Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
We spent the next morning in a small office Callahan rented downtown.
The fire had been ruled suspicious.
The police wanted statements.
I gave them one.
But I didn't mention the trust.
Callahan advised against it.
“Until we know who we're dealing with.”
I agreed.
Then we examined the photograph I had found inside the briefcase.
It showed my father standing beside a woman I didn't recognize.
She was young.
Maybe thirty.
Dark hair.
Sharp eyes.
Behind them stood the entrance to Bennett Risk Partners.
I turned the photograph over.
There was a handwritten note.
She knows what Mason did.
I stared at Callahan.
“Who is she?”
“Her name is Nora.”
“Nora what?”
“Vega.”
I searched the company records.
Nothing.
“She doesn't exist.”
“She did.”
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
“What happened?”
Callahan hesitated.
“She was your father's financial auditor.”
My heart accelerated.
“Why would Dad photograph her?”
“Because Nora discovered irregularities.”
“What irregularities?”
“Money moving through shell companies.”
“Ravenstone?”
Callahan nodded.
“Exactly.”
I stared at the photograph.
“Where is she now?”
“We don't know.”
That afternoon, I received a call from an unknown number.
A woman's voice whispered:
“Stop investigating.”
“Who is this?”
“You don't understand what Mason is capable of.”
“Then tell me.”
Silence.
“Your daughter wasn't supposed to die.”
My blood went cold.
“What did you say?”
“The medication was intercepted.”
“By whom?”
“I can't talk.”
“Then meet me.”
“No.”
“Please.”
Another silence.
Then she said:
“Go to St. Vincent's Chapel at midnight.”
The line went dead.
I looked at Callahan.
“I think I know who it is.”
At midnight, I arrived at the chapel.
Callahan stayed nearby.
The building was empty.
Rain tapped against the stained-glass windows.
Then a woman stepped out from behind a pillar.
Nora Vega.
She looked nothing like the photograph.
Older.
Tired.
Terrified.
“You're Elizabeth.”
“Yes.”
She stared at me for a long time.
“You look like your father.”
“What happened to him?”
“He trusted the wrong person.”
“Mason?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
My stomach tightened.
“Then who?”
Nora whispered:
“Your father's own attorney.”
I frowned.
“My father trusted him.”
“Everyone did.”
She handed me a folder.
“Your father discovered that someone was using your trust to move money.”
“Who?”
Nora looked toward the door.
“We don't have much time.”
Suddenly, headlights swept across the windows.
Nora panicked.
“They found me.”
“Who?”
She grabbed my wrist.
“Mason isn't the mastermind.”
The door burst open.
Two men entered.
Callahan shouted from outside.
“Run!”
Nora pushed me toward a side door.
We escaped through the chapel garden.
Behind us, someone shouted.
A gunshot cracked through the night.
Nora stumbled.
I caught her.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Then she looked at me.
“You need to understand something.”
“What?”
“Mason didn't stop your daughter's medication.”
I stared at her.
“Who did?”
Nora swallowed.
“Your father.”
I nearly dropped her.
“What?”
“He delayed the trust's automatic release before he died.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Because he discovered someone was using Daisy's medical expenses as bait.”
I couldn't speak.
Nora continued.
“Someone wanted you angry at Mason.”
“Why?”
“So you'd activate a clause in your father's trust.”
“What clause?”
Nora looked directly at me.
“The emergency control clause.”
My blood ran cold.
“If you believe Mason deliberately harmed Daisy, the trust transfers temporary authority to you.”
“And?”
“And whoever controls that authority controls more than eighty million dollars.”
I finally understood.
Daisy's death hadn't just been a tragedy.
Someone had engineered a war between me and Mason.
And the prize was my father's fortune.
Then Nora said something worse.
“There is one person who benefits if you and Mason destroy each other.”
“Who?”
She whispered:
“Your stepmother.”
I froze.
“My father remarried before he died.”
Nora nodded.
“I know.”
“But she died years ago.”
Nora looked confused.
“Elizabeth…”
May you like
“That's impossible.”
“She was alive.”
