Chapter 7 - The Woman Who Disappeared
Evelyn March was sixty-three and looked ten years older.
She sat wrapped in a gray blanket in the back of an ambulance, one temple bandaged from a shallow cut, insisting she did not need a hospital until Officer Nolan threatened to make the choice for her.
Claire approached slowly.
"Evelyn?"
The older woman looked up.
Her face crumpled.
"Oh, Claire."
Claire had not heard that voice since her father's funeral.
"They said you moved to Arizona."
"They needed you to believe I left."
"Who?"
Evelyn looked toward the police officers searching the golf annex.
"Vivian. Richard Vale. And eventually Ethan."
The last name hurt in a different way.
Claire sat beside her.
"Tell me what happened."
Evelyn clasped both hands around a paper cup of water.
"Your father found irregularities in a land purchase. Shell companies buying parcels before Bennett Development announced projects. Someone was leaking internal plans and making millions on the price jumps."
"Vivian?"
"At first, we thought so. Then Samuel found the payments were routed through Vale-controlled funds."
"Why didn't he go to the police?"
"He was preparing to."
Evelyn's voice dropped.
"He died the night before he planned to meet federal investigators."
Claire's mouth went dry.
"You think someone killed him?"
"I think someone made sure his heart medication was not the medication he thought it was."
Claire stood so quickly the ambulance step rattled.
"What?"
"I found the bottle after he died. The pharmacy label was right. The pills were wrong."
"Where is the bottle?"
"I hid it."
"Where?"
Evelyn's eyes filled with fear.
"That is why they kept looking for me."
A police officer approached carrying a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a small key and a handwritten note found in Vivian's locker.
Nolan read it aloud.
MARCH - 11:30 - bring the original bottle or Claire loses everything.
Claire checked the time.
10:58 p.m.
"Vivian was meeting you here tonight."
Evelyn nodded.
"She called me three days ago. Said she knew where I was living. Said if I didn't come, she would ruin you and blame me."
"Why didn't you call me?"
"Because I didn't know whether Ethan read your messages."
Claire flinched.
Evelyn reached for her hand.
"Your father trusted you. He just didn't trust the people around you."
Nolan's radio crackled again.
A patrol unit had found Vivian's Mercedes abandoned two miles away.
The driver's door was open.
No Vivian.
But on the passenger seat was a black leather folder.
Inside it was a photograph of Claire entering the Bennett Trust offices that morning.
May you like
On the back, someone had written three words.
SIGN OR SHE FALLS.
