Chapter 9 - The Woman at the Lake
The footprints ended at a boathouse.
Inside, police found Grant Mercer bleeding from the scalp.
Eleanor was gone.
Mercer claimed she had attacked him with an oar after accusing him of betrayal.
Ortiz did not believe half of what he said, but she believed the wound.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where was she going?”
“I don’t know.”
Ortiz leaned closer. “You kidnapped two witnesses, helped destroy evidence, and may be involved in a homicide. This is the moment where lying stops being a habit and starts being a life sentence.”
Mercer’s confidence cracked.
“She wanted access to the trust archive.”
Daniel, listening by phone from the hospital, frowned.
“What archive?”
Mercer explained.
Charles Vance had kept physical records in a private vault beneath the old Manhattan headquarters. The building was being renovated and scheduled for demolition in two weeks.
Eleanor believed the archive contained the original bookkeeping records that could prove how much money she had taken.
“If she destroys them,” Mercer said, “half the financial case disappears.”
Ortiz arrested him.
Eleanor was now alone.
That made her more dangerous.
At the hospital, baby Grace improved enough for Sarah to hold her for the first time.
A nurse settled the tiny girl against Sarah’s chest.
Grace opened one eye, frowned at the entire world, and wrapped three fingers around Sarah’s little finger.
Sarah cried silently.
Daniel sat beside her.
“She has your temper,” he whispered.
“She’s thirty-six hours old.”
“Exactly.”
For ten quiet minutes, the Vance family became only three people in a hospital room.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
His company’s chief financial officer was on the line.
“Daniel, we have a problem.”
“What kind?”
“The board received documents accusing you of fraud.”
Daniel sat upright.
“What?”
“Anonymous files claim you authorized offshore transfers. There’s enough detail that the audit committee has called an emergency meeting.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Eleanor was not only running.
She was attacking the company.
“What happens if they suspend me?”
“The trust’s emergency voting provisions activate.”
“And who controls those?”
The CFO hesitated.
“Until the new will is admitted by the court? Eleanor.”
Sarah heard the answer.
“She’s trying to take the company before the will can stop her.”
Daniel nodded.
His phone buzzed again.
This time the sender was Eleanor.
A single photograph appeared.
It showed Arthur leaving the hospital through the employee entrance.
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Under it was one sentence.
ASK YOUR LOYAL BUTLER WHAT HE DID IN 2004.
