Chapter 3 - Somebody Wanted Audrey AfraidBy sunset, Audrey’s graduation had become national social-media material.
She hated every second of it.
The slap had been captured from twelve angles.
So had Victoria screaming.
Clips of Audrey standing at the microphone spread quickly, although academy administrators requested that news organizations avoid distributing documents visible in the footage while an investigation was underway.
Audrey sat in a small security conference room on the second floor of Westbridge’s administration building.
Her cheek had begun swelling.
Paige pressed an ice pack into her hand.
“Hold this there.”
“I’m fine.”
“You look like somebody hit you.”
Audrey stared at her.
Paige blinked.
“Right. Sorry.”
Audrey laughed despite herself.
It hurt.
Across the table, Agent Chen arranged photographs.
Colonel Hale stood near the window.
Dr. Reed had left to handle the graduation chaos.
Julian sat at the far end of the table.
He had refused to leave.
Arthur and Victoria had been escorted off academy grounds after giving preliminary statements.
Neither had been arrested.
That bothered Julian.
“They should have arrested him.”
Chen looked up.
“For slapping Audrey?”
“Yes.”
“Campus police are handling that.”
“I mean everything else.”
“We build cases with evidence.”
“He stole from her.”
“Allegedly.”
Julian slammed his palm down.
“You saw the records.”
“Mr. Vance, if you want to help your sister, learn something now.”
Julian stared at her.
Chen leaned forward.
“Rage feels productive. Usually it isn’t.”
Julian sat back.
Audrey studied him.
She could not remember the last time Julian had called her his sister in a way that sounded protective.
Maybe never.
Chen slid a photograph toward Audrey.
It showed a broken archive door.
Another showed scattered files.
A third showed a framed photograph lying on the floor.
Audrey recognized herself.
It had been taken during a sophomore leadership ceremony.
She was wearing Westbridge gray.
“Where did they get that?”
“We don’t know.”
Chen slid another image forward.
A bloodstain on the floor.
The night clerk had suffered a fractured skull but was alive.
“What did the intruder take?”
“Apparently nothing.”
“Then why break in?”
“That’s what concerns me.”
Julian leaned closer.
“Maybe they were looking for something specific.”
Chen nodded.
“The files associated with Samuel Vance had been pulled from shelving.”
Audrey frowned.
“But the original trust paperwork was already sent to the trustee attorney.”
“Some of it. Not all.”
“What was left?”
Chen hesitated.
“A sealed deposition.”
Audrey’s eyes narrowed.
“From who?”
“We don’t know. It’s gone.”
“So something was taken.”
“One item.”
Audrey looked at Julian.
He looked equally confused.
Chen continued.
“The archive index lists it only as ‘Statement E.V.’”
Eleanor Vance.
Audrey said the name aloud.
“My grandmother.”
“That would be my assumption.”
Audrey sat back.
The room seemed smaller.
“Did my father know about it?”
“That is one of many questions I intend to ask him.”
Julian shook his head.
“You don’t understand Dad.”
Chen looked at him.
“Help me.”
“If he knew there was evidence somewhere, he wouldn’t break into a building himself.”
“Agreed.”
“He’d send someone.”
Audrey studied her brother again.
“You’ve seen him do that?”
Julian hesitated.
“No.”
That hesitation was loud.
Audrey leaned forward.
“What have you seen?”
Julian rubbed his palms over his knees.
“When I got arrested after that car wreck…”
Audrey remembered.
Arthur had announced that all charges were dismissed because the Breathalyzer had been faulty.
Julian continued.
“There was another driver.”
Audrey stared at him.
“What?”
“I hit a parked car first. Then another car clipped the median trying to avoid me.”
“You told everyone nobody was hurt.”
“Nobody was seriously hurt.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Julian looked ashamed.
“A woman broke her wrist.”
Audrey felt sick.
“What happened?”
“Dad sent a lawyer.”
“To you?”
“To her.”
Audrey stared.
“He paid her?”
Julian nodded.
“And then a witness changed his statement.”
Chen became very still.
“Name.”
“I don’t remember.”
“Try.”
Julian closed his eyes.
“Peter something. A mechanic.”
“Last name?”
“I said I don’t remember.”
Audrey snapped.
“Think harder.”
Julian looked at her.
His face tightened.
“For once in your life, Julian, think about somebody besides yourself.”
He shot to his feet.
“You think I don’t know what I am?”
Paige stepped forward.
Audrey did not move.
Julian’s eyes were wet.
“You think I don’t know he cleaned up every stupid thing I did? I thought that was what parents did because that’s what he taught me.”
Audrey stared back.
“No. That’s what accomplices do.”
Julian flinched.
Silence filled the room.
Then he sat again.
“Peter Donnelly.”
Chen wrote the name down.
Audrey’s phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
She ignored it.
It buzzed again.
Then a text appeared.
YOU SHOULD HAVE KEPT THE FAMILY PRIVATE.
Paige saw it.
“Audrey.”
Audrey handed the phone to Chen.
Another message arrived.
A photograph.
Audrey’s dorm room.
Taken from outside.
Paige whispered, “Oh my God.”
Colonel Hale moved immediately.
“Lock down her building.”
Chen dialed another agent.
A third text arrived.
YOUR GRANDFATHER LEARNED WHAT HAPPENS TO PEOPLE WHO MAKE THE WRONG CHILD HEIR.
Audrey stopped breathing.
Julian stared at the screen.
“That doesn’t sound like Dad.”
Audrey looked at him.
“How would you know?”
“Because Dad threatens people directly.”
“That isn’t reassuring.”
“No, listen. He likes people knowing it’s him. Whoever this is wants you wondering.”
Agent Chen nodded slowly.
“He may be right.”
Paige moved closer to Audrey.
“Don’t go back to your dorm.”
“I need my things.”
“No.”
Colonel Hale agreed.
“Your belongings can be collected by security.”
Audrey stood.
“I’m not hiding.”
Chen looked at her.
“This is not hiding. It’s threat management.”
Audrey wanted to argue.
Then she looked again at the photograph of her dorm window.
She remembered every night she had studied there alone.
Every shower.
Every call.
Every moment she assumed she was safe.
Her skin crawled.
“All right.”
Julian stood too.
“I’m staying with her.”
Audrey laughed without humor.
“No.”
“He knows my car.”
“No.”
“I know Dad’s employees.”
“Julian.”
“And if someone inside the company is doing this, I might recognize them.”
Audrey hesitated.
Chen did not.
“He stays.”
Audrey turned.
“Excuse me?”
“He may be useful.”
Julian looked pleased.
Chen added, “Don’t let that go to your head.”
It did not.
An hour later, Audrey, Paige, and Julian were moved to a secure faculty guest residence on the edge of campus.
Two campus officers stood outside.
Audrey took a shower.
Changed clothes.
Stared at herself in the mirror.
The bruise on her cheek had darkened.
She touched it.
The door opened behind her.
She spun.
Paige stood there.
“Sorry.”
Audrey exhaled.
“You scared me.”
“I brought food.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“I didn’t ask.”
Audrey followed her into the living room.
Julian stood near the window.
He was holding an old photograph.
Audrey recognized it.
Eleanor with Audrey and Julian beside a lake.
Summer.
Audrey was ten.
Julian was seven.
“Where did you get that?”
“Dad’s wallet.”
Audrey stared.
“You stole his wallet?”
“At graduation.”
“When?”
“When security grabbed him.”
Audrey almost laughed.
“You pickpocketed Dad?”
“I panicked.”
“That’s your defense?”
“It’s worked before.”
Paige rolled her eyes.
Julian turned the photograph over.
“There’s writing.”
He handed it to Audrey.
The handwriting was Eleanor’s.
Audrey knew it instantly.
For Audrey and Julian. Never let anyone convince you that love must be earned.
Below that was something else.
Numbers.
A date.
And three words.
Lake Mercer. Cabin 9.
Audrey’s stomach tightened.
“That cabin burned down.”
Julian nodded.
“Dad said Grandma accidentally started the fire.”
“When?”
“Two months before she died.”
Audrey looked at him.
“So why did he keep this?”
Julian pointed to the date.
“It isn’t the fire date.”
Audrey stared.
The date was six months ago.
The same month Eleanor had allegedly notarized the inheritance document.
Paige whispered, “Someone wrote that recently.”
Audrey shook her head.
“No.”
She traced the ink.
“Grandma wrote it.”
A knock sounded downstairs.
Everyone froze.
One of the security officers called through the door.
“Cadet Vance?”
Colonel Hale’s voice followed.
“Open up.”
Julian unlocked the door.
Hale entered carrying a plastic evidence bag.
Inside was Audrey’s graduation cap.
“I thought you had that,” Paige said.
Audrey frowned.
“I left it with my gown in the locker room.”
Hale placed the bag on the table.
“There was something inside the lining.”
He turned it over.
A tiny electronic device had been sewn beneath the fabric.
Julian whispered, “A tracker?”
Hale nodded.
Audrey felt cold.
“When was that placed there?”
“We don’t know.”
Paige asked, “Who had access?”
Audrey thought.
Tailor.
Uniform department.
Dorm.
Graduation preparation room.
Dozens of people.
Then Julian stared toward the dark window.
“Someone wanted to know where she went after graduation.”
Audrey nodded.
And suddenly the archive break-in made sense.
The threatening messages.
The tracker.
The photograph.
Not random intimidation.
A hunt.
Audrey picked up Eleanor’s photograph.
Lake Mercer.
Cabin 9.
Her grandmother had left them a location.
Maybe a warning.
Maybe evidence.
Maybe something else entirely.
Audrey looked at Colonel Hale.
“I need a map.”
Hale stared at her.
“No.”
“My grandmother may be alive.”
“That does not make driving toward an unknown location tonight a wise decision.”
Audrey looked him straight in the eye.
“The last person who had documents connected to her is in the hospital with a fractured skull.”
Hale said nothing.
“If my grandmother is alive,” Audrey continued, “whoever attacked that clerk may already know.”
Julian moved beside her.
“We’re going.”
Hale sighed.
“You’re absolutely not.”
Then every light inside the guest residence went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Paige gasped.
Outside, one of the security officers shouted.
A vehicle engine roared.
Glass shattered downstairs.
Colonel Hale pulled his sidearm.
“Everyone down!”
Audrey dropped behind the sofa.
A second crash came from the kitchen.
Julian grabbed Paige and pulled her low.
Then a voice came from outside.
A man.
Calm.
Close.
“Audrey Vance.”
Hale raised his weapon.
May you like
The voice continued through the darkness.
“If you want your grandmother alive, bring the photograph.”
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