Chapter 6 - The Woman in the Red Coat
By sunrise, Maya was a suspect in her own investigation.
Whitmore’s outside counsel sealed her work laptop. Alden’s lawyers demanded she surrender her badge. Grant Mercer called an emergency executive meeting and suggested the merger pause had been triggered by “a compromised junior reviewer.”
Claire told anyone who would listen that Maya had staged the pool incident for attention.
Maya sat in a glass conference room wearing borrowed black pants and a white shirt while Rebecca placed a printed access report in front of her.
“Your credentials initiated the wipe at 1:12 a.m.”
“I was with you.”
“I know.”
“Then somebody cloned my token.”
“Most likely.”
“Who could do that?”
“Nolan. Senior IT security. Mercer. Maybe two people in legal.”
Maya looked toward the hallway.
Grant Mercer walked past without looking inside.
She stood.
“Where are you going?”
“To ask him why Elena wrote his name on the back of a photograph.”
Rebecca caught her wrist. “Not yet.”
Maya looked down until Rebecca released her.
“Sorry,” Rebecca said.
Maya nodded once.
Her phone buzzed.
A new message from the unknown number.
COME TO THE OLD HARBOR CAFE. ALONE. 8:00 A.M.
Maya showed Rebecca.
“Absolutely not,” Rebecca said.
At 7:58, Maya walked into the cafe with two plainclothes security officers positioned outside.
A woman sat in the back booth wearing a red coat.
Maya froze.
Not Elena.
But close enough to make her skin prickle.
The woman looked about forty.
“You’re Maya.”
“Yes.”
“I’m Anna Marlow. Elena was my sister.”
Maya sat across from her.
Anna slid an envelope over the table.
Inside was a handwritten page covered in names and account numbers.
At the bottom, one name was circled.
HENRY REED.
Maya’s mouth went dry.
Anna watched her carefully.
“My sister trusted your father,” she said. “Until three days before she died.”
“What happened three days before?”
“She learned he had taken money from Whitmore.”
Maya shook her head. “No.”
Anna leaned closer.
“The last call Elena made before her crash was to Henry Reed.”
May you like
She tapped the paper.
“And the money started moving again the week you joined the company.”
