Chapter 3 - THE SIGNATURE
Naomi stayed on her knees beside the chair.
For a moment, she could smell wet asphalt.
She had been an executive-protection specialist, trained to spot trouble before it reached the person beside her. In Philadelphia, that person had been Helen Ward, an accountant preparing to meet investigators.
Daniel Mercer had driven the lead car.
Neither of them had made it home.
Naomi had spent eight months hearing that the route change was her team's mistake.
Now the route was printed on Whitmore Foundation letterhead.
The page authorized a payment to Aster Risk Management for a late transport adjustment. It listed the service entrance where Helen's car had been trapped. Approval boxes carried Vanessa Sterling's initials and Ethan Whitmore's signature.
Across the top, someone had written: ETHAN — NEED CONFIRMATION BEFORE AUDIT. M.H.
Marcus Hale. The family attorney.
Naomi photographed the page where she found it, then slid it back into its envelope. Her hands had started shaking. She pressed them flat against her thighs until they stopped.
From the adjoining sitting room, Vanessa laughed into her phone.
“The maid? Please. She pours him tea and thinks that makes her special.”
Naomi stood, holding the envelope.
“She's forgetting her place,” Vanessa said.
She ended the call and turned.
“Did you hear what I said?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Then we understand each other.”
Vanessa walked past without noticing the envelope against Naomi's cleaning apron.
Two weeks remained before the engagement gala.
Naomi found Ethan in his study and closed the door.
“You need to look at something.”
He read the page once, then again.
“Where did you get this?”
She told him.
“That isn't my signature.”
“Are you sure?”
His face changed. “You think I'd forget authorizing something like this?”
“People died on that route.”
He looked up.
“How do you know?”
“Because I was there.”
She told him about the convoy, the blocked exit, the radio calls nobody answered. She did not tell him about holding Daniel's hand. That part still belonged to the dark.
Ethan lowered himself into a chair.
“I didn't sign this, Naomi.”
She wanted to believe him. Wanting was dangerous.
He opened a drawer and took out his travel records.
“I can prove where I was.”
As he searched, Naomi looked at the final approval box.
May you like
It carried Daniel's initials.
The approval was dated two hours after he died.
