Chapter 5 - The Blue FolderLaura discovered the missing folder at 2:13 that afternoon.
She had gone upstairs to retrieve the paper notes she kept separately from her digital audit. The blue accordion folder had been locked in the bottom drawer of her desk.
The drawer was still locked.
The folder was gone.
“Daniel!”
He ran in from the hallway.
“What?”
She pointed.
“Somebody took it.”
“What was in there?”
“Copies of the Alder Crescent invoices. Handwritten notes. Property records.”
“Anything irreplaceable?”
“My chronology.”
Daniel frowned.
“That can be recreated.”
“That’s not the point.”
She opened the drawer wider.
“I locked this.”
“Who has a key?”
“Me.”
“You keep a spare?”
“In my jewelry cabinet.”
They looked at each other.
Laura crossed the room and opened the cabinet.
The spare key was there.
Daniel examined it.
“So maybe—”
“Don’t.”
“I was going to say maybe whoever opened the drawer put it back.”
“You were going to say maybe I forgot.”
He didn’t deny it quickly enough.
Laura stepped away.
“You still don’t believe me.”
“My daughter almost died yesterday.”
“Our daughter.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Daniel flinched.
Laura immediately regretted it, but she was too angry to apologize.
Mia slept in the adjoining room with a monitor beside her bed. Every time Laura looked at the screen she saw the pool cover again, although she had not witnessed it.
Her mind supplied what she had missed.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“I believe my mother did something unforgivable.”
“That is not the same as believing she planned it.”
“No.”
“When will you?”
“When there’s evidence.”
Laura laughed without humor.
“Three punctures?”
“Evidence.”
“Disabled cameras?”
“Evidence.”
“Thomas saw her press the switch?”
“Evidence.”
Daniel’s voice rose.
“I said those are evidence.”
“Then what are you waiting for?”
“For an explanation that tells me why my mother would try to kill my child!”
Mia shifted on the monitor.
Both went silent.
Laura closed the bedroom door more gently.
Then she said, “Maybe she wasn’t trying to kill Mia.”
Daniel stared.
“What?”
“Maybe Mia was part of something else.”
“What could possibly make that better?”
“Nothing.”
Laura sat on the edge of the desk.
“But your mother’s financial problems, the hidden company payments, Mia saying I was going away—those things fit together somehow.”
“How?”
“I don’t know yet.”
A knock sounded downstairs.
They found Thomas at the front door speaking with a delivery driver.
Victor stood near the bottom of the stairs.
Daniel stopped.
“What are you doing here?”
Victor looked up.
“Evelyn asked me to bring her some estate documents.”
“I thought she hired separate counsel.”
“She did. This is unrelated.”
Laura came down behind Daniel.
“When did you arrive?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
“Where have you been?”
“In the library.”
“Alone?”
Victor’s gaze sharpened.
“Yes.”
Laura walked past him toward the library.
He followed.
“Laura.”
She opened the door.
Nothing looked disturbed.
Then she saw a corner of blue beneath a stack of legal pads on the side table.
She pulled.
Her missing folder slid out.
Everyone froze.
Victor stared at it.
“What is that?”
Laura looked at Daniel.
Daniel looked at Victor.
“You tell me.”
“I’ve never seen it.”
“It disappeared from our bedroom.”
Victor’s expression changed from confusion to anger.
“You think I went upstairs?”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then how did it get here?”
“I don’t know.”
Evelyn appeared at the far end of the hall.
“What is everyone shouting about?”
Laura held up the folder.
Evelyn glanced at it.
For a fraction of a second, recognition showed.
Then it was gone.
Daniel saw.
“So you do know what this is.”
“No.”
“You looked at it.”
“I looked at the object your wife is waving around.”
Laura opened the folder.
The invoices were still there.
Her handwritten timeline too.
But something had been added.
A photograph.
Laura pulled it out.
Daniel moved closer.
The image showed Laura sitting across from a man at a café. They were leaning over documents. The angle made the meeting look secretive.
Daniel recognized the man.
Nathan Cole.
Senior vice president at Braddock Capital, a private-equity firm that had tried twice to buy a major stake in Carlisle Hospitality.
Daniel looked at Laura.
“What were you doing with him?”
Laura stared at the photograph.
“I can explain.”
Evelyn folded her arms.
“Of course you can.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“When was this?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“You met with Braddock three weeks ago?”
“Daniel—”
“You told me you were meeting an accountant.”
“I was.”
“That is Nathan Cole.”
“He brought someone with him.”
“Why?”
“Because—”
Victor reached for the photograph.
Laura pulled it away.
“No.”
His eyes narrowed.
She turned it over.
There was handwriting on the back.
Not hers.
DANIEL DESERVES TO KNOW WHO HIS WIFE REALLY WORKS FOR.
Daniel read it over her shoulder.
Laura looked toward Evelyn.
“You planted this.”
Evelyn smiled sadly.
“No, Laura. I think somebody finally stopped protecting you.”
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
Another message from an unknown number.
He opened it.
A second photograph filled the screen.
Laura entering Braddock Capital’s office building.
May you like
Below it was one line:
ASK HER WHAT SHE WAS OFFERED FOR CARLISLE HOSPITALITY.
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