Chapter 12 - The Decoy
Rowan took Maya into the estate library for questioning.
Elena refused medical attention until an officer photographed the redness on her cheek and bruising around her wrist. She then sat near the cold fireplace, listening to relatives give statements in the dining room.
Some claimed they had not seen the strike.
Others said Adrian had merely tried to take Elena’s phone.
Three relatives admitted he had hit her.
Five provided copies of recordings they had made beneath the table.
Celeste’s perfect family story was collapsing through the mouths of the people she had invited to defend it.
Adrian was taken to the station.
His attorney arrived before the police vehicles left the estate.
Celeste remained in a guest room under supervision while officers searched the service corridors, kitchen, garages and old elevator.
They found the elevator door open in the basement.
The security system showed it had traveled from the dining-room level to the underground garage during the blackout.
A camera in the garage had been covered thirty minutes before dinner.
The person who stole the drive had planned the escape.
Rowan emerged from the library with Maya.
“You lied about the copies,” he said.
“I made copies of the visible files.”
“You withheld the encrypted partition.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Lydia’s note said not to open Orchard until we knew who controlled you.”
“And you decided that meant deceiving an active investigation?”
“I decided it meant staying alive.”
Rowan looked at Elena.
“The copy in your safe-deposit box contains the video of Adrian and Celeste taking Claire to the car. That is enough to reopen her disappearance.”
“But not enough to find her,” Elena said.
“No.”
“And the original?”
“Contains the credentials to Orchard,” Maya replied.
“What is Orchard?”
“I only know what Claire told me. It is a list of properties, identities and payments connected to the widow chain.”
“Then the thief now has access to it.”
“Not without the second key.”
Rowan’s anger sharpened.
“What second key?”
Maya looked at Elena.
“The condo.”
Elena frowned.
“The condo is a building, not a password.”
“Lydia embedded a physical authentication device in the original security system. The drive must be connected inside unit 2319.”
“Adrian upgraded the system.”
“He replaced what he could see. Lydia hid the rest.”
Rowan called officers at Ashbourne Tower.
No one had entered Elena’s unit since she left for dinner.
He ordered them to remain outside and touch nothing.
Elena stood.
“We are going there.”
“You are staying with police protection,” Rowan said.
“Someone stole evidence from my hand inside a room full of officers.”
“That is exactly why you need protection.”
“And the only place the stolen drive can be opened is my home.”
Maya checked her phone.
“Not only your home.”
She showed them a photograph Claire had sent months earlier.
It depicted Lydia’s original security panel installed on a workbench. The panel appeared to be a duplicate.
“Claire built a second authentication device,” Maya said.
“Where?” Rowan asked.
“She never told me.”
Celeste appeared at the library door with an officer beside her.
Her attorney had arrived, and she was no longer required to remain inside the guest room.
“You are all searching for the wrong thief,” she said.
Rowan faced her.
“You were recorded helping someone escape.”
“I helped because Adrian would have destroyed the drive.”
“Who took it?”
Celeste looked at Elena.
“The woman your aunt should have feared.”
“Claire?”
“No.”
A slow smile appeared on Celeste’s face.
“Claire was never clever enough to create Orchard.”
Maya stepped forward.
“Who was?”
Celeste turned toward the hallway.
“Ask the person who taught Lydia how to hide it.”
The estate’s front door opened.
A woman entered in a pale coat.
For one impossible moment, Elena believed Claire had returned.
Then the woman removed her dark wig.
Beneath it was gray hair.
Elena recognized her from an old photograph in Lydia’s condo.
May you like
It was Lydia’s former business partner, Evelyn Shaw.
A woman who had supposedly died twelve years earlier.
