Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO DISAPPEARED
Her name was Emily Carter.
Twenty-four years old.
Graduate student.
Part-time babysitter.
And according to Grace, the most dependable person she had ever hired.
Until six months ago.
“She didn't disappear,” Grace insisted. “She quit.”
“Did you speak to her?” Adrian asked.
“She texted me.”
“That's not what I asked.”
Grace stopped.
No.
She had never spoken to Emily again.
Adrian handed the phone to Marcus.
“Find her.”
By sunrise, they had an answer.
Emily Carter had supposedly moved to Oregon.
She had never arrived.
Her bank account had not been touched in six months.
Her phone had last connected to a tower twelve miles from the Cole estate.
Grace sat down.
“She knew.”
“Knew what?”
“Nora told her about James.”
Adrian's expression hardened.
“What exactly?”
“I don’t know. Nora was two. She talked constantly.”
Nora looked offended.
“I still talk constantly.”
Despite everything, Adrian almost smiled.
“Yes, you do.”
Marcus returned to the flash drive.
James had organized the evidence carefully.
Payments.
Dates.
Internal emails.
Names.
One appeared repeatedly.
R. Vale.
But another appeared beside it.
E.C.
Grace stared.
“Emily Carter?”
Adrian shook his head.
“These files are four years old.”
Then he remembered.
Evelyn Cross.
James’s former fiancée.
Adrian had not seen her since the funeral.
She had moved to Europe after James died.
Or so everyone believed.
Marcus searched.
“She’s back in Connecticut.”
“Since when?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Adrian called her.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“Adrian.”
No surprise.
As though she had expected him.
“We need to talk.”
“I wondered how long it would take.”
His hand tightened.
“You knew?”
“I knew James was investigating someone.”
“Richard?”
Silence.
“Not over the phone.”
They arranged to meet at an abandoned lakeside property once owned by James.
Grace refused to stay behind.
“You have Nora.”
“I have security.”
“Then I’m coming.”
Adrian studied her.
James had loved this woman.
He was beginning to understand why.
Grace was frightened, but fear did not make her weak.
It made her deliberate.
They left Nora with Mrs. Holloway and four security officers.
At the lake house, Evelyn waited alone.
She was elegant, composed, and visibly nervous.
Then she saw Grace.
Recognition hit immediately.
“So you're Grace.”
Grace stiffened.
“You knew about me?”
“James told me.”
Adrian stared.
“You knew?”
“Our engagement was over long before the family announcement caught up.”
Evelyn gave Grace a sad smile.
“He loved you.”
Grace’s eyes filled.
“Then why did everyone believe you were still together?”
“Because Richard advised us to keep the breakup private until after a merger.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
Again Richard.
Evelyn opened a leather folder.
“James came to me two days before he died.”
Inside were copies of invoices.
“He believed Richard was stealing from Cole Meridian.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because James told me Richard wasn’t working alone.”
“Who was?”
“I don’t know.”
A gunshot shattered the window.
Adrian threw Grace down.
Evelyn screamed.
Marcus drew his weapon.
Another shot struck the wall.
Security rushed outside.
A vehicle roared away through the woods.
Nobody was hit.
But the message was clear.
Someone knew about the meeting.
Someone was tracking them.
Back at the mansion, Adrian ordered all phones surrendered and replaced.
Then Mrs. Holloway approached.
“Nora found something.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Of course she did.”
The toddler sat beneath the grand piano surrounded by photographs from James’s hidden compartment.
She had arranged them into two piles.
Adrian crouched.
“What are you doing?”
“Matching.”
He examined them.
“What are you matching?”
“Hands.”
Grace sat beside her.
Nora pointed to James in one photograph.
“He does this.”
James’s left hand rested against his jacket.
Two fingers were curled inward.
Then she pointed toward a photograph of Richard.
“No.”
Then another man.
“Yes.”
Adrian stared.
It was his father’s former chief financial officer, Malcolm Pierce.
“What are you seeing?”
Nora demonstrated.
She rubbed her thumb twice against the side of her index finger.
Grace gasped.
James used to do that whenever he was nervous.
So did Nora.
And in photograph after photograph, Malcolm Pierce was doing exactly the same thing.
Adrian felt something unsettling.
Coincidence?
Perhaps.
Then Grace picked up one photograph.
On its back James had written:
Ask Dad why Malcolm does this.
Adrian remembered something.
Malcolm had entered Cole Meridian before either son was born.
His father trusted him completely.
Too completely.
Adrian called Marcus.
“Find everything on Malcolm Pierce.”
Marcus hesitated.
“There’s a problem.”
“What?”
“He died three years ago.”
Grace looked at Nora.
Nora was staring at another photograph.
“No.”
She pointed.
Adrian followed her finger.
The photograph had been taken six weeks ago at a charity gala.
A man stood behind Richard Vale.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Bearded.
But unmistakable.
Malcolm Pierce.
May you like
Alive.
And wearing James Cole’s watch.
