Chapter 4 - The Woman in Eleanor’s Photographs
The unsent email was incomplete.
Daniel read it anyway.
Daniel,
I need you to stop defending Adrian before you see what I found.
The foundation vendors are connected. Vanessa Cross is involved. I believe Adrian has moved money through—
The draft ended there.
Vanessa Cross.
Her maiden name.
Daniel sat in Detective Holt’s office and read the words again.
Vanessa had known Eleanor.
Worked with Eleanor.
Been investigated by Eleanor.
Then eighteen months after Eleanor’s death, Vanessa became Eleanor’s replacement inside Ashcroft House.
Daniel felt physically ill.
“Did she marry me for access?”
Holt looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
“Did Adrian arrange it?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you know?”
“That your wife believed both were involved in financial misconduct.”
“My dead wife.”
Holt corrected herself.
“Eleanor.”
Daniel appreciated that.
The phone contained photographs of invoices, bank-routing confirmations, and a screenshot of a message between Eleanor and Vanessa.
Eleanor:
I know the Brighton invoices are false.
Vanessa:
You’re misunderstanding consulting structures.
Eleanor:
Then explain them to Daniel.
Vanessa:
Maybe I will.
Eleanor:
Tomorrow.
There was no tomorrow.
Eleanor died that night.
Daniel stood.
“I want Vanessa arrested.”
“For fraud?”
“For trapping Lily.”
“That investigation is active.”
“She admitted it.”
“And the prosecutor will decide charges.”
Daniel slammed his palm against the table.
“Her name is on documents my wife was investigating and she locked my daughter between floors to keep her away from evidence!”
Holt waited.
Daniel breathed hard.
She said quietly, “Are you finished?”
He hated the question.
“Yes.”
“Good. Because anger isn’t evidence.”
Daniel sat.
Holt pushed the phone photographs toward him.
“This is evidence.”
She pointed to timestamps.
“Eleanor photographed these at 6:42 p.m. on the night she died.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“What time was the crash?”
“Estimated between 9:10 and 9:25.”
“What happened between?”
“We’re reconstructing that.”
The security archives from two years earlier were mostly gone under normal retention schedules.
But Marcus found something else.
Old still photographs stored from a motion-triggering software test.
At 7:03 p.m. on the night Eleanor died, Vanessa entered Ashcroft House through the north entrance.
At 7:51, she left.
Daniel stared at her frozen image.
Long dark coat.
Umbrella.
Face turned from the camera.
“She was here.”
Marcus nodded.
“Did you see her?”
“No.”
“Where was I?”
“Airport.”
Daniel remembered.
He had left for London shortly before six.
He and Eleanor had argued in the dressing room.
She had not kissed him goodbye.
Vanessa arrived one hour later.
Detective Holt obtained Vanessa’s interview voluntarily through her new criminal attorney.
Vanessa admitted visiting Eleanor.
“She asked me to come.”
“Why?”
“She wanted explanations about the foundation vendors.”
“Did you give them?”
“I tried.”
“Did you threaten her?”
“No.”
“Did you take her phone?”
Vanessa’s gaze shifted.
Holt noticed.
“Mrs. Mercer.”
“No.”
“Then how did Eleanor’s phone end up in a room you entered repeatedly after her death?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you hide it?”
“No.”
Holt placed the elevator footage on the table.
Vanessa’s face hardened.
“That was unrelated.”
“You deliberately stopped a child from reaching the floor where the phone was hidden.”
“I was protecting private documents.”
“Whose?”
“Daniel’s.”
“Daniel didn’t know they existed.”
Vanessa looked toward her attorney.
The interview ended soon afterward.
Daniel watched the recording at home.
Lily sat nearby doing a puzzle with Marcus’s wife, Joanna.
Daniel did not want Lily hearing any of it.
He wore headphones.
At one point Lily looked up.
“Is Vanessa coming back?”
Daniel removed one earphone.
“Not tonight.”
“Ever?”
He paused.
“I don’t know.”
Lily placed a puzzle piece incorrectly.
“Okay.”
No sadness.
No relief either.
Just caution.
Daniel realized Lily had learned not to trust good news.
He sat beside her.
“Did Vanessa ever tell you not to talk to me?”
Lily froze.
Wrong question.
Too direct.
Daniel remembered the child specialist’s instructions.
“You don’t have to answer.”
Lily looked at him.
“She said you get headaches.”
“What?”
“When I make problems.”
Daniel’s face went still.
“Did I ever say that?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
Lily returned to the puzzle.
After a moment she whispered, “She said Mommy made lots of problems.”
Daniel stared.
“What kind?”
“She said Mommy kept secrets.”
Daniel’s throat tightened.
Lily looked toward the staircase.
“Vanessa said that’s why the dark room stayed locked.”
“What else did she say about Mommy?”
Lily fitted a piece into place.
“That Mommy didn’t know when to stop looking.”
Daniel’s phone rang.
Detective Holt.
“We found a financial connection.”
“To Vanessa?”
“To both Vanessa and Adrian.”
Daniel walked away from Lily.
Holt continued.
“Five days after Eleanor died, one of the shell vendors transferred $240,000 into an account controlled by Vanessa.”
Daniel gripped the phone.
“Payment for what?”
“We don’t know.”
“Find out.”
“We are.”
A pause.
“But Daniel?”
“Yes?”
May you like
“That transfer was authorized by Adrian at 8:47 the night Eleanor died.”
Twenty-three minutes before the estimated crash.
