Chapter 5 - LAUREL HAD WARNED SERAPHINA TO STAY AWAY FROM HADLEYEverett watched the recovered clip five times.
Each replay hurt differently.
Laurel alive.
Standing in the foyer.
Holding the missing recorder.
Seraphina facing her.
Not strangers.
Enemies.
“You were supposed to stay away from my daughter.”
Everett looked at Graham.
“What did Laurel mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“You had the backup.”
“I didn’t watch every recording.”
“Why not?”
“Because Laurel specifically told me not to unless something happened.”
“Something happened.”
Graham looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“I checked the archive after her accident.”
“You saw Seraphina.”
“Yes.”
Everett stepped toward him.
“And you still let me marry her?”
“I didn’t know the woman you introduced me to two years later was the same person.”
Everett stared.
“That’s impossible.”
“She used a different name when Laurel investigated her.”
“What name?”
“Seraphina West wasn’t her legal identity then.”
Detective Ellison looked up.
“What was it?”
Graham answered:
“Fiona Mercer.”
Everett felt the room change.
“Alias?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She was doing contract intelligence work.”
“For Northstar?”
“Through Veyron Consulting.”
Julian typed.
Veyron existed.
Private investigations.
Corporate security.
Litigation support.
Closed three years ago.
“Who owned Veyron?” Ellison asked.
Graham’s jaw tightened.
“That’s the problem.”
“Who?”
“A shell company.”
“Beneficial owner?”
“I never proved it.”
Everett looked at him.
“But Laurel did.”
Graham nodded.
“I think the answer is on the missing recorder.”
Everett stared at the frozen image of Laurel.
His wife had died the following afternoon.
Officially:
A tire failure on a rain-slick highway.
Single-car accident.
No criminal finding.
Now Everett wondered what else he had accepted too easily.
“What happened after this footage?”
Julian searched.
“Next forty-eight minutes deleted.”
“Recover it.”
“I’m trying.”
Doreen appeared in the study doorway.
Everett immediately asked:
“Where’s Hadley?”
“With the female officer upstairs.”
Doreen looked at the screen.
Then stopped.
“Laurel.”
Everett nodded.
Doreen stepped closer.
“She was wearing that blouse the night she gave me the recorder.”
Everett turned.
“What?”
“The blue blouse.”
“Earlier you said she took it back three days before she died.”
“I was wrong.”
Doreen covered her mouth.
“It was the night before.”
Everett felt his pulse accelerate.
“What exactly happened?”
Doreen closed her eyes.
“Laurel came into the laundry room.”
“She had the recorder?”
“Yes.”
“She said, ‘Doreen, if Everett asks, you never saw this.’”
Everett almost laughed bitterly.
“Then?”
“She asked me to hide it.”
“Where?”
“In the linen closet.”
“What happened?”
“About an hour later she came back.”
“Alone?”
Doreen hesitated.
“No.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t see the person clearly.”
“Man or woman?”
“Man.”
“Did Laurel take the recorder?”
“Yes.”
“Did she say why?”
“She said, ‘I have enough now.’”
Everett stared.
“What else?”
Doreen’s eyes filled.
“She hugged me.”
“Why?”
“She said if anything happened, I was to keep Hadley close.”
Everett looked away.
Laurel had known she was in danger.
Maybe not mortal danger.
But enough to make plans.
“Why didn’t you tell me after the accident?”
Doreen began crying.
“Because the police said it was an accident.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“Laurel told me not to mention the investigation unless someone came looking for the recorder.”
Everett stared.
“And did someone?”
“Yes.”
His whole body went cold.
“When?”
“Two days after the funeral.”
“Who?”
Doreen looked toward the screen.
“Seraphina.”
Silence.
Everett could hear his own breathing.
“You saw her?”
“Yes.”
“At this house?”
“No. Outside the grocery store.”
“What happened?”
“She showed me a photograph of the recorder.”
“What did she say?”
“She asked if Laurel had left it with me.”
“And you?”
“I lied.”
Everett stared.
“I told her I had no idea what she was talking about.”
“What did she do?”
“She smiled.”
Doreen shivered at the memory.
“Then she said, ‘Good. Keep it that way.’”
Everett turned toward Graham.
“You still think my marriage wasn’t planned?”
Graham said nothing.
Detective Ellison asked Doreen:
“Why didn’t you recognize Seraphina when Everett later introduced her?”
“I did.”
Everett froze.
Doreen looked at him.
“I recognized her immediately.”
Pain sharpened into anger.
“You knew?”
“I wasn’t certain.”
“You just said you recognized her.”
“She looked different. Hair color. Name. Style. And years had passed.”
“Doreen.”
“I tried to tell you.”
Everett stopped.
“When?”
“The night after your engagement party.”
He remembered.
Doreen had asked if he was sure he knew Seraphina well.
Everett had laughed.
Said she was being protective.
“I dismissed you.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you push?”
“Because Seraphina came into the kitchen while we were talking.”
Doreen’s voice lowered.
“She asked whether I still kept Laurel’s old things.”
Everett’s stomach turned.
“And?”
“I realized she remembered me too.”
“So you stayed quiet.”
“I was afraid.”
Everett wanted to be angry.
Then he thought of Hadley.
Fear made people smaller.
Silence made abusers stronger.
But Doreen had finally recorded.
Finally sent proof.
That mattered.
Julian suddenly leaned toward his screen.
“I have more footage.”
Everyone turned.
“The deleted block?”
“Part of it.”
He played.
12:07 a.m.
Laurel stood in the foyer again.
Seraphina was gone.
A man entered from the study.
Only his back visible.
Laurel held out the black recorder.
“You wanted proof.”
The man reached for it.
She pulled it away.
“Not until Everett is safe.”
The man said:
“You’re running out of time.”
Everett recognized the voice instantly.
He felt the blood drain from his face.
So did Graham.
Detective Ellison looked between them.
“Who is that?”
Everett whispered:
“Nolan Pierce.”
His business partner.
The man who had stood beside Everett at Laurel’s funeral.
May you like
The man Hadley called Uncle Nolan.
And the man who had introduced Everett to Seraphina three years later.
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