Chapter 9 - The Second Suitcase)
By noon, the police knew who the second suitcase belonged to.
Elena Voss.
Thirty-two.
Financial consultant.
Former employee of Carter Strategic Holdings.
And, according to hotel records, Julian Carter’s lover for at least eleven months.
Claire stared at the photograph on Marcus’s phone.
She did not cry.
That surprised him.
She only studied Elena’s face.
Blonde.
Elegant.
Smiling beside Julian at a corporate charity dinner.
“I met her.”
Marcus sat beside Claire in the hospital family room.
“When?”
“Last Christmas.”
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Did you suspect?”
Claire shook her head.
“He was too busy making me doubt myself.”
The bitterness in her voice hurt more than tears would have.
Marcus put the phone away.
“Police think Julian planned to leave.”
“With her?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Probably Friday.”
Claire stared out the window.
“So after I was admitted…”
“Or worse.”
She looked at him.
Marcus regretted saying it.
But Claire did not look away.
“Say it.”
“Claire.”
“Say what you think.”
Marcus exhaled.
“They found the insurance policy.”
“I know.”
“Nathan says Julian asked about staging a boating accident.”
“I know.”
“The lake house may have been part of an earlier plan.”
Claire nodded slowly.
“And Friday?”
“We don’t know.”
“Yes, we do.”
Marcus looked at her.
Claire stood.
“Julian gets Lily out of the house.”
“Right.”
“He creates a breakdown.”
“Yes.”
“I’m taken to a facility.”
“That seems to have been the plan.”
“He uses the forged incapacity amendment.”
“Possibly.”
“To take control of my assets.”
“Yes.”
“And then he leaves the country with Elena.”
Marcus said nothing.
Claire laughed once.
“He wasn’t improvising.”
“No.”
“He had an exit plan.”
“Yes.”
She began pacing.
“The insurance policy bothers me.”
“It should.”
“No. Not like that.”
Marcus watched her.
“If he wanted me alive in a facility, why buy fifteen million dollars of insurance?”
Marcus understood.
“Backup.”
“Or Plan B.”
Claire stopped.
“What if I refused to cooperate?”
“With the breakdown?”
“With any of it.”
Marcus did not answer.
Claire’s face hardened.
“I need to go back to the house.”
“No.”
“My laptop is there.”
“Police searched the office.”
“My laptop isn’t in the office.”
“Where?”
“The kitchen.”
Marcus stood.
“Tell them where it is.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand enough.”
“No.”
Claire looked toward Lily, who was in another room with a child specialist.
“Two months ago I found a program running on my computer.”
“What kind?”
“Remote access.”
Marcus frowned.
“Julian was monitoring you.”
“I think so.”
“Then why do you want the laptop?”
“Because I started monitoring him back.”
Marcus stared.
Claire almost smiled.
“I learned more from Dad than Julian realized.”
“What did you do?”
“I installed logging software on our home network.”
“Claire.”
“Don’t sound so shocked.”
“I’m impressed.”
“For six weeks, I tracked which devices connected, when files were transferred, and which external servers were contacted.”
Marcus stared.
“Why wasn’t that on the memory card?”
“It was too large.”
“Where’s the data?”
“Encrypted on the laptop.”
“Password?”
Claire smiled.
“Lily’s birthday backward plus Dad’s old office number.”
Marcus shook his head.
“You could have told me.”
“I wanted proof before I dragged you into my marriage.”
“He locked you in a basement.”
“Yes.”
“Threshold reached.”
Claire’s expression finally softened.
“I know.”
The detective retrieved the laptop.
By afternoon, a digital forensic specialist had opened the logs.
They found connections to encrypted cloud storage.
Transfers to foreign financial institutions.
Communication with Elena Voss.
And repeated searches from Julian’s personal laptop.
How long can temporary psychosis last?
Spousal authority during involuntary commitment Illinois.
Transfer property with medical power of attorney.
International extradition financial crimes.
Then a search that made the technician stop.
Carbon monoxide symptoms confusion memory loss.
Marcus stared at the screen.
Claire went completely still.
The next searches were worse.
Low level carbon monoxide exposure mistaken for anxiety.
Can carbon monoxide cause hallucinations.
Residential carbon monoxide detector disable sensor.
Marcus looked at the detective.
“Check the house.”
A fire department unit was called.
Every detector in the mansion worked.
Except one.
The basement detector.
Its battery had been removed.
Claire closed her eyes.
Marcus gripped the table.
“How long was she down there?”
“About twenty hours,” the detective said.
The technician looked at the data.
“There’s more.”
No one wanted more.
He opened another folder extracted from Julian’s cloud backup.
Photographs appeared.
The basement.
Taken before Claire was locked inside.
A portable generator stood near an exterior vent.
In another photograph, the generator had been moved closer.
Claire whispered, “That wasn’t there when they found me.”
The detective asked, “Did you smell gasoline?”
“No.”
Marcus looked at him.
“What does this prove?”
“Intent still has to be established.”
“What the hell else does it look like?”
“Marcus.”
Claire touched her brother’s arm.
He stopped.
She pointed at the screen.
“There.”
The technician enlarged the image.
On the workbench behind the generator was a yellow legal pad.
Handwritten notes covered the top page.
The photograph was too blurry to read everything.
But one line was visible.
FRIDAY VERSION IF FACILITY FAILS.
Nobody spoke.
The technician zoomed further.
Below it was another sentence.
LILY MUST BE OUT OF HOUSE.
Claire’s knees nearly gave way.
Marcus caught her.
For months Julian had insisted she was unstable.
For weeks he had prepared witnesses.
May you like
For days he had planned to imprison her.
And somewhere between his forged documents and his escape route, he had prepared a version of Friday in which Claire Carter never came home.
