Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN FROM THE BANK
Police reached Melissa Ray's apartment seven minutes later.
The front door was open.
The living room had been ransacked.
Melissa was gone.
Natalie stared at Detective Elena Ruiz as she delivered the news.
"Taken?"
"We don't know yet."
"She screamed."
"We know."
Ruiz was forty-two, blunt, calm, and completely unimpressed by Arthur's wealth.
Natalie liked her immediately.
Ruiz had spent most of the afternoon reviewing Caroline's documents.
"If these records authenticate," she said, "we're not dealing with a family dispute anymore."
Arthur looked at her.
"What are we dealing with?"
"Potential kidnapping, financial crimes, obstruction, conspiracy, and possibly two homicides."
The room went quiet.
Evelyn.
Daniel.
Ruiz looked at Natalie.
"And twenty-five years of intimidation."
Natalie folded her arms around herself.
"Grant knew where I was."
"Possibly."
"He had a photo."
"We need to authenticate that too."
Natalie appreciated Ruiz refusing to leap beyond the evidence.
Facts mattered.
Especially now.
Thomas entered.
"The independent DNA results are in."
Arthur stood.
Natalie's heart hammered.
Ruiz remained.
"Do you want privacy?"
Natalie shook her head.
"No more secrets."
Thomas placed the report on the table.
Natalie didn't reach for it.
Arthur didn't either.
Finally Thomas opened it.
He read.
Then looked up.
His eyes were different.
"Probability of grandparent relationship: 99.997 percent."
Arthur's knees nearly gave out.
Thomas caught his arm.
Natalie stopped breathing.
The room disappeared.
99.997.
She looked at Arthur.
Arthur looked at her.
Neither spoke.
He seemed afraid that one word would shatter something.
Natalie whispered, "So the first test was fake."
Thomas nodded.
"Or tampered."
Arthur took one step toward her.
Then stopped.
Waiting.
Natalie crossed the distance herself.
He hugged her.
This time when he whispered "Emily," she didn't pull away.
But after a second she said quietly, "Natalie."
Arthur nodded against her hair.
"Natalie."
That mattered too.
She wasn't replacing herself.
She was discovering who had existed before.
Arthur pulled back.
His cheeks were wet.
"I have a granddaughter."
Natalie laughed through tears.
"Apparently."
"I had one yesterday too."
"You didn't know."
"I do now."
Ruiz gave them a moment.
Then reality returned.
Melissa was still missing.
Grant was still free.
And someone had manipulated a DNA sample.
Ruiz began issuing warrants.
Grant's phone went straight to voicemail.
His home was empty.
His office had been cleared of several computers.
Airport alerts showed no international departure.
Thomas checked every Whitmore property Grant had access to.
Nothing.
Then Natalie remembered something.
"His brother."
Ruiz looked at her.
"Daniel?"
"Arthur said Daniel died in a car accident."
"Yes."
"What happened to his property afterward?"
Arthur frowned.
"He had a lake cabin."
"Lake Horner?"
Arthur's face changed.
"No. North of there."
Natalie looked at Ruiz.
"Who owns it now?"
Arthur whispered, "Grant."
Police moved.
Natalie wanted to go.
Everyone said no.
She argued.
Everyone still said no.
Arthur surprised her by siding with everyone.
"I'm discovering being a grandfather gives me opinions."
"You've been one for one hour."
"I'm learning quickly."
"You rode a bus alone two days ago."
"I was reckless in my youth."
"You're eighty-one."
"Exactly."
Despite everything, Natalie laughed.
She stayed.
For forty-three agonizing minutes.
Then Ruiz called.
They had found Melissa.
Alive.
She had been tied to a chair inside Grant's cabin.
Grant wasn't there.
Melissa told police a man she didn't recognize had taken her.
He had repeatedly asked what she told Natalie.
When police arrived, he fled through the woods.
They arrested him six miles away.
His name was Stephen Kline.
Former private investigator.
Paid by Mercer Strategic Consulting.
Ruiz returned after midnight.
Kline was talking.
Not because he grew a conscience.
Because he realized Grant had abandoned him.
According to Kline, Grant hired him years earlier to watch Caroline.
When Caroline became sick, surveillance became less frequent.
After she died, Kline continued checking Natalie occasionally.
"Why?" Natalie asked.
Ruiz looked at Arthur.
"To make sure she stayed away from Whitmore."
Arthur's expression darkened.
Kline had also delivered the threatening envelope.
Set the archive fire.
And paid a laboratory employee to substitute Natalie's DNA sample.
"Did Grant order all of it?" Arthur asked.
"Kline says yes."
"Can he prove it?"
"Messages. Payments. Recorded calls."
Arthur exhaled.
"Then arrest Grant."
"We need to find him."
Kline gave them one more thing.
A storage facility.
Grant kept personal records there.
Police found boxes of surveillance photographs.
Natalie at eight.
Natalie at twelve.
Natalie graduating high school.
Natalie entering the hospital during Caroline's chemotherapy.
Arthur stared at them with horror.
"He watched her entire life."
Ruiz nodded.
"He knew."
Natalie felt sick.
One photograph showed Caroline sitting alone outside the cancer center.
Another showed Natalie carrying groceries.
A third showed her crying beside Caroline's grave.
Grant had watched.
Done nothing.
For years.
Ruiz placed another folder on the table.
"This is where it gets worse."
Inside were documents connected to Evelyn's death.
Copies of police reports.
Maps.
Payments to an officer who had worked the original drowning investigation.
Arthur sat down.
"You think the investigation was compromised?"
"We think Grant paid someone."
"To do what?"
Ruiz hesitated.
"Arthur, Evelyn's autopsy report has inconsistencies."
Natalie's stomach tightened.
"Like what?"
"The report says she drowned."
Ruiz placed a page down.
"But archived photographs show bruising around her neck."
Arthur closed his eyes.
Natalie felt cold.
Ruiz continued.
"The medical examiner noted it. The final report omitted it."
Arthur whispered, "She was strangled."
"We don't know yet."
But everyone knew what the evidence suggested.
"And Daniel?" Natalie asked.
Ruiz opened another folder.
"His blood alcohol result may have been altered too."
Arthur looked up sharply.
"Meaning?"
"The original blood sample still exists in evidence storage."
Thomas stared.
"After twenty-five years?"
"By luck."
Ruiz nodded.
"We're retesting it."
Natalie realized what Evelyn's cassette had said.
It wasn't Daniel.
Maybe Daniel hadn't killed Evelyn.
Maybe he had tried to expose Grant too.
A phone rang.
Ruiz checked hers.
She listened.
Her expression changed.
"What?"
Everyone watched.
Ruiz ended the call.
"The retest came back preliminary negative for alcohol."
Arthur stared.
"So Daniel was sober."
"Likely."
"Then why did his car leave the road?"
Ruiz said nothing.
Natalie already knew.
Another accident.
Another convenient death.
Grant's older brother.
Evelyn.
Twenty-five years of silence.
Ruiz's phone rang again.
This time she put it on speaker.
An officer spoke rapidly.
"We located Mercer."
"Where?"
"Whitmore Tower."
Arthur frowned.
"Why would he go there?"
"He's on the forty-sixth floor."
Arthur stood.
"That's the executive archive."
Thomas's face changed.
"What does he have access to?"
Arthur stared toward the windows.
"Everything."
Ruiz asked, "Is anyone else there?"
A pause.
Then the officer answered.
"One person."
"Who?"
"Arthur Whitmore's attorney. Charles Benton."
Arthur went pale.
"Benton?"
Natalie looked at him.
"Who is he?"
Arthur whispered, "The man who controls my original will."
Then Ruiz's phone crackled.
"Detective, Mercer says he has Benton at gunpoint."
Everyone froze.
"And he says he'll only speak to one person."
Ruiz looked at Natalie.
"Who?"
May you like
The officer answered.
"Natalie Carter."
