Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN ON CAMERA
Emily reached the mansion forty minutes later.
Police vehicles crowded the circular driveway.
Daniel waited beneath the front portico, soaked from the rain.
“You shouldn’t have come,” he said.
“You told the police the camera showed me.”
“I said it looked like you.”
Bennett joined them.
“Show us.”
Inside the study, a wall safe stood open.
Nothing else had been disturbed.
Daniel played the security recording.
At 9:14 p.m., a woman in Emily’s gray coat entered the study.
Her face remained turned away from the camera.
She entered the safe code, removed the shareholder ledger, and walked out.
Patricia folded her arms.
“That coat belongs to Emily.”
“So do hundreds of identical coats,” Emily replied.
“The woman knew the code.”
“So do you.”
Patricia’s eyes sharpened.
Daniel paused the video.
A small silver bracelet was visible around the woman’s wrist.
Emily held up her bare arm.
“I don’t own that bracelet.”
Patricia immediately pulled her sleeves lower.
Emily noticed.
So did Bennett.
“Mrs. Carter,” Bennett said, “may we see your wrists?”
Patricia laughed.
“This is absurd.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
“Show him.”
“I will not be treated like a criminal in my own home.”
“It isn’t your home,” Emily said.
Patricia lunged toward her.
Daniel stepped between them.
For the first time that night, he stopped his mother.
Patricia stared at him in disbelief.
“You’re defending her?”
“I’m asking you to show us your wrist.”
Slowly, Patricia lifted her sleeves.
No bracelet.
But a thin red mark circled her right wrist, as though jewelry had recently been removed.
Bennett asked the police to search the property.
They found no ledger and no bracelet.
Emily walked into the hallway while Daniel followed.
“I didn’t know about the transfers,” he said.
“You signed documents without reading them.”
“I trusted the people around me.”
“You trusted everyone except your wife.”
Daniel looked down.
“I was angry.”
“You were prepared. My bags were already packed.”
“My mother said you were planning to take the company.”
“And you believed her.”
“She had photographs.”
“You never asked who Bennett was.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“I made a mistake.”
“No. You made a choice.”
A police officer approached with a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a torn strip of gray fabric.
“We found this caught on the rear gate.”
Emily touched her coat.
No tear.
Patricia appeared behind Daniel.
Her burgundy dress was intact.
Bennett examined the fabric.
“This didn’t come from a wool coat.”
Emily looked closer.
It was gray polyester, the kind used in company maintenance uniforms.
A family member had not stolen the ledger.
An employee had.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
He answered and listened without speaking.
“What happened?” Emily asked.
His eyes met hers.
“The Riverside apartment project,” he said. “A balcony just collapsed.”
Emily’s blood went cold.
“Was anyone on it?”
May you like
Daniel swallowed.
“A woman and her little boy.”
