Chapter 11 - the witness in the red coat
Elias’s disappearance changed the investigation.
Until then, the conspiracy could still be dismissed as a dispute involving forged documents and an ambitious bride. The attack inside a police-secured mansion proved that someone with extensive resources was still operating.
Julian moved Mary Jane and Mrs. Dallow to a secure townhouse owned by Daniel’s family.
Victoria was transferred to a guarded hotel after investigators discovered that her bedroom contained a hidden transmitter connected to the mansion’s security system.
She claimed it had been installed without her knowledge.
No one believed her.
Three days later, a woman in a red coat contacted Julian.
She refused to give her name over the phone.
“I worked at the clinic where Mary Jane was born,” she said. “Eleanor told me to find you if the crown ever appeared again.”
They met inside a crowded railway station with plainclothes officers nearby.
The woman was in her sixties, with silver hair and nervous hands. She introduced herself as Dr. Helena Frost.
“I signed Mary Jane’s birth record,” she said.
Julian frowned.
“The record lists Eleanor as her only parent.”
“That record was altered.”
Mary Jane sat beside him.
“Who was my father?”
Helena looked at the child.
“Your mother believed the truth would put you in danger.”
“Was she right?”
“Yes.”
Julian placed the blue-ribboned brass key on the table.
“Why did Eleanor have an Ashford key?”
“It was given to her by Thomas.”
“Why?”
Helena opened her bag and removed a sealed envelope.
“Because Thomas Ashford knew who Mary Jane’s father was.”
Inside was a photograph taken nine years earlier.
Eleanor stood beside a man whose face was turned away from the camera. He wore an Ashford signet ring.
Mary Jane stared at the picture.
Julian felt the station disappear around him.
“Was my father involved with Eleanor?”
“No,” Helena said quickly. “Thomas was protecting her.”
“From whom?”
“The man in the photograph.”
“Who is he?”
“I never learned his legal name. Eleanor called him Adrian.”
Mary Jane whispered the name.
Helena reached for her hand.
“Your mother left him before you were born. He belonged to a group that used private trusts to control families and property. The Vale organization was only one branch.”
Julian studied the man’s coat, posture, and ring.
“Why would he have an Ashford signet?”
“Because he claimed the Ashford estate had been stolen from his family.”
Helena gave Julian a second document.
It was a copy of a DNA laboratory request signed by Thomas Ashford.
The result page was missing.
“He tested Mary Jane’s parentage,” Helena said. “After receiving the results, he amended the founder’s trust and named you as her protector.”
“Where is the result?”
“Eleanor took it.”
“Did it prove Adrian was her father?”
“I do not know.”
A train announcement sounded overhead.
Helena looked toward the crowd.
Her expression changed.
A tall man stood beside the platform entrance wearing a gray hat.
When he realized Helena had seen him, he turned away.
“That is him,” she whispered.
Daniel moved first.
The man ran.
Officers followed through the crowd while Julian pulled Mary Jane behind a concrete pillar.
Helena opened her bag again.
“Eleanor gave me one more thing.”
She removed a red envelope.
Before she could hand it over, the station lights went out.
Passengers shouted.
A train roared into the platform.
In the darkness, someone struck the table.
Julian heard Helena gasp.
Emergency lights came on seconds later.
Helena was gone.
The red envelope lay on the floor.
Mary Jane picked it up.
Inside was the missing DNA result.
The page had been torn down the middle.
May you like
One name remained visible.
Julian Ashford.
