Chapter 14 - The Missing Recording
Dana Cross looked smaller in person than Claire remembered.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
She sat in Miriam’s conference room wearing jeans and a dark cardigan, both hands wrapped around untouched coffee.
“I have a copy,” Dana said.
Claire stopped.
“Of the recording?”
“Yes.”
Miriam looked sharply at her.
“You told your attorney the original device was stolen.”
“It was.”
“But you copied the file?”
“To cloud storage.”
Claire almost laughed from relief.
Dana flinched.
“I’m not stupid.”
“No,” Claire said. “You were scared.”
Dana looked at her.
Claire had imagined this woman for months.
The person who wore her name.
Copied her signature.
Helped move money from Lucas’s trust.
Hatred had been easy when Dana was abstract.
Now Claire saw trembling fingers and bitten nails.
That did not erase what Dana had done.
But it changed the shape of confrontation.
“Why did you do it?” Claire asked.
Dana looked down.
“The first time? Money.”
“No excuse?”
“No.”
Claire appreciated the absence of one.
“Evelyn paid me twenty-five thousand dollars. She said the document only confirmed you knew about a development deal but were unavailable to sign.”
“You believed that?”
“I wanted to.”
Claire nodded.
That answer was uglier and more believable.
“And Lucas’s trust?”
Dana’s eyes filled.
“I knew that was wrong.”
“You knew it was my son’s.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Evelyn had a copy of the first forgery. She said if I refused, she’d give it to police and say the whole thing was my idea.”
“You could have told someone.”
“I should have.”
“You could have told me.”
“I know.”
Claire’s anger sharpened.
Dana did not look away.
“I’m sorry.”
Claire did not say she forgave her.
She didn’t.
Miriam asked about the recording.
Dana opened her laptop.
The full conversation lasted nineteen minutes.
Peter and Evelyn discussed Graymont.
Northstar.
Daniel.
Nathaniel’s discovery.
At minute twelve, Peter said, “Daniel’s going to crack.”
Evelyn replied, “He always cracks in the useful direction.”
At minute fourteen, they discussed Dana.
At sixteen, Peter asked what Evelyn would do if Nathaniel changed his will.
“The old version gives Daniel control,” Peter said.
“Not enough.”
“What do you mean?”
“Claire still inherits the shares.”
“So?”
“So Daniel controls Claire.”
Claire felt physically ill.
Peter laughed.
“You’re confident.”
“I raised him.”
Silence filled the conference room.
Daniel was not present.
Claire was grateful.
Then came the final minute.
Peter’s voice lowered.
“What about the memorandum?”
“It has Nathaniel’s real signature.”
“The wording doesn’t.”
“It will if that’s the copy everyone sees.”
“You kept the original?”
A pause.
Then Evelyn:
“Of course.”
Claire looked at Miriam.
The attorney’s eyes sharpened.
There were two versions.
A genuine original and an altered copy.
If they found both, they could prove manipulation.
“Where?” Peter asked on the recording.
Evelyn laughed softly.
“In the one place Nathaniel would never search.”
The recording ended.
Dana looked at Claire.
“I don’t know what she meant.”
Claire did.
Evelyn’s study.
They had already searched the concealed drawer.
But perhaps that was exactly why Nathaniel had hidden his documents there.
He had discovered Evelyn’s hiding place and used it against her.
Claire returned to the lodge that afternoon with Miriam and an investigator.
They did not tear the room apart.
They photographed.
Measured.
Opened compartments methodically.
Two hours passed.
Nothing.
Claire stood before the bookcase where the brass-key drawer had been concealed.
The drawer was empty now.
She ran her fingers along the carved molding.
One place Nathaniel would never search.
That phrase bothered her.
Nathaniel had searched the study.
So perhaps Evelyn was not referring to the room.
Claire looked around.
A framed photograph stood on the mantel.
Daniel at age twelve with Evelyn.
Next to it, a silver box engraved with the initials R.M.
“Who is R.M.?” Claire asked.
Daniel, who had arrived with his attorney’s permission to assist, answered.
“My father. Richard Mercer.”
Nathaniel would never search Richard’s belongings.
Claire picked up the silver box.
Locked.
Daniel stared at it.
“That was my father’s.”
“Can you open it?”
“I don’t have a key.”
Claire almost smiled.
Of course.
Keys.
She called Lucas.
“Sweetheart, remember Grandma’s brass key?”
“Yeah.”
“Where did she tell you to hide it?”
“In my wooden train.”
“No. Before that.”
Lucas thought.
“She said it used to open Grandpa Richard’s memory box, but she changed the lock.”
Claire’s pulse jumped.
“Did she say why she gave it to you?”
“She said little keys belong with little boys.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Evelyn had used Lucas as a hiding place because she believed nobody would question him.
The brass key had opened the concealed drawer.
Maybe because Evelyn had changed locks by moving cylinders around.
The silver box’s original lock might now belong elsewhere.
Daniel examined it.
“There’s a release underneath.”
He pressed a nearly invisible spring.
The bottom panel opened.
Inside were two folded documents.
One was the original memorandum.
Nathaniel’s signature.
Three paragraphs about possible interim leadership while Claire remained outside the company.
The second looked almost identical.
Except two paragraphs had been replaced.
The altered version gave Daniel sweeping authority over Hale Ridge following Nathaniel’s death.
Claire stared at it.
“This is what she planned to use.”
Miriam nodded.
“To argue Nathaniel intended Daniel to control the company.”
Daniel read the false version.
His face hardened.
“She didn’t just frame me for the money.”
“No,” Claire said.
“She made you the future excuse for everything.”
Behind the papers lay one more object.
A small digital recorder.
Dana inhaled sharply.
“That’s mine.”
“The one stolen from your hotel?” Miriam asked.
Dana nodded.
Claire stared.
The recorder had vanished less than forty-eight hours earlier.
Now it sat inside a compartment in Evelyn’s silver box.
Someone had placed it there recently.
Daniel looked toward the door.
“My mother still has a key to the lodge.”
Miriam already had her phone out.
But before she could call anyone, headlights swept across the study windows.
A car had pulled into the driveway.
Claire looked outside.
Evelyn stepped from the passenger seat.
Beside her was Peter Vale.
May you like
And in Peter’s hand was a gasoline can.
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