Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW WHERE THE MONEY WENT
Grace Holloway was thirty-one, a single mother, and the only person who had challenged Beatrice Vane during the foundation's last financial review.
Her disappearance frightened me more than the anonymous messages.
Because Grace had tried to do the right thing.
And now nobody knew where she was.
Lorenzo's attorneys shared the information they had with investigators.
Antonio checked whether Grace had contacted anyone connected to the foundation.
I searched public information about her work history.
Then I noticed something.
Grace had volunteered at a neighborhood food pantry before joining the foundation.
The pantry was three blocks from our old apartment.
I knew the director.
Her name was Mrs. Alvarez.
She had given Toby and me groceries during the winter our mother died.
I called her.
“Mrs. Alvarez?”
“Sophie Clark! Honey, is that you?”
I nearly cried hearing her voice.
“Yes.”
“What happened? Are you all right?”
I explained that I was trying to locate a woman named Grace Holloway.
Mrs. Alvarez went quiet.
Then said, “Come see me.”
Lorenzo drove me himself.
The pantry occupied the basement of a church near Pilsen.
Mrs. Alvarez greeted me with a hug.
Then looked suspiciously at Lorenzo.
“And who's this handsome trouble?”
I covered my face.
“Please don't.”
Lorenzo extended his hand.
“Lorenzo Moretti.”
She studied him.
“Ah.”
He waited.
She nodded.
“You look like your mother.”
He smiled.
“You know Isabella?”
“Everybody who works with struggling families knows Isabella.”
Mrs. Alvarez told us Grace had visited three nights earlier.
She'd been frightened.
She left an envelope and asked that it be given to someone who could be trusted.
“Why didn't you call the police?” Lorenzo asked.
“I did,” Mrs. Alvarez answered. “But she asked me to keep a copy.”
She retrieved a folder from a locked cabinet.
Inside were payment records, emails, and a list of families whose assistance had been approved but never delivered.
Near the bottom was a handwritten note.
CHECK THE GALA AUCTION INVENTORY. THE DONATIONS WERE NEVER THEIRS TO SELL.
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Lorenzo looked at the papers.
“I don't know.”
The gala auction had included paintings, jewelry, luxury vacations, and several valuable historical objects.
According to its publicity materials, everything had been donated.
But Grace's records suggested certain items belonged to estates and private collections whose owners had never authorized the sales.
The foundation had apparently used those objects to generate money that was then routed through outside companies.
One entry caught Lorenzo's attention.
A sapphire necklace.
Estimated value: $2.4 million.
Donor: Isabella Moretti.
He stared at the page.
“My mother never donated that.”
“How do you know?”
“Because it belonged to Lucia.”
Back at the estate, Isabella confirmed it.
The necklace had been a sixteenth-birthday gift from her husband to their daughter.
After Lucia died, Isabella kept it in a locked display case.
It had disappeared the previous year.
Beatrice told her it had been sent for restoration.
Isabella began crying.
“They sold Lucia's necklace?”
Lorenzo embraced her.
“We'll find out.”
That night, Grace finally contacted the police.
She was alive.
She'd gone into hiding after noticing someone following her.
Her laptop had been stolen, but she'd retained copies of important records.
Investigators arranged to interview her safely.
I should have felt relieved.
Instead, I stared at the auction inventory.
Because I recognized one of the buyers.
CHARLES VANE FAMILY TRUST.
May you like
The senator's own family had purchased the necklace.
At a fraction of its estimated value.
