Chapter 11 - The Man in the Photographs
The oldest photograph had been taken twenty-one years earlier.
Elena stood outside a private school in Boston wearing a red winter coat.
She remembered that coat.
She remembered her mother waiting across the street.
She remembered hot chocolate afterward.
She did not remember anyone photographing them.
Aaron examined the image.
“Long lens.”
“Professional surveillance.”
Graham looked through the others.
“This started when she was a child.”
Margaret sat silently.
Too silently.
Elena noticed.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Margaret looked up.
“Elena.”
“What?”
“Your mother moved you three times between twelve and fourteen.”
“I know.”
“She told you it was because of business travel.”
“Yes.”
“It wasn’t.”
Elena stared.
“Someone tried to abduct you.”
The room seemed to contract.
“When?”
“Twice.”
Elena laughed in disbelief.
“You’re telling me someone tried to kidnap me twice and nobody thought I should know?”
“You were a child.”
“I became an adult.”
“Evelyn wanted you away from this.”
“She left me the company.”
“She left you the only structure powerful enough to protect you.”
Elena walked away.
Her mother’s choices suddenly looked different.
The bodyguards.
The private drivers.
The restrictions.
The constant warnings about routines.
Evelyn had never been controlling.
She had been afraid.
“Who wanted me?”
Margaret shook her head.
“We never knew.”
Elena turned.
“You know more than that.”
Margaret looked toward Graham and Aaron.
Then back at Elena.
“The second attempt happened when you were fourteen.”
“A man entered your hotel room.”
Elena’s stomach tightened.
She remembered waking one night to voices outside her room.
Her mother had told her a drunk guest had gone to the wrong floor.
“What happened?”
“Robert Kane stopped him.”
Elena froze.
“Kane saved me?”
“Yes.”
“But Kane is Meridian.”
“We don’t know when he joined them.”
Margaret swallowed.
“Maybe he was already inside.”
Elena looked at the Helix records.
Or maybe Helix was wrong.
That possibility frightened her even more.
Graham interrupted.
“I found something.”
He had compared the photographs’ digital metadata.
“The recent images were uploaded from one device.”
“Can you locate it?”
“It used Voss Global’s network.”
Aaron frowned.
“Again?”
“Not headquarters.”
Graham enlarged the location.
A private estate appeared.
Elena recognized it immediately.
“No.”
Margaret stood.
“What?”
Elena stared at the screen.
The photographs had been uploaded from the Voss family house in Connecticut.
Her mother’s house.
The estate had remained sealed since Evelyn’s death.
Only one person had permanent access.
Elena.
“No one has been there in years.”
Aaron checked security records.
“Someone entered last night.”
“Who?”
He turned the screen.
The access credential belonged to Elena.
She shook her head.
“I was in Manhattan.”
“I know.”
Graham zoomed in on the entry log.
Biometric confirmation.
Retinal match.
Facial match.
All Elena.
Aaron looked disturbed.
“Someone duplicated your identity.”
Margaret whispered.
“That shouldn’t be possible.”
Elena reached for her coat.
“We’re going to Connecticut.”
Graham objected.
“It could be a trap.”
“It is a trap.”
Elena headed for the door.
“That’s why we’re going.”
Two hours later, their vehicles entered the Voss estate.
The mansion stood dark among the trees.
Elena had not crossed the front door in nine years.
Aaron’s team searched first.
“No movement.”
Elena entered.
Everything smelled exactly as she remembered.
Wood polish.
Old books.
Her mother’s perfume lingering only in memory.
Then she saw something on the dining table.
One fresh glass of wine.
Beside it sat a photograph.
Elena approached slowly.
The photograph showed Evelyn Voss.
May you like
Alive.
The date printed at the bottom was six months after her supposed death.
