Chapter 3 - THE DEAD MAN'S SECOND WILL
Arthur Davis had left his daughter a modest inheritance.
A small apartment in Brooklyn.
A retirement account.
His fishing boat.
And a storage unit filled with tools, old photographs, and things Chloe had never found the courage to sort through.
Or so she believed.
Three days after the wedding, her new attorney, Naomi Ellis, discovered something strange.
Arthur's estate file contained two versions of his will.
The first had been signed four years earlier.
The second was dated eleven days before his death.
The newer document removed Chloe as trustee of a family investment account.
It appointed Liam Foster instead.
Chloe stared at the copy.
“My father would never have done that.”
Naomi looked at her.
“Do you recognize the signature?”
Chloe examined it.
Arthur Davis had signed his name with an exaggerated capital A.
He'd joked that it looked like a fishing hook.
The signature on the newer will was neat.
Small.
Careful.
Nothing like his.
“No,” Chloe whispered.
Naomi nodded.
“We'll need proper examination before drawing conclusions.”
Chloe looked up.
“Could Liam have forged it?”
“That's one possibility.”
The next discovery was worse.
Arthur had owned a minority interest in a logistics company called Harborline Freight Systems.
Chloe knew the name.
She had worked there for ten years.
But she'd never known her father was an investor.
The interest had been acquired through a trust.
And the trust controlled access to several old shipping contracts.
One contract involved a warehouse complex in Red Hook.
Another involved a freight terminal in Newark.
The third concerned a private storage facility in Delaware.
Chloe frowned.
“Why would Liam want those?”
Naomi looked at her.
“That's what we're trying to understand.”
That evening, Chloe sat in Dominic's library.
Her wedding veil lay folded beside her.
She had tried to throw it away twice.
Both times, she'd stopped.
Her father had chosen it.
He'd paid for the embroidery.
He'd wanted her to carry something of him down the aisle.
Now the veil felt like the last thing he'd touched.
Dominic entered quietly.
“May I sit?”
She nodded.
He sat across from her.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Chloe asked:
“Did you know my father?”
Dominic looked surprised.
“Arthur Davis?”
“Yes.”
He considered.
“I met him once.”
Chloe sat straighter.
“When?”
“About eight years ago. At a shipping conference.”
She stared.
“What did you talk about?”
Dominic smiled faintly.
“Container tracking.”
Chloe almost laughed.
“That sounds like Dad.”
“He told me most expensive disasters begin with someone ignoring a small discrepancy.”
Her throat tightened.
“He used to say that.”
Dominic nodded.
“He was right.”
Chloe looked down.
“Why did he never tell me he owned part of Harborline?”
Dominic didn't answer.
She looked up.
“You know something.”
He hesitated.
“Your father may have been investigating irregularities in the company's records.”
Her heart hammered.
“What irregularities?”
“Missing shipments. False invoices. Transfers through companies that didn't appear to exist.”
Chloe stared.
“Liam worked in investment management.”
“Yes.”
“And he handled some of Harborline's financing.”
Dominic nodded.
“Yes.”
Chloe closed her eyes.
The pieces were beginning to fit.
Her father's sudden death.
The new will.
The hurried wedding.
The forged company documents.
She whispered:
“Did Liam kill my father?”
Dominic's expression darkened.
“I don't know.”
May you like
Then he added:
“But I think someone has been working very hard to make sure nobody asks that question.”
