Chapter 5
The recording had no sound for several seconds.
Then the microphone crackled.
Claire’s voice became clear.
“You told me Jenna was only helping with the accounts.”
Ryan looked toward the camera without seeing it.
“She is helping.”
“She moved eight hundred thousand dollars through fake transport invoices.”
Jenna folded her arms.
“That money belonged to my family.”
Claire laughed.
“You are not part of my family.”
Jenna’s expression changed.
Her anger disappeared.
Something colder replaced it.
“My mother says otherwise.”
Claire lifted the blue folder.
“I saw the birth certificate.”
Ryan stepped toward her.
“Lower your voice.”
“No.”
Claire looked at Jenna.
“Robert Cole was my father.”
“He was mine too,” Jenna replied.
I stopped the video.
My hands shook.
Claire’s father, Robert Cole, founded Cole Cold Storage.
He died six months before Claire.
He left the majority of his company shares to Claire.
Jenna had grown up with the surname Mercer.
Her mother, Vivian Mercer, had been Robert’s longtime office manager.
Claire had always disliked Vivian but never explained why.
“Jenna is Claire’s half sister?” I asked.
Megan nodded.
“She found out shortly before she died.”
“Did you know?”
“Claire told me the day she found the records.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried after the funeral. Jenna said you were suicidal and unstable. Your mother told me to stay away.”
I looked at Mom through the hospital-room window.
She sat in the corridor speaking to Ryan.
Both stopped when they noticed me watching.
Detective Torres resumed the video.
Claire accused Jenna and Vivian of stealing from the company for years.
Jenna said Robert had promised Vivian half the business.
Claire demanded written proof.
Ryan took the folder from her.
Claire grabbed it back.
The struggle moved near the small staircase leading from the garage into the kitchen.
Jenna shoved Claire.
Claire fell against the railing.
Her body dropped out of camera view.
I stopped breathing.
Ryan stared downward.
“Oh God.”
Jenna ran to the steps.
Claire’s hand appeared.
She was moving.
She had survived the fall.
“Call an ambulance,” Ryan said.
Jenna grabbed his phone.
“No.”
“She’s alive.”
“She’ll send us to prison.”
“Jenna.”
“Help me move her.”
Ryan backed away.
Then Vivian entered the garage.
She wore a dark coat and gloves.
She looked at Claire on the floor.
No shock.
No panic.
Only calculation.
“You were supposed to get the documents,” Vivian said.
Jenna began crying.
“She grabbed me.”
Vivian slapped her.
“Stop acting like a child.”
Ryan moved toward the door.
Vivian pointed at him.
“If you leave, Mark learns who approved the transfers.”
Ryan stopped.
Vivian called someone.
Twenty minutes later, two men entered with a stretcher.
They wore uniforms from Cole Cold Storage.
They carried Claire through a side door.
The video ended.
I stared at the blank screen.
“She did not die in the garage.”
Torres shook her head.
“The footage proves she left alive.”
“Where did they take her?”
Megan answered.
“The freezer room.”
Lily had been right.
Cole Cold Storage operated six refrigerated warehouses.
One had closed years earlier after a compressor failure.
Warehouse Eight.
Claire called it the freezer room when she was a child because her father sometimes took her there.
Megan believed Vivian used it to hide company records.
“Why was Claire’s body at the hospital?” I asked.
The official report said she died from head trauma after a fall.
I had identified her through a glass window.
Her face had been badly damaged.
Jenna said the doctors advised against touching her.
Megan looked sick.
“I don’t think that was Claire.”
Torres ordered an immediate review of the remains.
Claire had been cremated at Vivian’s insistence.
The funeral director was Vivian’s cousin.
There might be nothing left to test.
I opened the rest of the video files.
One showed Claire speaking directly to the camera two days before the fall.
“If Mark sees this, I failed to tell him in time.”
Her face filled the screen.
My chest tightened.
“I found proof that Jenna is my father’s biological daughter. Vivian has been taking company money under her name for years.”
Claire looked over her shoulder.
“Ryan is helping them. I don’t know whether Mark’s mother knows everything, but she has been arranging meetings between Jenna and Ryan.”
I looked toward Mom again.
She and Ryan were gone from the corridor.
Claire continued.
“Jenna has been asking questions about Lily’s trust. She knows the shares transfer when Lily turns seven.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I tried to warn Mark, but Jenna has convinced him that I’m paranoid.”
I covered my mouth.
On the video, Claire leaned closer.
“If something happens to me, do not let Jenna raise my daughter.”
A nurse entered the room.
“Mr. Cole, your mother just left with Lily.”
I stood so fast the chair struck the wall.
“What?”
“She said you authorized it.”
I ran into the corridor.
Lily’s jacket was gone.
May you like
Her room was empty.
Mom had taken my daughter while I watched Claire’s final warning.
