Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Gone
Alice opened the door.
Auntie Chica stood there.
Her face was wet with tears.
“You followed us?” Alice asked.
Chica nodded.
“Why?”
“Because I knew what you would find.”
Alice held up the photograph.
“Then tell me.”
Chica sat.
Twenty-two years earlier, Margaret and Evelyn Cole had both worked around the Johnson family business.
Margaret cleaned offices.
Evelyn became assistant to Chief Johnson’s father.
Evelyn discovered irregular payments connected to a senior executive.
Before she could expose them, documents disappeared.
Evelyn was blamed.
Margaret defended her.
Then Evelyn vanished.
Chief Johnson had been young and newly entering the family company.
He knew only the official story.
“What ledger?” Alice asked.
Chica shook her head.
“I never saw it.”
“Where is my grandmother?”
“I don’t know.”
Alice’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
“Hello?”
Margaret’s voice.
“Alice.”
“Grandma!”
“I’m safe.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you yet.”
“Why?”
“Because somebody has been watching me.”
Alice gripped the phone.
“Who?”
Margaret breathed shakily.
“The same person who watched Evelyn.”
Alice looked at the old photograph.
“Grandma, Mrs. Cole interviewed me.”
“What?”
“The woman who hired me looked exactly like Evelyn.”
Margaret stopped breathing for a moment.
“That cannot be.”
“Why?”
“Because Evelyn is dead.”
Alice closed her eyes.
“Are you certain?”
“I saw the death certificate.”
“That isn’t the same as seeing her.”
Margaret went silent.
Chief Johnson arrived at the apartment twenty minutes later.
When Alice showed him the photographs, something in him seemed to break.
He remembered Evelyn.
He remembered the accusations.
Most importantly, he remembered his father refusing to discuss the matter.
“There was a ledger,” he admitted.
“My father kept handwritten records separate from company accounts.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Alice remembered the access card.
“Someone searched your office because they think you have it.”
Chief Johnson nodded.
“And someone placed you inside my house.”
Alice stared at Evelyn’s photograph.
“Maybe they wanted me to find it.”
That evening, Chief Johnson called Annabelle into his study.
Alice was not supposed to hear the conversation.
But Annabelle’s voice carried.
“I took your card.”
Chief Johnson remained silent.
“I wanted something from your safe.”
“What?”
“My trust documents.”
“Why?”
“Mother told me you were changing them.”
Alice, passing the corridor, stopped.
Victoria had told Annabelle to enter the office.
Not to steal money.
To find trust documents.
Chief Johnson asked the obvious question.
“Why would your mother believe I was changing them?”
Annabelle hesitated.
Then:
“She said you were planning to give part of the family foundation to someone else.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Alice stepped away before she was discovered.
Later, Chief Johnson found her in the kitchen.
“My wife knew about documents I never discussed with her.”
Alice understood.
The mystery was no longer about Annabelle’s behavior.
It was inside the family itself.
Chief Johnson opened his father’s old records.
For hours they searched.
Near midnight, Alice noticed something strange.
Several financial ledgers were numbered sequentially.
Number 43 was missing.
Alice remembered the note.
FIND THE LEDGER.
“Forty-three,” she whispered.
Chief Johnson looked at her.
“What?”
“The missing ledger.”
He stood.
Then every light in the office went out.
The security system beeped.
A door opened somewhere downstairs.
Chief Johnson reached for his phone.
Alice looked toward the dark hallway.
Footsteps crossed the marble floor.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Then a voice called from below.
“Admila?”
Chief Johnson froze.
Alice had never seen fear on his face before.
May you like
He whispered one name.
“Evelyn.”
