Chapter 2 - SOMEONE USED HER NAME
Elena slid her phone into the hidden pocket of her dress before the investigator reached her.
“No.”
Charles shut his eyes.
The investigator stopped.
“That wasn’t a request.”
Vittorio’s attorney, Dominic Russo, appeared from the dining room carrying a leather portfolio.
“It becomes one if you don’t have a warrant.”
The male investigator turned.
“And you are?”
“Someone who enjoys reading before midnight.”
Dominic held out his hand.
“Show me the paper.”
The woman ignored him.
“We are asking Ms. Whitmore to accompany us voluntarily.”
“Then she voluntarily declines.”
Elena looked at Dominic.
“I didn’t hire you.”
“No. He did.”
Dominic nodded toward Vittorio.
Elena’s eyes narrowed.
Vittorio didn’t apologize.
“Tonight is moving quickly.”
“So are you.”
The investigator’s phone rang.
She stepped aside to answer.
Elena used the ten seconds.
“Victoria.”
Her sister flinched.
“Get my laptop.”
Charles cut in.
“No one accesses the system.”
Elena looked at him.
“Someone accessed it as me.”
“Which is why you don’t touch anything.”
“Dad.”
His jaw tightened.
There it was again.
Fear before anger.
Elena turned to Vittorio.
“Do you have a clean machine?”
He nodded once.
One of his security men produced a tablet from a case.
Vale stepped forward.
“You cannot access corporate records while you are the subject of an active fraud investigation.”
Elena held out her hand for the tablet.
“You just said you represent the company.”
“I do.”
“Then protect it.”
His mouth went still.
The tablet hit her palm.
Elena logged into an external monitoring portal she had set up years earlier after a ransomware scare. Charles had called it paranoid overhead.
Now it was the only system Vale’s office did not administer.
Three failed password attempts.
One successful credential use.
2:54 A.M.
Her office door.
Elena tapped the physical access archive.
A security thumbnail loaded.
Black coat.
Dark hair.
Female.
Caroline stepped closer.
“That’s you.”
“No.”
The image opened.
The woman wore Elena’s winter coat.
The same coat Elena had left at the mansion two nights earlier after Charles called her from a meeting and ordered her to come directly from the airport.
Elena scrubbed forward.
2:53:41.
The woman entered frame.
2:53:47.
She lifted her head.
Victoria.
Audrey backed into the console table.
A glass ornament tipped.
She caught it before it hit the floor.
Victoria stared at the screen.
“No.”
Elena enlarged the image.
Same earrings.
Same narrow scar near the eyebrow from a riding accident at fourteen.
“Victoria.”
“I didn’t—”
“You were there.”
“I was told to go.”
“By who?”
Victoria looked at Charles.
Charles’s face changed.
“Don’t.”
Victoria’s eyes filled, but no tears fell.
“You sent me.”
Charles stepped toward her.
“I did no such thing.”
“You called me at two-thirty.”
“Show me the call.”
Victoria grabbed her phone.
Her fingers slipped once on the screen.
Then again.
She found the log.
Nothing.
Her mouth opened.
“It was there.”
Elena looked at the security footage again.
Victoria paused before entering the office.
Someone stood just beyond the camera angle.
Only an arm showed.
White cuff.
Dark suit.
A silver ring.
Elena froze the frame.
The ring carried an old crest.
Two crossed lines beneath a crown.
Vale shifted his weight.
Tiny movement.
Enough.
Elena looked at his right hand.
Bare.
“You wear a ring?”
Vale glanced down as if the question bored him.
“Sometimes.”
“What kind?”
Charles snapped, “This is absurd.”
Elena ignored him.
Vale answered.
“A family signet.”
“Silver?”
“Platinum.”
Vittorio gave a low breath through his nose.
Vale looked at him.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Elena scrubbed three seconds farther.
The hand disappeared.
Victoria entered.
At 2:56, the camera feed broke into static for eight minutes.
When it returned, Victoria walked out carrying nothing.
Elena pulled the access audit.
Her desktop woke at 2:58.
Her encrypted token authenticated at 3:11.
Transaction executed at 3:12.
Then another line appeared.
DOCUMENT UPLOAD: NEWARK PURCHASE AGREEMENT.
Origin terminal: EXEC-04.
Not Elena’s computer.
Charles’s executive suite.
Elena looked up.
“Dad.”
Charles’s throat moved.
Before he could answer, Victoria grabbed Elena’s arm.
“I never touched your computer.”
“Then why were you there?”
“I told you.”
“No. You told me Dad sent you.”
“He did.”
Charles slammed his palm against the table.
“I did not.”
Victoria recoiled.
The female investigator returned from her call.
“Ms. Whitmore, we can give you five minutes.”
Elena didn’t look away from Victoria.
“Tell me exactly what he said.”
Victoria swallowed.
“Dad said there was a blue file in your desk. He said bring it downstairs and don’t wake anyone.”
Charles moved closer.
“You are lying.”
Victoria stared at him.
Then her expression broke.
“No.”
She pointed at him.
“You called me.”
May you like
Charles’s hand curled into a fist.
“I never called you.”
