Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Sent the Recording
The secure apartment had two bedrooms, white walls, and almost no furniture.
To Claire, it felt safer than the house she had spent twelve years decorating.
Megan fell asleep quickly after Naomi found her a clean shirt. Olivia remained awake, sitting cross-legged on the spare bed while Claire checked every lock twice.
“Are we staying here forever?” Olivia asked.
“No.”
“Are we going home tomorrow?”
“Not tomorrow.”
“Is Dad going to jail?”
Claire sat beside her.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you still love him?”
The question was harder than anything the police had asked.
“I love the person I believed he was.”
“Maybe that person was real sometimes.”
Claire looked at her daughter.
Olivia had always noticed more than adults expected.
“Maybe,” Claire said. “But being kind sometimes does not excuse choosing to hurt people later.”
Olivia stared at her hands.
“I didn’t want Megan to hear the recording.”
“Neither did I.”
“Then why did you play it?”
Claire answered honestly.
“I didn’t know that part was on the file.”
The financial presentation had contained eight slides. Claire had created seven of them.
The first slide should have displayed a summary of the transfers.
Someone had added the recording after she gave the memory card to Elias.
Naomi discovered the change when she compared the card with Claire’s original files.
“The audio was inserted at 5:42 this afternoon,” Naomi said from the apartment doorway.
Claire checked the time.
“That was after I arrived at the restaurant.”
“Exactly.”
“Elias?”
“He says the card never left his pocket until he loaded it into the television.”
“Could someone have accessed it remotely?”
“The restaurant system is connected to a shared media server.”
“Who controls it?”
“Michael, Jessica, the general manager, and David.”
Claire stood.
“Someone wanted that recording played.”
“Yes.”
“Why hide their identity?”
“Because helping you may expose them too.”
Naomi handed her a copy of the red ledger’s first page.
The police had allowed her to photograph it before sealing the original as evidence.
Most entries were written in Caroline Bennett’s handwriting.
The first dated back seventeen years.
Graham created the reserve structure today.
David believes it protects the restaurants.
It protects Graham.
The next entry was six months later.
A former manager named Laura Finch had accused Graham of moving employee pension funds into a Bennett account.
The complaint disappeared.
A settlement was paid.
David claimed he knew nothing about it.
Three years later, Caroline wrote about another woman.
Catherine Bell.
The initials C.B.
Claire remembered the restaurant receipt and Olivia’s silver key.
“Who was Catherine Bell?” she asked.
Naomi had already begun searching.
“An accountant employed by the Bennett restaurants fourteen years ago. She disappeared from company records after accusing someone of altering ownership documents.”
“Disappeared?”
“Professionally. There’s no indication she was physically harmed. She moved out of state and changed industries.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes. At least, she was two years ago.”
Claire felt a flicker of relief.
“Can we contact her?”
“I tried. The number is disconnected.”
Naomi turned to another page.
Caroline’s final entry was written one week before her death.
If Claire ever receives this ledger, then Michael has chosen Graham over his family.
She will think David is the architect.
She must not trust David’s innocence, but she must understand his blindness.
The distinction may save the girls.
Claire read the lines again.
“Caroline wrote my name.”
“Yes.”
“She knew this could happen to me.”
“It appears so.”
“Why didn’t she warn me?”
“Maybe she tried.”
Claire remembered the warning after dinner.
Never confuse being welcomed into a family with being protected by it.
“What else is in the ledger?”
“The police sealed it before I could read further.”
A sound came from the hallway.
Both women stopped.
Naomi moved toward the door while Claire hurried to the girls’ room.
The sound came again.
Not a knock.
Something sliding across the floor outside.
Naomi checked through the peephole, then opened the door.
The hallway was empty.
A cream-colored envelope lay against the threshold.
On the front, someone had written Claire’s name.
Inside was a photograph of Caroline Bennett standing beside a younger woman Claire did not recognize.
On the back were four words.
Catherine Bell is nearby.
Below the message was the address of a motel twenty minutes away.
Naomi looked toward the security camera above the hall.
“I’m calling the police.”
Claire examined the photograph.
Caroline and Catherine were standing in front of the original Bennett restaurant. Between them was a teenage boy wearing a waiter’s uniform.
May you like
Claire recognized the boy’s eyes.
They belonged to Elias.
