Chapter 8 - THE WOMEN BEFORE ME
The call ended before Marcus found the phone.
Police traced the signal to an area near Woodland Park.
Several cabins fit the location.
Daniel coordinated information with investigators while Mara and I focused on the files.
The other women mattered now.
Natalie Rhodes answered my call.
At first, she refused to speak.
Then I mentioned Ryan.
Silence.
Then Grant.
Another silence.
Finally Evelyn Price.
Natalie began crying.
“I knew someone else would eventually call.”
We met by video because she lived in Oregon.
She was forty-one now.
Her voice had the exhausted calm of someone who had spent years being told she imagined what happened to her.
“My ex-husband Tyler met me at a charity auction.”
Exactly like Ryan.
“He was perfect.”
Exactly like Ryan.
“He moved fast.”
Exactly like Ryan.
“He said he admired successful women.”
I closed my eyes.
Natalie continued.
“Then his family needed help.”
“Loans.”
“Business investments.”
“Emergency expenses.”
“At first, the requests were small.”
“Then they grew.”
She discovered forged lines of credit.
Accounts in her name.
A company she supposedly guaranteed.
When she confronted Tyler, he called her unstable.
His family claimed she drank too much.
They recorded arguments.
Then Tyler filed for divorce and tried to obtain control of their financial accounts.
“How did you stop them?”
“I didn't.”
The answer hurt.
“They took almost everything.”
“Why didn't you go public?”
“Because they had recordings.”
“Edited recordings.”
“Messages taken out of context.”
“And they threatened my younger brother.”
I looked at Daniel.
“Who was behind Tyler?”
Natalie stared at me.
“Grant Whitmore introduced us.”
My blood went cold.
“Did you know Evelyn Price?”
Natalie nodded.
“She was my financial adviser for eight months.”
There it was.
The network.
Not coincidence.
Not family dysfunction.
A system.
Natalie leaned closer to the camera.
“Claire, if they've chosen you, they won't stop because you're divorcing Ryan.”
“What do they want?”
“Access.”
“To what?”
“Whatever makes you valuable.”
My company stock.
My property.
My professional relationships.
Maybe more.
Natalie swallowed.
“There was another woman.”
“Who?”
“Laura Chen.”
Simon searched.
Laura was the woman who had died in the car accident.
Natalie looked away.
“She found evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“I don't know.”
“She called me two days before she died.”
“What did she say?”
Natalie's face went pale at the memory.
“She said the husbands weren't the leaders.”
“Who was?”
“She wouldn't tell me.”
“Why?”
“She said she didn't trust phones.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Did she give you anything?”
Natalie nodded.
“A storage key.”
My pulse jumped.
“Do you still have it?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In a safe deposit box.”
I looked at Mara.
Natalie continued.
“I kept it because I was afraid.”
She took a slow breath.
“But if they're doing this again, I'm done being afraid.”
My phone rang.
Daniel answered before I could.
It was law enforcement.
They had found the cabin.
Marcus was gone.
Brooke was alive.
And taped beneath the cabin table was a handwritten note.
May you like
It contained only one sentence.
ASK CLAIRE WHY HER CFO OWNS PART OF HER HUSBAND.
