Chapter 4 - THE WRONG PERSON TO ASK
“They made a dead man approve it,” Naomi said.
Ethan stared at the time stamp.
“Could it be a clerical error?”
She looked at him until he lowered his eyes.
“I'm sorry. That was a stupid question.”
“It's the question they count on.”
His calendar placed him in London. Boarding passes and conference photographs backed it up. They did not prove he had never approved anything remotely, but Naomi watched his confusion turn into something harder.
He placed the original in his safe and gave her a copy.
“We'll get someone outside the family to review this.”
“Start with the detective who handled Philadelphia. Elena Ortiz. I'll call her.”
“I need the underlying invoice.”
“Don't ask Cole.”
“I wasn't going to.”
But twenty minutes later, Ethan asked Marcus Hale.
He told himself Marcus was the family lawyer. A man who had helped bury Ethan's father and remembered his birthday. Someone who would explain why an old foundation expense had surfaced in the library.
Marcus listened without interrupting.
“Leave this with me,” he said.
“I'm keeping the original.”
The lawyer's smile barely shifted.
“Of course.”
That evening, Naomi found Ruth waiting outside her room.
Cole stood behind her with a key.
“Miss Sterling's emerald brooch is missing,” he said.
Naomi looked at the open door.
“And you've decided it came upstairs by itself?”
“We need to check your belongings.”
“No. You can call the police, and I'll speak to them.”
Vanessa appeared at the end of the hall in a white silk robe.
“Honest people don't make this difficult.”
“Honest people ask before entering someone's room.”
Vanessa's eyes flicked toward the dresser. Just once.
Naomi saw it.
Ethan arrived before Cole could move inside.
“Everyone out of the doorway.”
“She's manipulating you,” Vanessa said. “First the late-night talks. Now this.”
Naomi kept watching the dresser.
On top sat her mother's small sewing tin. The lid had been turned so the painted bird faced the wall.
She always left it facing the bed.
“You told Marcus,” she said to Ethan.
His silence answered her.
May you like
Vanessa folded her arms.
“Open the tin.”
