Chapter 10 - LAURA MORGAN’S LETTER
Rachel turned Emily away before the footage continued.
Grant stopped the video.
“That’s enough for her.”
Thomas took Emily into the hallway.
Rachel remained.
“Play it.”
Grant hesitated.
“Play it.”
The footage resumed.
Victor stood.
Laura was shouting at him.
There was no audio, but her terror was unmistakable.
Victor grabbed her shoulders.
Laura pulled away.
Then Victor pointed toward the house.
The recording ended.
Rachel sat motionless.
Grant spoke quietly.
“We still don’t see how Daniel entered the water.”
“But Victor lied.”
“Yes.”
“He was there after Daniel went into the water.”
“Yes.”
“And Laura saw something.”
“Yes.”
Rachel looked at the photograph.
“Then three months later she died.”
Grant nodded slowly.
“We reopen that case too.”
Thomas returned.
“There’s something in the ledger.”
He placed a page on the table.
A payment.
$750,000.
Recipient: L.M.
Rachel stared.
“Laura?”
Thomas shook his head.
“Look at the date.”
The payment had been made four days after Laura’s death.
Rachel frowned.
“Then who received it?”
Grant studied the routing number.
“Claire.”
Rachel looked up.
Thomas nodded.
“Claire Morgan’s middle name is Louise.”
Rachel remembered Claire’s words.
You said nobody would get hurt.
“She knew.”
Grant called the officers at the hotel.
“Find Claire Morgan.”
A pause.
Then his expression changed.
“What?”
Rachel stood.
Grant listened.
“When?”
Another pause.
“Seal the exits.”
He hung up.
“Claire disappeared from the hotel seventeen minutes ago.”
Thomas swore under his breath.
Rachel looked at the ledger again.
Something was tucked between two pages.
A folded letter.
The handwriting belonged to Laura.
Rachel opened it.
Daniel,
Victor knows you copied the accounts.
He says he can fix everything if you give him the drive.
Do not believe him.
Rachel continued.
Claire helped process the transfers, but she didn’t understand where the money was going at first.
When she found out, Victor threatened her.
Rachel stopped.
Thomas read over her shoulder.
The final paragraph was worse.
There is another person.
Someone Victor is afraid of.
I heard him call them after you confronted him.
He said, “If Daniel talks, we all go down.”
Rachel looked at Grant.
“Who?”
There was no name.
Only one final line.
Ask who approved the Ellison acquisitions.
Thomas’s face changed.
Rachel noticed.
“What?”
He sat down.
“The acquisitions couldn’t be approved by Victor alone.”
“Who else?”
Thomas looked at her.
“The foundation chairman.”
Rachel already knew the answer.
She simply didn’t want to say it.
Thomas did.
May you like
“Charles Bennett.”
Victor and Daniel’s father.
