Chapter 4 - CLAUDIA'S FIRST LIE
I called Daniel.
He arrived at my apartment twenty-five minutes later.
Lily was asleep.
We sat at my kitchen table.
I gave him the letter.
Eleanor wrote that she had become suspicious of Claudia months before her death.
Not because Claudia was rude.
Eleanor cared little about manners.
She was worried about Claudia's father, Victor Vance.
Victor's investment firm had entered a partnership with Hartwell Freight.
Eleanor had discovered unusual transfers.
Millions of dollars.
Daniel frowned.
“My auditors checked that partnership.”
“Your mother apparently didn't trust them.”
He kept reading.
Eleanor had commissioned an independent investigation.
The findings were stored in a red document box.
But the letter didn't say where.
Daniel called his attorneys.
Nobody knew about it.
Then Lily appeared in the hallway.
Her hair was messy.
“Mommy?”
“What are you doing awake?”
She rubbed her eyes.
“Mr. Daniel loud.”
Daniel looked horrified.
“Sorry.”
Lily climbed into my lap.
She saw Eleanor's letter.
“Grandma Ellie?”
“Yes.”
“Red box?”
Daniel and I looked at each other.
“What did you say?”
“Grandma Ellie's red box.”
“You saw it?”
Lily nodded.
“Where?”
She thought.
Then pointed at Claudia's photograph on Daniel's phone.
“She took it.”
Silence.
Daniel crouched.
“Lily, did you see Miss Claudia with Grandma Ellie?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
Lily didn't understand dates.
So we asked differently.
“Was Grandma Ellie awake?”
“Yes.”
“Was Mommy there?”
“No.”
“Did Miss Claudia take the red box?”
Lily nodded.
The following morning, Daniel contacted Bellweather House.
The old security footage still existed.
At 9:14 a.m. on the morning after Eleanor's stroke, Claudia entered through a side entrance.
Seventeen minutes later, she left.
Carrying a red box.
Daniel stared at the frozen image.
“She told me she'd never been there.”
Claudia's first lie had hidden a phone call.
Her second had hidden a visit.
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And whatever was inside that box had frightened her enough to steal from a dying woman.
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