Chapter 6: The Warning Beneath the Floor
Evelyn’s driver took them to Nora’s apartment in Beacon Hill.
Two foundation security officers followed in a separate car. Denise insisted on coming, while Peter remained at Shawbridge to manage the board and preserve the digital evidence.
Police were already inside the building when Nora arrived.
Her apartment door had been forced open.
Drawers had been pulled out. Cushions had been cut apart. Books covered the floor. A framed photograph of Nora and her mother lay shattered near the kitchen.
Nora stepped over the broken glass.
The music box was gone.
“Did they take anything else?” an officer asked.
Nora looked around.
Her laptop remained on the desk. Her television had not been touched. Cash sat openly in a kitchen jar.
“They weren’t here to steal.”
Evelyn stood near the door, visibly shaken.
Denise crouched beside the broken photograph.
“They knew exactly what they wanted.”
Nora walked into her bedroom.
The floorboard beneath her radiator was slightly raised.
She knelt and pulled it free.
Inside was a small envelope yellowed with age.
Her name had been written across the front in Claire’s handwriting.
Nora.
Her fingers trembled as she opened it.
The note contained only four lines.
If anything happens to me, do not trust the first story.
The ledger is safer than I am.
The woman with the pearls knows why.
Evelyn Shaw cannot be trusted.
Nora read the final sentence twice.
Behind her, Evelyn remained silent.
“You knew this note might exist,” Nora said.
“No.”
“My mother specifically warned me about you.”
“I can see that.”
“Why?”
Evelyn looked older than she had beneath the conservatory lights.
“Because I failed her.”
“That is not an answer.”
“No,” Evelyn said. “It isn’t.”
Nora held the note against her chest.
“You brought me into the foundation.”
“I approved your permanent position.”
“Why?”
“Because I recognized your name.”
Nora felt anger rising through the shock.
“You knew who I was for eleven months and said nothing.”
“I was trying to determine whether your hiring was accidental.”
“Was it?”
Evelyn glanced toward the police officers.
“No.”
The answer silenced the room.
Evelyn continued.
“Someone bypassed human resources and inserted your application into the final interview group. Your original résumé had been rejected.”
Nora remembered receiving the unexpected interview call. She had believed it was luck.
“Who changed it?”
“We traced the authorization to a board-level account.”
“Grant?”
“We believed so.”
Nora looked down at the warning.
“Why would he bring me near records he wanted hidden?”
“To watch you,” Denise said quietly.
One of the officers entered from the hall.
“We found a woman on the building’s rear security video. She left carrying a wooden object wrapped in a coat.”
He showed Nora a still image.
May you like
The woman’s face was partially visible.
It was Denise.
