembered a photograph hidden inside her mother’s sewing box.
Miriam had been holding a newborn baby Sarah did not recognize.
On the back, she had written:
Evelyn. Forgive me.
Sarah’s breath caught.
“I think I have a sister.”
That night, a nurse entered Sarah’s room with an envelope.
“A woman left this at reception.”
Inside was a photograph of Rosa tied to a chair.
A handwritten message appeared beneath it.
Withdraw the complaint against Jason, or the housekeeper disappears forever.
At the bottom was a second line.
May you like
Your mother made the wrong choice.
Do not repeat it.
