Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO VANISHED
Rebecca Moore was alive.
The photograph showed her thinner, older, and looking over her shoulder as if someone were following her. In her hand was a yellow envelope addressed to Claire.
Naomi enlarged the image.
A second figure appeared in the reflection of the condo lobby glass.
Adrian.
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“He told me he had a business meeting that day.”
Maya covered her mouth. “He found her.”
The flash drive contained no letter, but it did contain a list of storage-unit payments under Rebecca’s name. Naomi called a judge, secured an emergency preservation order, and sent a private investigator to the address.
By dawn, the investigator found the unit empty except for a broken phone and a bloodstained scarf.
Adrian posted bail that morning.
He called Claire from an unknown number.
“You’re making a mistake,” he said.
“You committed assault and fraud.”
“You think this is about your little condo?”
“It is mine.”
“No, Claire. It is sitting on the one parcel my father needs to finish the Harbor Crown project. Without your building, the entire development collapses.”
Claire remembered the new luxury project Charles had promoted for years: hotels, offices, and towers across the Mission Bay waterfront.
Her condo building was the last privately owned property in the middle of the proposed site.
“You married me for the land,” she said.
Adrian laughed once. “I married you because you were useful.”
The line went dead.
Claire stared at the phone until Naomi placed a hand on her shoulder.
Then a nurse entered.
“There’s a woman downstairs asking for you,” she said. “She won’t give her name.”
Claire went to the lobby.
Rebecca stood near the exit in a gray coat.
She looked directly at Claire.
May you like
“Don’t trust Maya,” she whispered.
A black SUV smashed through the hospital’s glass doors.
