Chapter 4 - THE RING AROUND CLAIRE’S NECK
The fingerprints matched.
Julian Morgan and Julian Mercer were the same man.
The police detained him for questioning.
He demanded an attorney.
Before leaving, he looked at my wedding ring.
“Claire, don’t open it.”
I almost laughed.
“You surrendered the right to advise me when you attended your own funeral from a distance.”
His face tightened.
That sentence reached him.
The USB remained with hotel security until investigators could create a forensic copy.
I retained the original under evidence seal.
Vanessa sat beside the conference-room window.
“What was he to you?”
“My husband for six years.”
“He told me he had never married.”
“How long have you known him?”
“Eighteen months.”
“Are you engaged?”
Her silence answered.
The diamond ring on her right hand was not decorative.
“He proposed last week,” she said.
“Did he ask for access to your family company?”
Her eyes sharpened.
“He’s advising our restructuring.”
I looked toward the hotel offices.
“Then he did not come here only for you.”
The USB’s first decrypted folder contained insurance documents.
Julian purchased a large death policy six months before the boat fire.
The beneficiary appeared to be me.
The payment never arrived.
Someone submitted a change two days before his death.
The new beneficiary was a company in Belize.
The digital approval carried my name.
Not my signature.
The wedding-ring number opened a second layer.
A list of banks appeared.
Beside each was a woman’s name.
Claire Morgan.
Elena Pierce.
Rachel Dunn.
Monica Hale.
Vanessa Ashford.
I looked at Vanessa.
“You’re number five.”
She read the names twice.
May you like
“What happened to the others?”
The answer was hidden deeper in the drive.
