Chapter 4 - The Accountant Who Disappeared)
The accountant’s name was Martin Cole.
Finding him should have been easy.
His firm still existed.
His name remained on old state filings.
His professional license had not expired until the previous year.
But Martin himself seemed to have vanished from ordinary life.
Margaret called the firm.
A receptionist said he no longer worked there.
When?
Almost a year ago.
Why did he leave?
She could not say.
Where did he go?
She did not know.
Margaret asked for a forwarding address.
None was available.
Daniel offered to hire an investigator.
Margaret refused.
You have spent eleven months not seeing what was in front of you. I need someone who looks.
She hired retired detective Samuel Reeves instead.
Reeves had investigated financial crimes for twenty-three years before leaving the state police.
He had gray hair, patient eyes, and an irritating habit of letting silence do half his questioning.
After reading Emily’s letter, he asked Margaret one thing.
Why was Vanessa not investigated after the accident?
Because there was no reason.
You just gave me three.
We did not know them then.
Exactly.
Within forty-eight hours, Reeves found Martin Cole.
He was living under his middle name in a small coastal town in Maine.
Margaret drove there with Reeves.
They found Martin repairing lobster traps behind a weather-beaten house.
When Margaret introduced herself, the color left his face.
I cannot help you.
You have not heard what I am asking.
I know who you are.
Then you know why I am here.
Martin walked toward his back door.
Reeves spoke calmly.
We are not police.
Martin stopped.
That appeared to frighten him more.
Margaret said Emily’s name.
He closed his eyes.
Please.
Did Vanessa Bell steal from Hawthorne Development?
Martin looked toward the road.
Not steal.
What?
Move.
Money was being shifted between holding companies.
Why?
I never found out.
How much?
About eight million dollars over two years.
Margaret stared.
Daniel had no idea.
Did Emily?
Martin laughed bitterly.
Emily was the only reason I discovered it.
She kept asking the right questions.
Why did your report call it an accounting error?
Martin finally faced them.
Because my daughter was twelve years old.
Margaret did not understand.
Martin continued.
Someone sent me photographs of her leaving school.
Then photographs of my wife shopping.
Then a photograph of me asleep in my bedroom.
Margaret felt cold.
Who sent them?
No name.
Did you tell Emily?
Yes.
What did she say?
She said she would go to the police.
Did she?
I do not know.
The next week she died.
Martin looked toward the sea.
I resigned.
Why disappear?
Because the photographs continued for another month.
Reeves asked whether Martin still had copies of the financial records.
Martin hesitated.
No.
Reeves waited.
Martin sighed.
Some.
They went inside.
From beneath loose floorboards in a bedroom closet, Martin removed a waterproof envelope.
It contained spreadsheets, printed transfers, and copies of corporate records.
Vanessa’s signature appeared on several.
But another signature appeared more often.
Thomas Hawthorne.
Daniel’s father.
Margaret stared at the name.
Thomas had died three years earlier.
Or at least everyone believed he had died three years earlier.
He suffered a heart attack during a business trip in Switzerland.
Daniel had flown overseas to identify the body.
Margaret remembered the closed casket.
She remembered Emily telling her afterward that something about Thomas’s final business records made no sense.
She remembered not asking what.
Martin tapped the documents.
These transfers continued after Thomas died.
For almost eighteen months.
Impossible, Margaret said.
That is what Emily said.
Reeves leaned forward.
Was the signature forged?
Martin shook his head.
Digital authorization.
Biometric confirmation.
Explain.
The company required a fingerprint scan for transfers above one million dollars.
Thomas’s authorization kept appearing.
Could the system be manipulated?
Maybe.
By whom?
Martin looked at Margaret.
Vanessa had administrative access.
Margaret asked the question slowly.
Did Vanessa know Thomas before she knew Daniel?
Martin did not answer.
Reeves noticed.
Mr. Cole.
Martin rubbed his jaw.
Vanessa worked for Thomas.
When?
Before Daniel hired her.
How long?
Four years.
Margaret stood.
Daniel told me she came from another firm.
She did.
After Thomas died.
But before that, she was his executive assistant.
Why hide it?
Martin gave a tired smile.
That is the question Emily asked too.
They left Maine after sunset.
Halfway home, Reeves received a call from a contact.
He listened without speaking.
Then he turned to Margaret.
Someone accessed Emily Hawthorne’s old police file this morning.
Who?
That is the interesting part.
The request came from inside Hawthorne Development.
Margaret called Daniel.
No answer.
She called again.
Nothing.
Then Sofia called.
Her voice was shaking.
Mrs. Hawthorne, you need to come to the mansion.
What happened?
Mr. Daniel is gone.
Margaret looked at Reeves.
Where?
I do not know.
His car is here.
His phone is on his desk.
And Mrs. Vanessa is gone too.
Margaret’s heart pounded.
Where is Clara?
With me, remember?
Yes.
Thank God.
Sofia lowered her voice.
There is something else.
What?
Someone has been in Mrs. Emily’s old room.
Margaret gripped the phone.
How do you know?
Because the wall behind her wardrobe is open.
Margaret had known Emily her entire life.
She knew her daughter hid birthday gifts.
She knew she hid emergency cash inside books.
She knew she once hid Daniel’s anniversary watch in a flour tin for three weeks because she was convinced he would find it anywhere else.
But she had never known there was a hidden compartment behind Emily’s wardrobe.
Inside it, they found no money.
No jewelry.
No documents.
Only a small digital recorder.
Its battery was dead.
Reeves replaced it.
There was one saved file.
Emily’s voice filled the bedroom.
If anything happens to me, Daniel is not the person you should be watching.
There was a pause.
May you like
Then Emily whispered a name.
Thomas.
