Chapter 6 - A Message From the Dead
On the sixty-eighth day after Elena’s disappearance, Garrett received an encrypted email.
The sender used an address associated with Elena’s late grandfather.
The message contained only two sentences.
I know what you did.
Bring the original transfer documents to the penthouse on Friday, or every account will be frozen.
Garrett called Brenda immediately.
She arrived at his office with Tiffany less than an hour later.
“It has to be Maya,” Tiffany said.
Garrett shook his head.
“Maya does not have access to Grandfather Whitmore’s private servers.”
“Then who sent it?” Brenda demanded.
Garrett paced beside the windows.
For weeks, he had presented himself publicly as a devoted husband waiting for news about his wife.
Privately, he had already arranged a new life in Europe.
The silver suitcase contained passports, cash, account keys, jewelry certificates and signed documents transferring trust assets into companies he controlled.
He had planned to fly to Geneva on Friday evening.
Now someone was threatening to freeze everything.
“We go to the penthouse,” he decided.
“That could be a trap,” Tiffany said.
Garrett looked at her with contempt.
“A trap set by whom? A woman connected to machines in a private hospital?”
Brenda lowered her voice.
“What if she woke up?”
“The doctor said recovery was impossible.”
“The doctor was paid to say whatever we needed.”
Garrett stopped pacing.
For the first time, doubt appeared in his expression.
Then ambition overwhelmed caution.
“If Elena is awake, she is weak and confused. I will make her sign the final documents.”
“And if she refuses?” Brenda asked.
Garrett stared at the silver suitcase.
“She won’t have a choice.”
Unknown to him, Detective Hale was listening through a court-authorized device inside the office.
The entire conversation was transmitted to investigators.
Elena heard it from a secure apartment across the street from the penthouse.
When Garrett said she would have no choice, Maya reached for her hand.
Elena pulled away gently.
May you like
“I am not afraid of him anymore.”
At noon on Friday, she returned home.
