Chapter 13 - Before They Met
Claire read the date again.
Impossible.
She had met Daniel at a charity dinner nine years ago.
Her mother had died twelve years ago.
Yet Daniel’s name sat on a signed statement written three years before he supposedly entered Claire’s life.
Vanessa whispered, “How?”
Rachel took the document.
“Could be forged.”
Claire shook her head.
“That’s her signature.”
“Signatures can be copied.”
“The phrase at the bottom.”
Rachel looked.
Claire pointed.
Never leave the blue door unlocked.
It was nonsense to anyone else.
But when Claire was seven, her mother had painted the garden shed blue and repeated that sentence every time Claire left her bicycle inside.
Nobody outside the family knew it.
Claire felt suddenly dizzy.
Daniel had not met her by chance.
He had been sent into her life.
Rachel said, “We need Nathan Price.”
They returned upstairs.
Daniel was still missing.
Police believed he had exited through a service corridor connected to the neighboring commercial tower.
Claire called Nathan.
He answered immediately.
She read him the date.
Silence.
“Nathan?”
“I hoped that document was destroyed.”
Claire’s anger exploded.
“You knew?”
“I knew part.”
“How much?”
“Enough to be ashamed I didn’t tell you.”
“Start talking.”
Nathan’s voice broke.
“Your mother discovered a group moving money through charitable organizations. Some of the money was legal donations. Some was not.”
“What does Daniel have to do with it?”
“He was young. Twenty-four. Financial analyst. Very smart. Very ambitious.”
“And?”
“He worked for Peter Cross.”
Vanessa gripped the hood of the car.
“My father?”
Nathan continued.
The next minutes moved fast, and every answer only exposed a deeper part of Daniel’s plan.
Claire turned.
Maria had gone pale.
“You know him?”
Maria nodded slowly.
“He was my husband.”
Claire stared.
Maria’s husband had supposedly died in a boating accident fifteen years ago.
Maria whispered, “They told me they never found his body.”
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
A man’s voice said:
“Maria?”
She dropped the phone.
Claire picked it up.
The man continued.
“It’s Tom.”
May you like
Maria began to cry.
And Claire realized Daniel’s secret was not the only dead man still speaking.
