Chapter 3 - The Woman Behind the Red Dress
“Absolutely not,” Benjamin said.
They were in Alexander’s office.
The address belonged to a storage facility outside the city.
Samuel stood by the window.
“It could be Dad.”
“It isn’t.”
“You know that how?”
Alexander held up the phone.
“Because Dad wants Mom home. Whoever sent this wants her somewhere else.”
Katherine took the phone.
“My father’s original will.”
Alexander nodded.
“Did you know there was another one?”
“No.”
Katherine’s father, Thomas Bell, had been a quiet investor with a reputation for spotting companies before anyone else saw their value.
He had never been flashy.
He had also adored his daughter.
When Katherine introduced Richard to him, Thomas had liked Richard’s ambition but never entirely trusted his hunger.
Katherine remembered one conversation.
Her father had said, A man who wants success is useful. A man who needs everyone to know he succeeded can become dangerous.
She had defended Richard.
Now she wished she hadn’t.
“I’m going,” she said.
All three sons answered at once.
“No.”
Katherine almost smiled.
“You’re adults. You don’t get to ground me.”
Samuel folded his arms.
“You’re our mother. We can try.”
Alexander took the phone.
“We’ll go together.”
The storage facility was privately operated.
No dramatic warehouse.
No shadowy stranger.
Just rows of climate-controlled units and fluorescent lights.
Unit 314 had been prepaid for twelve years.
Alexander entered the code sent by the unknown number.
The lock clicked.
Inside was one metal filing cabinet.
Nothing else.
Benjamin opened the first drawer.
Empty.
Samuel opened the second.
Empty.
Katherine opened the third.
One envelope.
Her name was written across it.
Katherine Bell Davenport.
Her father’s handwriting.
Her knees weakened.
She touched the letters.
“I haven’t seen this handwriting in eleven years.”
Alexander stood beside her.
“Open it.”
Inside was a letter.
Katherine read silently at first.
Then aloud.
Katie, if you are reading this, something has happened that made the safeguards I created necessary.
Her throat tightened.
I hope I was wrong.
She continued.
I have placed the majority of my Davenport-related investments into a trust controlled ultimately by you, not your husband. Richard has talent. He also has ambition that frightens me.
Samuel whispered, “Grandpa knew.”
Katherine kept reading.
Do not let anyone convince you that kindness makes you incapable of understanding money. You understood people before Richard understood balance sheets.
Tears blurred the page.
Benjamin touched her shoulder.
At the bottom was a reference to a sealed original will and an independent trustee.
A name.
Eleanor Price.
Alexander immediately searched.
“Estate attorney.”
“Alive?” Katherine asked.
“Yes.”
“Call her.”
Before he could, footsteps approached.
Samuel turned.
A woman appeared at the entrance.
Tiffany.
Benjamin stepped forward.
“What are you doing here?”
Tiffany looked exhausted.
No red gown.
No glamorous makeup.
She wore jeans, a loose sweater, and flat shoes.
Her hands were shaking.
“I sent the messages.”
Katherine stared.
“You?”
Tiffany nodded.
Alexander moved between them.
“How did you know about the storage unit?”
“Richard.”
Katherine’s voice was quiet.
“Why would Richard tell you?”
“He didn’t mean to.”
Tiffany looked at Katherine.
“I heard him talking to someone.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
Alexander’s eyes narrowed.
“You waited three months?”
“I didn’t understand what it was then.”
Katherine folded her father’s letter.
“And now?”
Tiffany’s eyes filled.
“Now I understand enough to know I made a terrible mistake.”
Samuel laughed bitterly.
“That covers a lot of territory.”
“Samuel,” Katherine said.
He stopped.
Tiffany looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
Katherine felt nothing.
Not yet.
“You hit me.”
“I know.”
“You walked into my anniversary party knowing you were carrying my husband’s child.”
“Yes.”
“You humiliated me.”
Tiffany swallowed.
“Yes.”
“And now you want to help me?”
“I want to help myself too.”
There it was.
At least that was honest.
Alexander asked, “What changed?”
Tiffany looked toward the hallway.
“Richard.”
“What about him?”
“He called me after the board meeting.”
Katherine waited.
“He blamed me for everything.”
Samuel muttered, “Shocking.”
“He told me the money was gone.”
“What money?” Benjamin asked.
“The company.”
Alexander’s attention sharpened.
“The fourteen million?”
Tiffany nodded.
“I never controlled it.”
“But the company is yours.”
“On paper.”
“Why?”
“Richard told me it was for the baby.”
Katherine’s jaw tightened.
Tiffany continued quickly.
“He said he was creating financial security. I signed documents.”
“Without reading them?”
“I read them. I just didn’t understand what they actually did.”
Katherine recognized the irony immediately.
Richard had apparently used the same weapon on both women.
Complexity.
Trust me.
You don’t need to understand.
“I thought he was leaving you,” Tiffany said.
Katherine looked at her.
“He told you that?”
“For almost a year.”
“A year?”
Tiffany lowered her eyes.
The affair had been going longer than the pregnancy.
“He said your marriage was already over privately.”
“It wasn’t.”
“I know that now.”
“No. You knew that last night.”
Tiffany looked up.
Katherine’s voice hardened.
“You came to an anniversary celebration. You saw two hundred people celebrating a marriage you claimed was already over.”
“I was angry.”
“At me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he kept choosing you publicly.”
Katherine almost couldn’t believe it.
“He was cheating on me with you.”
“I know.”
“And somehow I became the woman you hated?”
Tiffany’s face crumpled.
“I know how it sounds.”
“It sounds exactly like what happened.”
Tiffany wiped her eyes.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking you to listen.”
Katherine nodded once.
“Talk.”
Tiffany reached into her purse.
Alexander tensed.
She removed a small digital recorder.
“Richard kept this in his office safe.”
Benjamin took it.
“What’s on it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You stole it?”
“I took it after he told me I was on my own.”
“Why?”
“Because he was terrified I knew something.”
Alexander examined the recorder.
“What?”
Tiffany shook her head.
“He asked whether I’d ever opened his safe.”
“And had you?”
“No.”
“Until today.”
“Yes.”
Alexander looked at Katherine.
“We should make a forensic copy before playing anything.”
Katherine nodded.
Tiffany suddenly grabbed her wrist.
“Wait.”
Alexander immediately stepped closer.
Tiffany released Katherine.
“Sorry.”
“What?”
“There’s something else.”
She looked terrified.
“Richard isn’t the only person involved.”
Katherine’s stomach tightened.
“Who is?”
“I don’t know his name.”
“Describe him.”
“Older. Gray hair. Richard called him Martin once.”
Alexander and Benjamin looked at each other.
Katherine noticed.
“You know someone named Martin?”
Benjamin answered.
“Martin Vale.”
“Who?”
“Davenport Holdings’ former chief financial officer.”
Katherine remembered him vaguely.
“He retired.”
“Three years ago,” Alexander said.
Tiffany shook her head.
“No. He didn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I saw him with Richard last week.”
Silence.
Alexander took out his phone.
“Where?”
“At Richard’s private office downtown.”
Benjamin frowned.
“Dad doesn’t have a private office downtown.”
“Yes, he does.”
Tiffany gave them the address.
Alexander searched it.
His expression changed.
“What?”
“The building is owned by Bell Capital.”
Katherine stared.
“My father’s company?”
“The remains of it.”
Her father’s old investment firm had been dissolved after his death.
Or so she had believed.
Tiffany looked at Katherine.
“Richard told Martin something.”
“What?”
“I only heard part of it.”
“What did he say?”
Tiffany swallowed.
“He said, ‘If Katherine finds out what Thomas left her, we lose everything.’”
Katherine’s pulse accelerated.
Alexander looked at the recorder.
“Let’s hear it.”
“No,” Tiffany said.
Everyone turned.
She pointed toward the filing cabinet.
“There was supposed to be something else here.”
“How do you know?”
“The conversation I overheard.”
“What?”
“Richard said Thomas left two envelopes.”
Katherine looked at the cabinet.
There had been only one.
Samuel opened every drawer again.
Nothing.
Benjamin crouched.
“Wait.”
He ran his hand underneath the lowest drawer.
A piece of tape caught his fingers.
He pulled.
A small brass key came free.
Attached to it was a tag.
B-19.
Alexander looked toward the corridor.
“Another unit?”
They found B-19 in the basement.
The brass key turned.
Katherine pulled the door upward.
Inside was not another filing cabinet.
There was a desk.
A chair.
And an old photograph of Katherine with her father.
Someone had recently placed it there.
The dust around the frame had been disturbed.
Alexander noticed first.
“We’re not the first people here.”
Katherine approached the desk.
A sealed envelope sat in the center.
It had not been there for twelve years.
The paper was new.
Her name was typed on the front.
Katherine reached for it.
Then a phone began ringing inside the desk drawer.
All four of them froze.
It rang again.
Alexander slowly opened the drawer.
A cheap prepaid phone lay inside.
The screen showed one incoming call.
May you like
RICHARD DAVENPORT.
And Katherine realized her husband knew exactly where they were.
