Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN IN THE CAMERA
Vanessa denied everything.
“That could be anyone.”
Grant held the image closer.
“There were only twelve bracelets made.”
“So?”
“You told me that yourself.”
“I lost mine.”
“When?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“Months ago.”
Grant looked toward her wrist.
The bracelet wasn’t there.
Caleb remembered seeing her wearing it at dinner two nights earlier.
He said so.
Vanessa turned on him.
“You clean horse stalls. You don’t track my jewelry.”
Caleb shrugged.
“You complained when a clasp scratched your car.”
Grant looked at Caleb.
Then back at Vanessa.
“Did you lose it two months ago?”
She said nothing.
“Or two days ago?”
“Grant…”
Detective Reed stepped between them.
“Mrs. Harrington, I strongly recommend you stop improvising.”
Vanessa’s face went red.
“I want my lawyer.”
“Good idea.”
She walked away.
Grant watched her leave.
For the first time, he looked old.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
Caleb had seen that look before.
It was the face of a man realizing the story of his life might be false.
Grant turned to Caleb.
“You need a hospital.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding through the bandage.”
Caleb looked down.
“Still fine.”
Grant almost smiled.
Almost.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed immediately.
“What do you mean missing?”
Caleb straightened.
Grant walked several steps away.
“No. Lock the accounts.”
A pause.
“All of them.”
He ended the call.
Reed asked, “Problem?”
Grant looked toward the house.
“Thirty-two million dollars was transferred from one of our private investment accounts at 4:52 this morning.”
Vanessa’s departure time had been 5:14.
Reed asked, “Who had authorization?”
Grant’s eyes hardened.
“My wife.”
The investigation moved into the mansion.
For years, Caleb had only entered through the service doors.
That afternoon, he walked through the front.
Marble floors.
Paintings worth more than his lifetime wages.
A staircase shaped like a theater set.
Grant led Reed toward the private office.
Caleb started to leave.
Grant stopped him.
“Stay.”
Caleb frowned.
“Why?”
“You saw them.”
Grant looked him directly in the eye.
“And right now, you’re the only person in this house I know didn’t want me dead.”
Caleb didn’t know how to answer that.
Inside the office, Reed examined financial records.
Thirty-two million dollars had gone to a shell corporation in the Cayman Islands.
The company had been formed eighteen months earlier.
Caleb leaned over the desk.
“Harrington Meridian Holdings?”
Grant nodded.
“Never heard of it.”
Reed asked, “You?”
“No.”
A technician entered carrying a laptop.
“We recovered deleted emails from Mrs. Harrington’s account.”
Vanessa, now accompanied by an attorney, stood in the doorway.
“You had no right.”
The technician ignored her.
Reed read the message aloud.
“Flight confirmed. He’ll be alone. Payment after altitude.”
Grant’s face drained of color.
Vanessa shouted, “That’s fake!”
Reed looked at the metadata.
“It was sent from your home network.”
“Someone hacked me.”
“Maybe.”
Grant turned away.
Then the technician spoke again.
“There’s another email.”
Reed read it.
And this one did not mention Grant.
It mentioned Caleb.
“If the farmhand saw anything, make sure he never talks.”
Caleb stared at Vanessa.
She stared back.
Then she smiled.
May you like
Very slightly.
As if she knew something he didn’t.
