Chapter 11 - The Woman Everyone Suspected
Claire answered on the second ring.
Marcus put Richard's recovered phone on speaker.
"Richard?"
Daniel spoke.
"No."
Silence.
Then Claire whispered, "Daniel."
"Why are you calling my uncle?"
"I can explain."
"Do it."
"Not over the phone."
Daniel laughed bitterly.
"Everyone keeps saying that."
"Where are you?"
"Richard's property."
Claire inhaled sharply.
"Is Noah there?"
"Yes."
"And Maya?"
Daniel's eyes moved toward her.
"Why?"
"Daniel, leave."
Marcus stepped closer.
"What do you know?"
Claire's voice dropped.
"Richard knows Elena left evidence."
"We found it."
Silence.
"Oh, God."
Daniel said, "You knew."
"I knew she suspected him."
"You told me you didn't."
"I told you she suspected someone in finance."
"You lied."
"I protected Elena's promise."
"She's been dead two years!"
Daniel's voice cracked across the greenhouse.
Noah flinched.
Daniel lowered his volume.
"Why does everyone keep protecting promises she can't release you from?"
Claire said nothing.
Maya understood.
People had turned Elena's final fears into private burdens.
Margaret.
Claire.
Harold.
Victor.
Everyone had carried one fragment.
Nobody had shared enough to see the whole truth.
Claire finally said, "Richard threatened me."
"When?"
"After Elena died."
Daniel stared.
"He knew I helped her access records. He told me that if I spoke, he'd make it look like I stole from the company."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"You worshipped him."
Daniel recoiled.
Claire continued.
"He was the man who saved the company after your father died. You would've believed him."
"You didn't give me the chance."
"No."
Her voice became smaller.
"I didn't."
Maya saw Daniel close his eyes.
Another broken relationship built on the same sentence.
I thought I was protecting you.
Marcus asked, "Did you use Richard's administrator credentials?"
"No."
"Did Eric use yours?"
"Possibly."
"Why?"
"I discovered someone cloning my access token last week. I planned to tell Daniel after the quarterly review."
Maya almost laughed from frustration.
"Does anyone in this company tell anyone anything immediately?"
Claire said, "Who said that?"
"Maya."
A beat.
"Fair."
Despite everything, Maya smiled.
Daniel asked, "Did you send Maya the messages?"
"No."
"Did Eric?"
"I think so."
"Why?"
"His father contacted me before he died."
Everyone froze.
Claire continued.
"Harold told me Eric blamed the Hayes family for destroying him. I tried to explain Richard was responsible, but I didn't have proof."
"Did Eric believe you?"
"Eventually."
Marcus said, "Then why infiltrate the company?"
"To find evidence."
Maya looked at Daniel.
"He was investigating."
Claire replied, "Poorly and illegally, but yes."
Daniel's face tightened.
"Where's Richard going?"
"I don't know."
"Think."
Claire hesitated.
"He has property in Vermont. A condo in Miami. An apartment in London."
Marcus began relaying addresses.
Claire added, "There's somewhere else."
"Where?"
"An old lakeside cabin your father used."
Daniel's face changed.
"Blackwater Lake."
Margaret, standing behind him, whispered, "Richard hated that place."
Claire said, "Elena didn't."
Daniel looked up.
"She went there?"
"Once. With Richard."
"When?"
"Two weeks before she died."
Daniel's heart seemed to stop.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
They searched Elena's flash drive again.
A spreadsheet contained GPS locations associated with several uploaded photographs.
One matched Blackwater Lake.
Daniel stared.
"He's going there."
Marcus nodded.
"Police are already moving."
Noah tugged Maya's sleeve.
"Mom had a blue box."
Everyone looked down.
"What?" Daniel asked.
"At the lake."
"You remember?"
Noah nodded.
"She came home with mud."
Daniel knelt.
"You weren't there."
"No."
"How do you know about a blue box?"
"I heard her tell Grandma."
Margaret stared.
"Me?"
Noah nodded.
"You were in the kitchen."
Margaret searched her memory.
Then gasped.
"The safety-deposit box."
Daniel looked at her.
"What?"
"Elena asked me where your father's old personal documents were stored."
"Why?"
"She said she was trying to understand one of his trusts."
Daniel realized.
"Richard used Dad's accounts."
Margaret nodded.
"If Thomas kept original power-of-attorney records…"
Maya finished.
"They could prove when Richard's authority ended."
"And whether later transactions were fraudulent," Marcus said.
The blue box wasn't at the cabin.
It was in a regional bank near the lake.
Police contacted the branch.
The box had been accessed that morning.
By Richard Vale.
Daniel's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Richard's voice.
"You always were slow."
Daniel went rigid.
"Where are you?"
"Doesn't matter."
"Stay away from my family."
Richard laughed.
"Your family?"
His tone turned cruel.
"You barely knew what your wife was doing before she died."
Daniel's hand shook.
Maya stepped closer.
Richard continued.
"Elena loved saving people. You loved building towers."
"Don't say her name."
"Why? Because she saw you clearly?"
Daniel closed his eyes.
Maya touched his wrist.
He looked at her.
Richard said, "Send me the letter."
"No."
"Then this gets uglier."
"You're finished."
"Am I?"
Richard laughed again.
"Your board meets Monday. By then they'll know you concealed an eleven-million-dollar fraud tied to your family."
"You committed it."
"Prove it."
"We have Elena's files."
"You have allegations from a dead woman."
Daniel's face hardened.
Richard continued.
"And now you have a homeless girlfriend wandering through your home, influencing your traumatized son."
Maya felt Daniel's body tense.
"Leave her out of this."
"Too late."
The line disconnected.
Maya immediately stepped back.
Daniel saw.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Maya."
She looked at him.
"I'm already becoming a story people can use against you."
"I don't care."
"I do."
"Why?"
The question came too fast.
Both heard what sat beneath it.
Maya looked away.
"Because Noah doesn't need another scandal."
Daniel's voice softened.
"Noah needs people who stay."
Maya met his eyes.
"I can't stay because he needs me."
"No."
Daniel took a step closer.
"Then stay because you want to."
The air changed.
Neither moved.
Then Marcus interrupted.
"We found Richard's SUV."
Daniel looked over.
"Where?"
"Abandoned twelve miles from Blackwater Lake."
"Is he there?"
"No."
"Then where?"
Marcus held up another report.
"He rented a car using an alias."
"What direction?"
Marcus looked at Maya.
"Back toward the city."
Daniel's blood ran cold.
The cabin had been a diversion.
Richard wasn't fleeing.
He was returning.
And twenty minutes later, Margaret's phone rang from the Hayes mansion.
Mrs. Alvarez was crying.
"Mrs. Hayes… someone is inside the house."
May you like
The line went dead.
---
