Chapter 5 - The Locked Drawer
The doctor released Emily the next afternoon with strict instructions: rest, return immediately if the bleeding came back, and avoid unnecessary stress.
Daniel almost laughed at the last part.
Police had already taken a statement and copied the audio file. Margaret had left the house before officers arrived. She claimed by phone that Emily attacked first and refused to come in without a lawyer.
Daniel drove Emily home in silence.
When they entered the kitchen, everything looked painfully normal.
The floor had been cleaned.
The broken plate was gone.
Someone had even wiped the table.
Emily stopped.
“Did you clean this?”
“No.”
Daniel checked the security log.
Margaret’s code had been used at 3:12 a.m.—before he changed it remotely.
Emily’s stomach tightened.
“She came back.”
Daniel headed for the office.
The locked drawer was open.
Inside, papers had been moved.
Emily sat carefully in the desk chair while Daniel searched.
“Your passport is here now,” he said.
“That proves she returned it.”
He pulled out a thick white envelope neither of them recognized.
Inside were photocopies of Emily’s driver’s license, Social Security card, passport, and several pages covered with practice signatures.
Emily felt cold.
“What is that?”
Daniel spread the sheets across the desk.
Someone had written EMILY HALE again and again.
Some signatures were crude.
Some were almost perfect.
At the bottom of the envelope was a bank letter.
Daniel read it once.
Then again.
“What?” Emily asked.
He handed it to her.
NOTICE OF CREDIT APPROVAL.
A personal line of credit had been opened six weeks earlier.
Borrower: Emily Hale.
Approved limit: $100,000.
Current balance: $86,430.
Emily stared at the page.
“I never opened this.”
Daniel took out his phone.
“Neither did I.”
Her throat went dry. “Who gets the statements?”
He scanned the letter.
“Electronic delivery.”
“To what email?”
Daniel read the address.
Emily frowned.
“That isn’t mine.”
It looked like hers, but one letter had been changed.
Daniel called the bank’s fraud department.
While he waited on hold, Emily looked back into the envelope.
There was one more item tucked in the bottom.
A photograph.
It showed Emily asleep on the couch.
Her open purse sat beside her.
Margaret’s hand was visible at the edge of the frame, holding Emily’s wallet.
May you like
On the back, someone had written a date.
The same date the credit line had been opened.
