Chapter 7 - THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED
Andrew contacted Detective Reed again.
Reed immediately took the photograph.
“This isn’t family drama anymore.”
“It never was.”
The retired detective made several calls.
By the following afternoon, a detective from the Major Crimes Unit named Serena Cole arrived at the estate.
Cole was methodical, direct, and unimpressed by the Whitmore name.
She questioned Andrew for two hours.
Then Elizabeth.
Then Alex, with a child psychologist present.
Lucinda refused to appear voluntarily.
Her attorney claimed she was being harassed.
Cole did not seem surprised.
“What about Martin Vale?”
Andrew asked.
Cole looked at Reed.
Reed answered.
“Vale disappeared six months ago.”
Andrew frowned.
“He resigned and moved to Florida.”
“That’s what everyone believed.”
Reed opened a folder.
“No utility records.”
“No property purchases.”
“No driver’s license renewal.”
“No confirmed sighting.”
“His Florida address belonged to a rental company.”
Elizabeth stared at him.
“So nobody actually knows where he is.”
“No.”
Andrew remembered Caroline’s video.
Lucinda and Martin had been partners.
Maybe Caroline’s death had frightened Martin.
Or maybe Martin knew too much.
Cole asked, “Did your wife ever mention meeting Vale privately?”
Andrew shook his head.
Elizabeth suddenly spoke.
“She did.”
Everyone looked at her.
Elizabeth opened her phone and searched through old messages.
“Caroline sent me this four days before she died.”
She read aloud.
Martin agreed to meet.
He says Lucinda doesn’t understand what she started.
If he gives me the original account records, I can prove everything.
Andrew stared at her.
“Why didn’t you show me this yesterday?”
“I had forgotten the reference to Martin.”
Cole held out her hand.
“I need the phone.”
Elizabeth gave it to her.
Cole read the message twice.
“Did Caroline say whether the meeting happened?”
“No.”
Cole asked another question.
“What did Caroline mean by original account records?”
Elizabeth shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Reed looked at Andrew.
“Maybe that’s what Lucinda wanted back the night Caroline died.”
Andrew remembered Alex’s words.
Mommy said it belonged to me.
He stood.
“Alex said Lucinda demanded something Caroline claimed belonged to him.”
Cole’s expression sharpened.
“The child?”
“Yes.”
“Then it may not have been paperwork.”
Andrew suddenly remembered the emerald necklace.
He walked to Caroline’s portrait in the hallway.
The painting had been commissioned on their tenth anniversary.
Around her neck hung the emerald pendant.
Elizabeth followed.
“That necklace again.”
Andrew nodded.
“My father gave it to Caroline after Alex was born.”
“Why?”
“He said it belonged to the next generation.”
Elizabeth looked closer at the portrait.
“Could something have been hidden inside it?”
Andrew stared at her.
The pendant had been old.
Large enough for a removable setting.
He had never examined it carefully.
Cole joined them.
“You said the pendant disappeared the night she died.”
“Yes.”
Cole folded her arms.
“Then we need to find it.”
Andrew looked toward the west balcony.
For seven months, search teams had assumed the necklace had fallen with Caroline.
But Alex had said Lucinda grabbed it before the struggle.
If that was true, the necklace had never fallen.
May you like
Lucinda had taken it.
And whatever Caroline had hidden inside it might be the reason she died.
