Chapter 2 - The Warning Olivia Left Behind
Metro Nashville Police arrived within twenty minutes.
Detective Jordan Blake took one look at the severed security footage, the rope, and the shattered canopy and ordered everyone out of the conservatory.
Vanessa called her attorney before he finished speaking.
That did not make her guilty.
But Richard noticed.
Claire noticed.
And Daniel noticed Claire noticing.
A paramedic cleaned Claire’s arm and wanted to take her to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“I’m not leaving Emma.”
“You may have a cracked rib.”
“Then my rib can wait.”
Emma sat beside her, holding Rosie beneath her chin.
Daniel approached.
“Claire.”
His voice was gentle now.
Too gentle.
“We need to talk.”
Claire looked at Emma.
Maria Santos, the Hale family’s longtime housekeeper, was nearby.
“Maria, stay with her?”
“Of course.”
Claire followed Daniel into Richard’s study.
He shut the door.
“What exactly did Emma tell you before today?”
“Nothing about Vanessa.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
Daniel turned away.
His shoulders were rigid.
“Olivia was anxious before she died.”
Claire waited.
“How anxious?”
“She thought people inside the company were stealing.”
Claire stared.
“You never told me that.”
“There was nothing to tell.”
“Emma says Olivia warned you Vanessa was dangerous.”
Daniel looked at her sharply.
“She was six when Olivia died.”
“She remembers.”
“She remembers fragments.”
“Do you?”
Silence.
Claire had known Daniel for years, but never well.
She and Olivia had met at Vanderbilt when they were nineteen. Their friendship had survived marriages, careers, and distance.
Daniel had always been charming.
Polished.
The kind of man who knew how to make a room believe him.
Now he looked frightened.
“Olivia became suspicious of everyone,” he said.
“Including you?”
His jaw tightened.
Before he could answer, Richard entered.
He closed the door behind him.
“The police found tool marks on the canopy release.”
Daniel swore.
Richard continued.
“And the camera wasn’t merely switched off. Someone logged into the security server using an administrator credential.”
“Whose?”
“Lucas Pike’s.”
Lucas was the estate’s security director.
Former police officer.
Twelve years with Richard.
Daniel frowned.
“Where is he?”
“Gone.”
Claire felt the temperature of the room drop.
“What does that mean?”
“His truck left the estate sixteen minutes before the canopy collapsed.”
Richard looked at Daniel.
“He isn’t answering his phone.”
Daniel sat down.
Richard placed both hands on the desk.
“Now tell me what Olivia told you.”
Daniel said nothing.
“Daniel.”
“She thought Vanessa and Grant were moving money.”
Richard’s face hardened.
Grant Mercer was Richard’s nephew and chief financial officer of Hale Meridian.
“How much money?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me in my own house.”
“I said I don’t know.”
Claire saw Richard’s fists tighten.
“Olivia came to me three weeks before she died,” Daniel continued. “She said something was wrong with several development accounts.”
“And?”
“I told her to take it to Grant.”
Richard stared at him.
“You told her to report suspicious transfers to the CFO she suspected?”
“At that time she hadn’t accused Grant directly.”
“What did she accuse Vanessa of?”
Daniel looked toward the window.
“Manipulating you.”
Richard almost smiled.
“That hardly narrows things down.”
“She said Vanessa knew about the money.”
“And the danger?”
Daniel swallowed.
“She said if she was right, somebody could go to prison.”
Claire’s pulse quickened.
“What happened after that?”
“She died.”
The words landed brutally.
Richard looked at Claire.
“Olivia’s accident was investigated.”
“Single-car crash,” Daniel said. “Wet road. Mechanical failure.”
Claire remembered the funeral.
The closed casket.
Emma asking why everyone whispered.
Richard walked to the liquor cabinet but did not pour anything.
“Mechanical failure of what?”
“Brakes.”
Claire stared at Daniel.
“You never told me that.”
“It was in the police report.”
“No. The report said loss of control.”
Daniel looked away.
Richard’s voice became quiet.
“Why are you lying?”
“I’m not.”
“You just changed the story.”
Daniel stood.
“Because I spent nine months trying not to relive my wife’s death every day!”
The door opened.
Emma stood there.
Rosie dangling from one hand.
“Daddy?”
Daniel’s anger disappeared.
“Honey.”
She looked frightened.
“I found something.”
Claire approached.
“What?”
Emma held out her doll.
A strip of fabric on Rosie’s back had torn during the canopy collapse.
Inside, beneath the stuffing, something metallic reflected the light.
Claire carefully pulled it free.
A small brass key.
An engraved number was stamped into its head.
Richard stared.
Daniel whispered, “What the hell?”
Emma touched the torn seam.
“Mommy put it there.”
Claire crouched.
“You saw her?”
Emma nodded.
“She said Rosie had to keep it safe.”
“When?”
“Before she went away.”
Daniel looked pale.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
Emma shrugged.
“Mommy said it was our secret.”
Claire turned the key over.
It looked like a bank safe-deposit key.
Richard reached for it.
Emma pulled back.
“No.”
“Sweetheart—”
“Mommy said Claire gets it.”
Everyone looked at Claire.
Her heart began pounding.
“Me?”
Emma nodded.
“She said if bad things happened and you came to live with us, I should give it to you when I knew you were really you.”
Richard stared at Claire.
Daniel’s face changed.
“When did Olivia say Claire would come live here?”
Emma answered before Claire could.
“The night before Mommy died.”
Claire felt the room tilt.
She had not come to the Hale estate until three months after Olivia’s funeral.
Richard had called her after Emma stopped eating and began waking from nightmares.
Claire had believed that call was his idea.
Apparently it hadn’t been.
“Emma,” she whispered, “what else did your mother say?”
The girl looked toward the hallway, as if checking whether Vanessa was listening.
May you like
Then she whispered:
“She said the key opens the place where she hid the truth.”
