Chapter 13 - DIANE DISAPPEARS
Diane had removed her electronic monitoring bracelet at 4:12 that morning.
The bracelet was found inside a highway rest stop garbage can.
Her attorney claimed he had no knowledge of where she had gone.
Police did not believe him.
By noon, Diane’s photograph appeared on every local news station.
Her Lake Forest house was searched.
Her accounts were frozen.
Her passport had already been seized.
Yet Diane had spent decades around wealthy people who knew how to travel without using ordinary routes.
Vincent knew that better than anyone.
“She’ll head north,” he said.
Detective Alvarez frowned.
“Why?”
“Canada is too obvious.”
“She knows that.”
“So?”
“She’ll make it look like Canada.”
Maria waited.
Vincent pointed toward a map.
“There are private airfields west of the city.”
“Old agricultural strips.”
“Some still take charter flights.”
Alvarez looked at him.
“How would Diane know that?”
Vincent’s expression became tired.
“Because thirty-four years ago, I taught her.”
The room went quiet.
Evelyn stared at her father.
“You knew Diane before Preston?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Vincent looked at her.
“She worked for me.”
The revelation stunned everyone.
Diane Hale had once been Diane Russo.
At twenty-four, she had worked as an accountant for one of Vincent’s companies.
She was brilliant.
Ambitious.
Unusually calm around dangerous people.
She eventually left and married Preston’s father, Richard Hale.
But she took something with her.
Knowledge.
Names.
Financial structures.
Habits.
The type of information Preston later used to convince certain investors that he had Moretti protection.
Evelyn felt another piece click into place.
“So Preston didn’t just use your name because I was his wife.”
Vincent shook his head.
“His mother taught him how valuable it could be.”
Detective Alvarez asked the obvious question.
“Did Diane steal from you?”
Vincent looked toward the window.
“Once.”
“How much?”
“Five hundred thousand.”
Maria raised an eyebrow.
“And you let her walk away?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Vincent looked at Evelyn.
“Because she was pregnant.”
Evelyn froze.
“With Preston?”
Vincent nodded.
Diane had stolen money because Richard Hale’s business was collapsing.
Vincent discovered it.
He confronted her.
She begged for time.
She said she was carrying a child.
Vincent let her leave.
He never told anyone.
“What happened to the money?” Evelyn asked.
“I don’t know.”
Detective Alvarez did.
Anton Keller’s files contained an account opened in Switzerland thirty-three years earlier.
Initial deposit.
$498,000.
Account owner.
Diane Russo Hale.
The account still existed.
Current value.
$11.4 million.
Diane had never needed Preston to steal Celeste’s trust money for herself.
She already had millions.
Which meant she had another reason for participating.
Evelyn stared at the number.
“Why risk everything if she already had that much?”
Vincent answered slowly.
“Because Preston was her investment.”
Maria looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
“She spent his entire life making him believe he deserved more.”
“More money.”
“More respect.”
“More power.”
Vincent shook his head.
“People like Diane don’t just want wealth.”
“They want proof they were right.”
“And Preston failing would mean she failed too.”
A call came from state police.
A vehicle registered to one of Diane’s shell companies had been found near a private airstrip in DeKalb County.
The plane scheduled there had not taken off.
Its pilot was waiting.
Diane never arrived.
But someone else had.
A hotel employee.
He carried a package Diane had paid him to deliver to the pilot.
Inside were two things.
One million dollars in negotiable bonds.
And the missing Hale sapphire necklace.
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Attached to the necklace was a note.
PRESTON DID IT ALL.
