Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Clara did not panic.
She called Nathan Cole.
Nathan had served as the Vance family’s chief security officer for eight years.
He arrived with two security specialists within thirty minutes.
He studied the photograph.
“This was taken with a long lens.”
“From where?”
“Probably the vacant property across the street.”
Daniel stood near the window.
“So somebody has been watching the house.”
Nathan nodded.
“Possibly for days.”
Clara handed him Victoria’s notes.
“Find everything connecting Victoria to Evelyn.”
Nathan left.
By midnight, he had something.
Victoria had received six transfers over the previous eight months.
Each was routed through different consulting companies.
Total amount.
$840,000.
Daniel stared at the screen.
“Who paid her?”
Nathan opened another file.
“The companies ultimately trace back to Whitmore Strategic Partners.”
Daniel frowned.
“That’s Victoria’s father’s company.”
“Partly.”
Nathan enlarged the ownership records.
A second shareholder appeared.
Evelyn Vance Mercer.
Clara stared at her aunt’s name.
Daniel whispered.
“They’ve been partners.”
“For at least four years,” Nathan said.
Four years.
Their father had died three years earlier.
Clara felt something cold settle inside her.
“How did Dad die?”
Daniel looked at her sharply.
“Clara.”
She repeated the question.
Their father had suffered a sudden heart attack during a business trip.
At least that was what they had been told.
Nathan understood what she was thinking.
“I’ll investigate.”
Daniel stood.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
“My father’s death is not becoming another spreadsheet.”
He faced Clara.
“If there is even a possibility—”
His voice broke.
Clara touched his arm.
“We find facts first.”
At 2:13 a.m., Nathan received another message.
He read it twice.
Then he looked at Clara.
“What?”
Nathan turned the screen toward her.
Three days before Edward Vance died, he had scheduled a private meeting with an attorney.
The attorney’s name was Samuel Reed.
Samuel had disappeared six months after Edward’s death.
Daniel stared.
“Disappeared?”
“Closed his office.”
“Sold his house.”
“Never practiced law again.”
Clara asked the obvious question.
“Where is he now?”
Nathan shook his head.
“Nobody knows.”
Then Clara remembered something.
Her father’s final voicemail.
She had kept it for three years.
She opened her phone archive.
Edward’s voice filled the room.
“Clara, call me when you land.”
“There’s something about Evelyn I need to tell you.”
“I should have told you years ago.”
The recording ended.
Daniel looked at his sister.
“You never told me about that.”
“I thought he meant an argument.”
Nathan’s phone buzzed again.
This time he went completely still.
“What now?”
Nathan looked toward the dark windows.
“We found Samuel Reed.”
Clara stood.
“Where?”
Nathan swallowed.
May you like
“Apparently he never disappeared.”
“He has been living under another name less than thirty miles from here.”
