Chapter 4 - The Woman in the Security Footage
Maria screamed Sophie's name.
The hospital floor erupted.
Security locked elevators.
Dmitri ran toward the stairwell.
Alexei tried to get out of bed until a nurse stopped him.
"Find her!" he shouted.
Maria searched rooms.
Bathrooms.
Waiting areas.
"Sophie!"
No answer.
Then a nurse appeared.
"Are you looking for the little girl with the pink stethoscope?"
Maria spun.
"Yes!"
"She followed a woman toward radiology."
"What woman?"
"Dark hair. Black coat."
Maria ran.
At the radiology corridor, she heard Sophie's voice.
"Mommy!"
Maria rounded the corner.
Sophie stood beside Elena Markovic.
Maria stopped.
Elena raised both hands.
"I didn't take her."
Maria grabbed Sophie.
"Don't come near my child."
"I was bringing her back."
Dmitri arrived behind them.
His expression darkened.
"Elena."
"Listen before you call security."
"Start talking."
Elena removed her coat.
One gold earring remained in her left ear.
The matching one was missing.
Maria noticed immediately.
"You were in the study."
"Yes."
"You lied."
"Yes."
"Did you poison Alexei?"
"No."
"Then why run?"
"Because whoever did it wanted the police to find my earring."
Elena reached into her pocket.
She removed a small flash drive.
"Alexei asked me to copy this yesterday."
Dmitri took it.
"What is it?"
"Security archives from 2009."
Maria stared.
"Why did you give Sophie my father's photograph?"
"I didn't."
"Sophie said a lady gave it to her."
Elena crouched several feet away.
"Sophie, was it me?"
Sophie shook her head.
"No."
"What did the lady look like?"
Sophie touched her hair.
"Gray."
Maria frowned.
"Gray hair?"
Sophie nodded.
"She said she knew Grandpa."
Maria's heart jolted.
"My father?"
Sophie nodded.
"Where did you see her?"
"In the kitchen."
"When?"
"Yesterday."
Elena stood.
"Maria, there's something Alexei never knew."
"What?"
"Rafael had a partner."
The name was Teresa Alvarez.
Maria's aunt.
Her father's older sister.
A woman Maria believed had died twelve years ago.
"That's impossible."
Elena pulled out her phone.
She showed Maria a still image from security footage.
An older woman entered the estate through the service door the previous afternoon.
Gray hair.
Plain coat.
A familiar face aged by decades.
Maria whispered:
"Aunt Teresa."
Dmitri looked at her.
"She's alive?"
Maria couldn't answer.
She remembered Teresa disappearing after Rafael's funeral.
Her mother said grief had broken her.
Then, years later, news came that Teresa had died overseas.
Apparently none of it was true.
They returned to Alexei's room.
Elena explained.
Rafael and Teresa had both worked indirectly for Petrov companies.
Rafael discovered the missing money.
Teresa helped him copy records.
After Rafael died, Teresa vanished because she believed the same people were looking for her.
"Why come back now?" Maria asked.
"Because Alexei finally found the account."
"What account?"
"The one holding the stolen money."
Dmitri plugged Elena's flash drive into a secure laptop.
Files appeared.
Old financial records.
Scanned ledgers.
Security footage.
Then a video.
Dated March 18, 2009.
They played it.
Nikolai Petrov stood in an office arguing with someone outside the camera frame.
Then Rafael entered.
Maria covered her mouth.
Her father.
Younger than she remembered.
Alive.
Moving.
Speaking.
The audio crackled.
Rafael placed documents on Nikolai's desk.
"Someone inside your family is stealing from you."
Nikolai looked furious.
"Who?"
Rafael hesitated.
Then the video ended.
"That's it?" Maria demanded.
Elena shook her head.
"The original continued."
"Where is it?"
"Deleted."
Alexei spoke from the bed.
"No."
Everyone turned.
"My father made backups."
Dmitri looked at him.
"Where?"
"Lake house."
Sergei owned the lake house now.
The room went quiet.
Alexei's expression changed.
"You think my uncle did this."
Maria showed him the button.
Alexei examined it.
"That's Sergei's."
Dmitri said, "His people claim he's in Milwaukee."
Alexei looked toward him.
"His people would claim he's on the moon if he paid them enough."
Maria felt Sophie's hand slip into hers.
"Why would Sergei want me dead?"
Alexei answered.
"Because if Rafael's trust still exists, you may legally own assets Sergei has controlled for seventeen years."
"How much?"
Elena looked at Maria.
"Potentially hundreds of millions."
Maria almost laughed.
She thought of overdue electric bills.
Cheap apartments.
Night shifts.
Sophie wearing secondhand winter coats.
"That's ridiculous."
"Maybe," Alexei said. "But someone doesn't think so."
Maria turned toward Elena.
"Where is Teresa?"
"I don't know."
"She was inside the estate."
"Then she wanted you to know she's alive."
Sophie tugged Maria's hand.
"She gave me something else."
Maria crouched.
"What?"
Sophie opened her toy medical kit.
She removed the stuffed rabbit.
Then pulled a folded piece of paper from beneath the plastic tray.
Maria unfolded it.
A handwritten note.
Maria recognized Teresa's handwriting from old birthday cards.
RAFAEL DID NOT TRUST THE BANK.
THE ORIGINAL IS WHERE MARIA LEARNED TO SWIM.
Maria's breath caught.
There had been only one place.
A small community center where Rafael took her every Saturday.
The building had closed fifteen years earlier.
Dmitri searched the address.
His face tightened.
"What?"
He turned the screen.
The old community center had been purchased in 2010.
By Petrov Development.
Current owner:
Sergei Petrov.
Alexei stared at it.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Nobody spoke.
A sound came through the speaker.
A woman breathing.
Then Teresa Alvarez whispered:
"Maria, don't go to the community center."
Maria leaned closer.
"Aunt Teresa?"
A crash sounded.
Teresa gasped.
Then a man's voice came through.
May you like
"Too late."
The line went dead.
