Chapter 8 - The Woman Named Sarah
There were seventeen Sarahs in Daniel Carter's old address book.
Twelve were easily eliminated.
Two had died.
One denied knowing him.
One number belonged to a bakery.
The final Sarah was Sarah Vale.
Emma stared at the name.
"Vale?"
Ortiz nodded.
"Elias and Martin had a sister."
"What happened to her?"
"She disappeared fifteen years ago."
One year before Daniel's death.
Sarah Vale had been twenty-nine.
No body found.
No bank activity afterward.
Officially missing.
Margaret sank into a chair.
"Daniel knew a missing woman?"
Ortiz flipped through archived reports.
"More than knew her."
She showed them a photograph from an old charity event.
Daniel stood in the background.
Sarah Vale stood beside him.
So did Peter Caldwell.
And Elias Vale.
Emma felt cold.
"What was the event?"
"A housing foundation fundraiser."
"What foundation?"
Ortiz turned the page.
"Hearthline Community Trust."
Margaret's eyes widened.
"I know that name."
Emma looked at her.
"How?"
"Daniel used to repair refrigeration systems in their apartment buildings."
Ortiz's expression sharpened.
"What kind of apartment buildings?"
"Low-income housing."
The picture began forming.
Hearthline purchased distressed properties using charitable grants.
They renovated them cheaply.
Then transferred ownership between affiliated companies, inflating values each time.
Banks issued loans based on fraudulent appraisals.
Properties eventually failed.
Tenants were evicted.
Investors disappeared behind shell corporations.
Daniel had serviced buildings for years.
At some point, he discovered the records.
"So why was Dad keeping the books?" Brandon asked.
Ortiz leaned back.
"Maybe he was involved."
Margaret shook her head immediately.
"No."
"You can't know that."
"I knew Daniel."
Emma looked at the ledger.
"Did you know about six hundred thousand dollars?"
Margaret fell silent.
Brandon muttered, "Emma."
"No. We can't keep protecting a memory if we don't know what he did."
Margaret's eyes filled.
Emma softened.
"I loved him too."
She touched her mother's hand.
"But somebody is threatening us because of his past."
That afternoon, Ortiz received another result.
A fingerprint had been recovered from the balcony railing.
It did not belong to Martin Vale.
Someone else had been in the bedroom.
The print matched Peter Caldwell.
The banker.
Emma stared at the report.
"He was at the dinner."
Ortiz nodded.
"He could have slipped upstairs during the confrontation."
"What would he take?"
"The question is what did Margaret keep in that drawer?"
Margaret closed her eyes.
Then she stood suddenly.
"The photograph."
"What photograph?"
"The one of Daniel."
Emma remembered.
An old image had been lying beside the missing object.
Margaret hurried upstairs.
She returned carrying Daniel's photograph.
She opened the frame.
Behind the picture was a strip of yellowed paper.
A handwritten number.
317-44-09.
Brandon frowned.
"Account number?"
Emma shook her head.
"Too short."
Ortiz photographed it.
Then Margaret whispered, "Sarah."
Everyone looked at her.
"What about Sarah?" Emma asked.
Margaret touched the final two digits.
"Daniel told me once that Sarah loved Room Nine."
"What is Room Nine?"
"I don't know."
Later that evening, a search of old Hearthline properties produced one possible answer.
The first building the foundation purchased contained a basement storage room.
Room 9.
The building had been abandoned for thirteen years.
It stood forty miles away.
May you like
Ortiz immediately told Emma she was not going.
Emma immediately ignored her.
