Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Vanished
Rebecca Vale was sixty-two.
She entered Whitmore House carrying one small suitcase.
Evelyn stood at the bottom of the staircase.
Rebecca stopped when she saw her.
“Oh, Catherine.”
Evelyn's face hardened.
“I'm Evelyn.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“Of course.”
Charles approached.
“Why are you here?”
“Because someone tried to kill me yesterday.”
She placed an envelope on the table.
Inside was the same photograph Annie had seen.
The foyer.
The intact vase.
On Rebecca's copy, however, the message was different.
COME BACK OR EVELYN DIES.
Charles called police.
Rebecca refused to leave.
“I ran once. I'm done running.”
Annie studied her.
“Why did you disappear?”
Rebecca looked at Charles.
“Because Catherine called me the night she died.”
Evelyn went still.
“She said she'd discovered who was stealing from the foundation. She sounded terrified.”
“Who?”
“She wouldn't say over the phone.”
Rebecca had driven toward Whitmore House.
Before she arrived, she received another call.
A man's voice.
He told her Catherine was dead.
Then he described Rebecca's apartment.
Her bedroom.
Her younger sister's address.
“He said if I spoke to police, my sister would die next.”
“So you disappeared,” Annie said.
“Yes.”
“Why leave your necklace?”
Rebecca touched her bare throat.
“I didn't.”
Evelyn showed her the old photograph.
Rebecca stared.
“That necklace was stolen weeks before Catherine died.”
Another planted clue.
The pattern was unmistakable.
Someone had spent thirteen years manufacturing guilt.
But why restart now?
Rebecca answered that too.
“Because Charles is selling Whitmore Holdings.”
Evelyn turned.
“What?”
Charles looked cornered.
“I intended to tell you.”
“When?”
“The board votes Friday.”
Rebecca explained that Catherine's missing evidence concerned company money routed through the charitable foundation.
If the company were sold, a forensic audit could expose old transactions.
“So whoever stole the money is panicking,” Annie said.
Charles nodded.
“And they're trying to frighten everyone away before Friday.”
Evelyn looked at her father.
“Cancel the sale.”
“No.”
“Someone is threatening us.”
“Which is exactly why I won't run.”
Annie almost smiled.
Perhaps Evelyn had inherited something useful from him after all.
That afternoon, Annie and Rebecca examined Catherine's old belongings.
Rebecca recognized the number sequence.
Catherine loved simple letter codes.
But DSAFE wasn't merely “safe.”
It meant “D safe.”
“Her fourth safe,” Rebecca said.
“She had more than one?”
“Catherine trusted banks less than people think.”
Safe D had been hidden somewhere outside the main house.
Margaret remembered Catherine spending hours in the greenhouse.
They searched it.
Behind a loose brick, Annie found a metal key.
Attached was a tag.
D.
Evelyn stared.
“Then the safe still exists.”
But where?
Rebecca remembered an old storage building near the property's northern boundary.
They drove there.
Dust covered everything.
At the back stood a steel cabinet.
The key fit.
Inside was not money.
It was accounting records.
Bank transfers.
Company memos.
Photographs.
And a cassette recorder.
Charles picked up the first ledger.
His face went pale.
“These signatures are mine.”
“Did you sign them?” Annie asked.
“No.”
Millions had been transferred using forged authorization.
The recipient was a shell company.
Wellington Consulting.
Daniel promised to trace it.
Evelyn found a photograph.
Her mother stood beside three men.
Charles.
Thomas Reed.
And a younger Daniel Ross.
Annie looked at Daniel.
“You worked here before you became security chief?”
Daniel nodded.
“I was junior security.”
“Did Catherine trust you?”
“I thought so.”
Something about his answer bothered Annie.
Rebecca inserted batteries into the cassette recorder.
A tape was already inside.
Catherine's voice filled the storage room.
“If anything happens to me, the person responsible is someone Charles trusts completely.”
Static.
Then Catherine said a name.
But the tape distorted.
Everyone leaned closer.
“…Ross…”
Daniel's face changed.
Charles turned toward him.
“Daniel?”
Daniel stepped backward.
“That's not what she said.”
Nobody moved.
Then the lights went out.
A crash sounded.
Annie felt someone shove past her.
The door slammed.
When emergency lights flickered on, Daniel was gone.
So was the cassette.
Charles ran outside.
A vehicle roared to life beyond the trees.
Security rushed after it.
Annie looked down.
Daniel had dropped his phone.
The screen was unlocked.
A message had arrived seconds earlier.
It contained only six words.
SHE FOUND THE WRONG SAFE. MOVE NOW.
Annie opened the conversation.
There was no name.
Only a number.
But the previous message made her blood turn cold.
Daniel hadn't been receiving instructions.
May you like
He had been sending reports.
And the person answering him was still inside Whitmore House.
