Chapter 4 - A Dead Woman’s Shadow

Charlotte replayed the call six times.

Grant heard the words.

So did the remaining security officer.

Neither knew what to say.

“My mother died in the hospital.”

Charlotte spoke quietly.

“I identified her.”

Grant looked uncomfortable.

“Did you see her face?”

Charlotte turned slowly.

The question disturbed her because she already knew the answer.

No.

The crash had caused extensive injuries.

The body had been partially covered.

Richard had insisted Charlotte not see everything.

He had held her shoulders while she stood beside the hospital bed.

He had whispered that she should remember Eleanor as she had been.

Charlotte had believed he was protecting her.

Now every kindness from that night felt poisonous.

The anonymous caller texted an address.

An abandoned Solmere laundry facility in Queens.

Grant shook his head.

“You cannot go.”

“I’m going.”

“Then not alone.”

“The caller said alone.”

Grant stared at her.

“Your mother would fire me twice if I let you walk into an obvious trap.”

Charlotte almost smiled.

She had forgotten how loyal he had been to Eleanor.

They compromised.

Grant would follow two blocks behind.

Charlotte arrived shortly after midnight.

The warehouse smelled of rust and damp concrete.

One fluorescent light flickered near the loading bay.

“Hello?”

Nothing.

Charlotte walked deeper inside.

A chair sat in the center of the room.

On it rested a laptop.

The screen suddenly turned on.

Security footage appeared.

Charlotte recognized the date immediately.

The night of her mother’s crash.

The camera showed Eleanor entering the underground garage beneath Solmere headquarters.

A man approached her car.

He crouched beside the front wheel.

Charlotte leaned closer.

The image was grainy.

Then the man looked up.

She recognized him.

Nathan Cole.

Solmere’s former head of corporate security.

Nathan had disappeared one week after Eleanor died.

Officially, he had resigned.

The video continued.

Eleanor entered the garage twenty minutes later.

She drove away.

Then the screen went black.

Charlotte heard footsteps behind her.

She spun around.

A man wearing a hood stood near the exit.

“Who are you?”

He removed the hood.

Charlotte’s breath caught.

Nathan Cole looked twenty years older than she remembered.

Scarred.

Exhausted.

Terrified.

“You shouldn’t have come back.”

Charlotte moved toward him.

“You touched my mother’s car.”

Nathan looked ashamed.

“I was ordered to disable the brakes.”

“By Richard?”

Nathan looked toward the darkness.

“No.”

Charlotte stopped.

“What?”

“I thought Richard was running everything.”

Nathan’s hands trembled.

“He wasn’t.”

Charlotte felt cold.

“Then who was?”

Nathan looked at her.

“Your mother discovered Richard was stealing money.”

He swallowed.

“But Richard was stealing it for someone else.”

A vehicle roared outside.

Nathan turned sharply.

Headlights flooded the warehouse.

“Run.”

The loading door exploded inward.

Charlotte dropped behind a concrete barrier.

Grant shouted from somewhere outside.

Then Nathan grabbed Charlotte’s arm.

Before he could pull her toward the rear exit, a shot cracked through the warehouse.

Nathan collapsed.

Charlotte screamed.

He looked up at her.

Blood spread beneath his jacket.

With his final strength, he pressed something into her hand.

A silver hotel key card.

“Penthouse.”

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He gasped.

“Ask who really owns Richard.”