Chapter 4 - CLAIRE
Her name was Claire Mason.
Thirty-four years old.
Former title clerk.
Two arrests for fraud.
One conviction for identity theft.
And for the last eighteen months, she had worked three floors below Daniel at Hartwell Development.
Nora slid Claire’s employee photograph across the hospital tray.
Elena studied her face.
Without the wig and sunglasses, Claire looked nothing like her.
That somehow made it worse.
“She pretended to be me?”
“Looks that way.”
“Why?”
Nora gave her a tired look.
“I think you know why.”
Elena looked toward the window.
Daniel had been having an affair.
The thought should have broken her heart.
Instead, it made everything make sense.
The late meetings.
The locked phone.
The sudden business trips.
The new password on his laptop.
Elena had blamed herself for noticing.
She remembered apologizing to him for being suspicious.
The memory made her angry.
“Where is Claire?”
“Missing.”
“Since when?”
“Yesterday.”
Rachel folded her arms.
“That’s convenient.”
Nora nodded.
“She didn’t report to work. Her phone is off. Apartment empty.”
“Daniel warn her?”
“We don’t know.”
Elena looked at Nora.
“You think he did.”
Nora didn’t answer.
That was answer enough.
Later that afternoon, Elena was transferred out of ICU.
Daniel had been told not to visit.
At 9:17 p.m., Elena’s phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
She stared at it.
Rachel was asleep in the chair.
Elena answered.
“Hello?”
Breathing.
Then a woman whispered, “Don’t hang up.”
Elena’s entire body went rigid.
“Claire?”
Silence.
“Are you Claire?”
“Yes.”
Elena sat up.
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“You forged my signature.”
“I did what Daniel told me.”
Elena gripped the phone.
“He tried to kill me.”
Claire began crying.
“I didn’t know he was going to do it like that.”
“Like what?”
“I thought he’d make it look natural.”
Elena stopped breathing.
“You knew he was going to kill me?”
“No. I mean—”
“You knew.”
“I knew there was a plan.”
“You helped him.”
“I was scared.”
“You were sleeping with him.”
Claire went silent.
Elena lowered her voice.
“Why are you calling me?”
“Because he’s going to kill me too.”
Elena looked toward the hallway.
“Go to the police.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“No, Elena, you don’t understand.”
“What don’t I understand?”
Claire sniffed.
“Daniel has somebody inside the police department.”
Elena’s blood turned cold.
“Who?”
“I don’t know his name.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because Daniel called him after they found you.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“What did he say?”
Claire’s next words came in a whisper.
“He said, ‘You were supposed to make sure she never reached the morgue alive.’”
Elena looked toward the door.
Footsteps stopped outside her room.
The handle slowly turned.
May you like
Claire whispered one final sentence.
“Elena, somebody is coming for you.”
