Victor looked like a man whose plan had been interrupted.
There was a difference.
Vanessa recovered enough to fold her arms.
"The money was legitimate."
"For what?"
"Consulting."
I almost laughed.
"You're a social-events coordinator."
Her cheeks darkened.
"I have other businesses."
"Name one service worth four million dollars."
She didn't answer.
I turned toward Victor.
"You signed the payments."
"No."
Daniel opened another page.
"Your electronic authorization appears on nineteen separate transfers."
Victor's face tightened.
"Then someone used my credentials."
Vanessa looked at him.
That was the first moment I noticed something.
Surprise.
She hadn't expected him to deny it.
Interesting.
"Dad?"
Victor ignored her.
He looked at Daniel.
"I want my attorney."
"You should call one."
The police arrived ten minutes later.
Not because Daniel had called them.
Because Maya had.
The receptionist who gave me the access card had seen Vanessa drag me into the lobby.
She had also seen the slap near the ballroom.
Two officers approached me.
The first, Detective Lena Brooks, looked at my face.
"Ms. Vale, do you want medical attention?"
"I'm fine."
"You don't look fine."
"I've looked worse."
That wasn't true.
But I didn't want to leave.
Not while Victor was still standing inside my hotel.
Vanessa interrupted.
"She trespassed in restricted offices."
Detective Brooks looked at her.
"Did that justify dragging her across the floor?"
Vanessa opened her mouth.
Then closed it.
"There are cameras," I said.
Everyone looked at me.
Vanessa's face changed again.
Of course there were cameras.
Solmere had one of the most advanced security systems in the city.
Victor immediately looked toward the security director.
"Preserve everything."
I stared at him.
Too cooperative.
Why?
Then I understood.
He wanted to look innocent.
A guilty executive ordering evidence preserved made a good performance.
I had grown up watching Victor negotiate deals.
He knew how to control rooms.
He had taught me, without realizing it, to notice what people did when they thought everyone else was emotional.
So I stopped talking.
I watched.
Police separated us.
Daniel stayed beside me.
Victor called an attorney.
Vanessa sat near the concierge desk, suddenly fascinated by her phone.
The guests slowly disappeared.
News traveled faster than champagne.
Within thirty minutes, videos of the confrontation were online.
I didn't care.
I needed one thing.
The security footage from the second floor.
Then the head of security approached Detective Brooks.
His face looked wrong.
"There's a problem."
My stomach tightened.
"What problem?"
He looked at Victor.
Then me.
"The cameras covering the executive corridor stopped recording forty minutes before Ms. Vale entered."
"Stopped?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"We don't know."
Victor immediately said,
"That's impossible."
The security director shook his head.
"Someone disabled the feed remotely."
Daniel cursed softly.
I looked toward Vanessa.
She was no longer using her phone.
She was watching us.
"So the hallway assault isn't recorded?"
Detective Brooks asked.
"What about the lobby?"
"Ballroom?"
That meant Vanessa dragging me was preserved.
Her first assault upstairs wasn't.
More importantly, my conversation recording was now the only evidence of what I heard.
I checked my phone.
Still there.
Thank God.
Detective Brooks took a digital copy.
Then Daniel pulled me aside.
"We need to leave."
"Charlotte."
"I just got here."
"Exactly."
He lowered his voice.
"Your mother believed someone inside the company was dangerous."
"I know."
"And now whoever that person is knows you've returned."
I looked at Victor.
"Good."
Daniel's expression hardened.
"This isn't a boardroom argument."
"Do you?"
I looked down at my scraped hands.
Then back at him.
"Someone killed my mother."
He became still.
"I didn't say that."
"I did."
The words had lived inside me for two weeks.
Now that they were spoken, they felt terrifyingly real.
Daniel looked around to make sure no one heard.
"We don't know that."
"She was investigating fraud."
"She wrote me a warning."
"Then she suddenly died."
"Accidents happen."
"You don't believe that."
He didn't answer.
That was enough.
Detective Brooks returned.
"Ms. Vale, we'll need a formal statement."
"I'll give it."
"At the station."
"Fine."
Victor overheard.
He moved toward me.
Daniel blocked him.
Victor raised his hands.
"I'm not trying to hurt her."
I laughed bitterly.
"You were just recorded discussing how to stop me from appearing."
"You misunderstood."
"Then explain."
He looked at the officers.
"Not here."
"Because your mother wasn't investigating me."
I froze.
Daniel stared at him.
"What?"
Victor's voice dropped.
"Eleanor discovered something larger."
I stepped closer.
"Then tell me."
He glanced toward Vanessa.
Strangely, she looked nervous.
Not because of him.
Because of what he might say.
Victor continued.
"Your mother suspected someone was stealing through the holding companies."
"She asked me to investigate."
I shook my head.
"She wrote that I shouldn't trust you."
That hurt him.
I saw it.
Real hurt.
"I don't know why."
"Convenient."
"Charlotte, I loved your mother like family."
"Then why were you talking about stopping me?"
He exhaled.
"Because if you appeared at probate too early, whoever forged the estate amendment would know you had discovered it."
My anger faltered.
"I was trying to keep you away until we knew who was responsible."
Daniel looked skeptical.
"Then why didn't you contact Charlotte?"
"I tried."
"No, you didn't."
Victor stared at me.
"I sent three messages through Claire."
My heart stopped.
Claire Winters.
My mother's personal assistant.
The woman who called me after the accident.
The woman who told me Mom had died instantly.
The woman who helped organize the funeral.
"I never got them."
Victor's expression darkened.
"Then we have another problem."
His phone buzzed.
He looked at the screen.
His face changed completely.
Daniel noticed.
"What is it?"
Victor handed me the phone.
A security alert from my mother's private residence.
Motion detected.
The house had been empty since her death.
I opened the attached image.
Someone dressed in black was inside Mom's study.
Standing beside the desk where I had found her hidden envelope.
My blood went cold.
Then a second alert arrived.
Front door opened.
May you like
"THIRTY MINUTES! GO STAND IN THAT CORNER!"
My stepdaughter slammed a thick wedding expense folder onto the dining r...
The sound of my stepmother's hand striking my face was so loud that my f...
And beneath it, the alarm system displayed the user code that had disabled security.
Chapter 3
We reached my mother's house before the police did.
That was probably stupid.
Daniel told me so at least six times.
I didn't care.
The gate stood open.
The front door was unlocked.
The house where I had grown up looked wrong at night.
Not haunted.
Violated.
I stepped inside with Daniel behind me.
Victor remained outside with security.
Detective Brooks was less than two minutes away.
"Claire?"
My voice echoed through the foyer.
Nothing.
Daniel grabbed my arm.
"Don't announce us."
I pulled free.
"This is my house."
"And someone may be inside it."
I lowered my voice.
We moved toward the study.
The door was open.
The desk drawers had been pulled out.
Papers covered the floor.
The false-bottom drawer where I found the envelope was broken apart.
Someone knew exactly where to look.
My heart pounded.
"She's looking for what Mom left me."