Chapter 6 - THE MAN WITH THE CATERING BADGE
By noon, the Cross estate looked like a crime scene wearing flowers. Guards checked every entrance while the abandoned engagement decorations sat untouched.
Vanessa sat in the library with her attorney on speakerphone.
“You cannot confine me here,” she snapped.
Damian stood across from her. “The gates aren’t locked. You can leave whenever you want.”
“Then why is security following me?”
“Because documents connected to stolen money were found in your possession.”
“My private financial records.”
“With my forged signature.”
Vanessa leaned back. “Prove it’s forged.”
Damian’s attorney, Rachel Kim, spoke from the doorway. “We will.”
Vanessa’s eyes narrowed.
Elena watched from the hall. Part of her hated that she was still there. Another part needed to see the truth reach daylight.
Marcus hurried toward them.
“We found Owen.”
Damian turned. “Where?”
“Not where. Who.”
He held up a photo from the morning’s catering check-in. A man in a white service jacket, baseball cap, and trimmed beard smiled at the camera.
“Registered as Oliver Hayes. Temporary pastry crew.”
Elena stared.
She had seen him forty minutes earlier carrying boxes toward the east kitchen.
Vanessa’s face remained blank.
Damian noticed.
“You recognize him.”
“No.”
“That’s your brother.”
“I don’t have a brother.”
Marcus put the corporate filing beside the photograph. Same scar above the eyebrow. Same birth date. Same eyes.
Vanessa didn’t even look down.
“I want to leave.”
Damian’s phone rang.
Then Elena’s.
Then Marcus’s radio exploded with voices.
Elena answered first.
“Sofia?”
The cook on the other end was crying.
“Elena, I’m sorry. I turned around for one second. Mia was coloring at the kitchen table. Then a man said you asked him to bring her to you.”
Elena’s blood stopped moving.
“What man?”
“The catering guy. I thought—I thought he worked here.”
Elena’s phone slipped in her hand.
“No.”
Damian was already shouting into his radio. “Close every gate. Nobody leaves. Marcus, cameras now.”
Vanessa stood.
Elena crossed the room before anyone could stop her and slammed both hands onto the library table.
“Where is my daughter?”
Vanessa blinked slowly. “I don’t know.”
“If your brother touched her—”
“I said I don’t know.”
Elena’s voice dropped to a whisper more frightening than a scream. “You laughed at my child this morning. Do not lie to me about her now.”
Marcus ran back in.
“Camera caught Owen taking Mia through the greenhouse corridor. He never reached a gate.”
Damian’s eyes sharpened. “Then he’s still on the property.”
A second later Elena’s phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
One text.
BRING THE LEDGER TO THE OLD BOATHOUSE. NO POLICE. COME ALONE.
May you like
Below it was a photograph of Mia sitting on a wooden floor, clutching her stuffed rabbit.
And behind her, through a dirty window, Elena could see the river.
