Chapter 10 - The Name Isabelle Feared
The recording began with static.
Then Isabelle's voice filled the cabin.
Clara froze.
She had heard old videos before.
Birthday recordings.
Christmas mornings.
But this was different.
Her mother sounded frightened.
“If Greyhaven ever returns, someone inside our circle has failed us.”
Elias sat motionless.
The recording continued.
“I don't know who yet. I only know confidential documents were accessed by someone with legal authorization. Malcolm could not have obtained them alone.”
Marianne whispered, “No.”
Isabelle named four people.
Two had died years ago.
One was a retired banker.
The fourth was Marianne Vale.
Clara turned.
Marianne looked as though someone had struck her.
Elias stood.
“Explain.”
“I can't.”
“Try.”
“I never betrayed Isabelle.”
“Her recording says someone with your access—”
“I said I did not betray her.”
Rachel stepped between them carefully.
Marianne opened her bag.
Elias stiffened.
She pulled out her phone and placed it on the table.
“Take it.”
“What?”
“Take everything. Phone. Laptop. Office credentials. Search my home. Search twenty years of records.”
Clara watched her.
Marianne's hands were shaking.
“I loved your mother,” she said. “And I have spent twenty years protecting what she built. If you suspect me, investigate me.”
Clara asked the question nobody else did.
“Who had access through you?”
Marianne stopped.
“What?”
“Younger lawyers. Assistants. Clerks. Someone working under your credentials.”
Slowly, Marianne's face changed.
“There was one person.”
“Who?”
“Thomas Bell.”
Elias knew the name.
“Malcolm's current attorney.”
Marianne nodded.
“He was my junior associate.”
Twenty-two years earlier, Thomas Bell had worked directly beneath Marianne on Greyhaven document review.
He later left the firm.
Years afterward, he became Malcolm Whitlock's personal counsel.
“He told me it was coincidence,” Marianne whispered.
Elias's expression turned cold.
“There are too many coincidences in this story.”
They returned to New York before dawn.
By morning, Thomas Bell's office was empty.
His computer had been wiped.
And his receptionist said he had left town.
But one thing remained.
May you like
A security camera showed Bell entering Vivienne's building the night before she disappeared.
Vivienne wasn't running alone.
