Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN IN THE CAR
Ethan replayed the recording twice. Vivian’s voice was unmistakable. So was Julian’s.
“Why would she warn him away if she was part of it?” Elena asked.
Grant pointed at the screen. “Because she found out what Julian planned. She asked me to get Noah upstairs.”
“Then why take Noah to the west wing?” Ethan said.
“I didn’t. He followed me.”
Noah looked at Grant. “You said the camera had to disappear.”
Grant’s face hardened. “I said I needed to see it.”
An officer took him downstairs for a formal statement. Ethan wanted to follow. Elena stopped him beside the safe.
“Look at the folder.”
It contained old insurance papers, a photograph of Ethan’s father standing beside the black sedan, and a handwritten inventory of items removed from his car after the crash. One entry had been circled in blue ink: PAIR OF GOLD CUFFLINKS. ONE RECOVERED.
“Your father was wearing the other one,” Elena said.
Ethan stared at the photograph. “I made that pair for him. He wore them to every family dinner, even though the portrait on the back was terrible.”
“It looks like you.”
“That’s because he told the jeweler not to fix it.”
His voice broke on the last word. He shut the folder.
A message came through on his phone from Vivian’s number.
JULIAN HAS ME. DON’T LET HIM FIND ROSA’S ENVELOPE.
Elena read it over his shoulder.
“My mother hid it in a sewing box,” she said. “It’s at my apartment.”
Ethan called Vivian. Her phone was off.
The police had already set a search for the sedan, but there were half a dozen private roads leading off the estate. Julian knew every one of them.
“I’m going to your apartment,” Ethan said.
“The police can get it.”
“Julian knows where you live?”
Elena remembered the staff forms she filled out each year. “Yes.”
“Then we need to reach it first.”
Noah stepped between them. “Grandma told me a secret this morning.”
Ethan crouched. “What secret?”
“She said if anybody asked about Grandpa’s car, I should tell you she kept the key.”
“What key?”
Noah reached into his sock and pulled out a small brass key on a blue ribbon.
Before Ethan could ask anything else, Elena’s phone lit up. Her apartment building was calling.
She answered.
“Elena?” Her neighbor’s voice shook. “There are two men at your door.”
May you like
A crash sounded through the phone.
Then the line went dead.
