Chapter 25 - The Bag Returned
The handbag had been released after Sabrina’s final appeal ended.
No one at the mansion had requested it.
The evidence label stated that the bag was being returned to its registered purchaser.
Elena.
Because her household account had paid for it.
Investigators opened the container inside the library.
The leather still carried faint marks from the staged fire pit, although the hidden tray had protected most of it. The secondary phone and flash drive had been removed years earlier as evidence.
Something remained beneath the inner lining.
Clara found a memory card no larger than a fingernail.
It had not appeared on the original evidence inventory.
Victor inserted it into an isolated computer.
A video opened.
Richard appeared on the screen, seated in his old office. The date showed that it had been recorded eleven days before his death.
“Elena,” he began, “if this reaches you through the bag, then Diana failed to contact me directly.”
He explained that Diana had discovered someone transferring Bluebonnet’s money into legitimate charitable accounts. The money was divided into small donations, grants and property-assistance payments.
Once inside respected organizations, it could be moved without attracting suspicion.
“The Pierce family did not build this alone,” Richard said. “Someone inside our charitable network showed Conrad how to make stolen money look generous.”
Elena thought about the seven-thousand-two-hundred-dollar payment.
This did not belong to me.
It had not been restitution from Garrick.
Someone had returned part of the money Bluebonnet placed inside the Mercer network years earlier.
Richard continued.
“I believed the person helping Conrad was an outsider. I was wrong. It was someone who sat at our table, knew our accounts and understood which good deeds Elena would never question.”
The video flickered.
A second person entered Richard’s office, but the camera showed only a sleeve and one hand.
The person placed a document on the desk.
Richard looked up.
“You understand what happens if Elena learns this?”
A familiar male voice replied.
“She will lose everything she believes about us.”
Elena turned toward Victor.
He had gone completely still.
The voice on the recording sounded like his.
Victor removed his glasses.
Before he could speak, Clara’s telephone rang.
Martin was calling from the center.
“Victor’s office was emptied this morning,” he said through the speaker. “His files, computers and personal records are gone.”
Everyone looked at Victor.
He remained beside the library window.
“That was not my office,” he said.
Clara lowered the phone.
“What are you talking about?”
“The room you searched belonged to the man who used my name.”
A car stopped outside the mansion gates.
The security monitor showed Celeste Pierce stepping from the back seat.
Beside her stood an older woman carrying a faded blue travel bag.
Garrick moved closer to the screen.
The woman’s face had aged, but he recognized her from the university photographs.
Diana Lane.
Sabrina’s mother.
Diana looked directly into the gate camera and raised the missing travel bag.
Then the intercom rang.
Elena answered.
Diana spoke first.
“Richard trusted the wrong Victor.”
May you like
Behind Elena, the man they had known as Victor Hale quietly locked the library door.
And on Richard’s video, the hidden figure finally turned toward the camera.
