Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN IN THE RED COAT
Nathan did not remember leaving the boardroom.
One moment Conrad Vale was smiling across the polished table, and the next Nathan was inside the executive elevator with Daniel beside him and security following at a careful distance.
Quinn stayed on the phone.
"Grace was found in a parking garage beneath St. Vincent Hotel."
"How did she get there?"
"She says she does not know."
"Then why is she under arrest?"
Quinn hesitated.
"Because Victoria was found on the sixth level of the same garage with a stab wound in her side."
Nathan stopped breathing for a second.
"Is she alive?"
"Yes."
"And Grace?"
"Grace woke up twenty feet away holding the knife."
Daniel closed his eyes.
Nathan leaned against the elevator wall.
"That is staged."
"I know what it looks like."
"Do you?"
His voice rose.
"Because twelve hours ago she was being beaten in my kitchen, and now somehow the woman who attacked her is the victim?"
"Nathan, listen to me."
Quinn's tone changed.
"There is video."
Nathan went still.
"What video?"
"Security footage shows Grace following Victoria into the garage."
"Impossible."
"The camera shows her face."
"Then the camera is lying."
The elevator doors opened.
Reporters surged toward him in the lobby.
Daniel moved close.
"Do not say a word."
Nathan pushed through the questions until a television reporter shouted something that stopped him.
"Mr. Cole, why did you pay Grace Bennett two million dollars before she tried to kill your fiancee?"
Nathan turned.
Every camera shifted toward him.
The false transfer from the board packet had already leaked.
Less than twenty minutes had passed.
Someone inside the meeting had sent it out before the vote was even finished.
Daniel took Nathan by the arm.
"Keep walking."
Nathan did.
By the time they reached Daniel's car, the first headline was already appearing online.
COLE CEO'S SECRET PAYMENTS TO MAID LINKED TO ATTACK ON FIANCEE.
Another followed within seconds.
LOVE TRIANGLE TURNS VIOLENT IN BILLIONAIRE FAMILY SCANDAL.
Nathan stared at the screen.
They were simplifying everything into a story the public would understand immediately.
Rich man.
Secret lover.
Hidden child.
Jealous fiancee.
Attempted murder.
The truth was complicated.
The lie was easy.
And easy stories moved faster.
Daniel drove toward the station.
"We need independent copies of every piece of evidence before it disappears."
"Quinn will preserve it."
"Quinn is one detective inside a system someone has already penetrated."
Nathan looked at him.
"You do not trust her."
"I trust her more than most."
"That was not my question."
Daniel kept his eyes on the road.
"Trust is a luxury we cannot afford yet."
At the station, Grace sat behind glass in an interview room.
Her sling was gone.
Someone had replaced it with a temporary restraint that kept her hands in front of her.
Nathan felt rage climb into his throat.
She looked exhausted.
There was dried blood on the cuff of her borrowed gray sweatshirt.
When she saw Nathan, she stood.
A guard opened the door for Daniel and Nathan.
Nathan went directly to her.
"Are you hurt?"
Grace stared at him.
"Where is Lily?"
"Safe with Quinn's people."
"Where exactly?"
Nathan stopped.
Grace's eyes sharpened.
"Do not tell me safe."
"She is in a protected pediatric room at St. Mary Medical Center with two officers."
Grace breathed out.
"Thank you."
Nathan wanted to touch her shoulder but stopped himself.
"Tell me what happened."
Grace sat slowly.
"A nurse came into my room after you left."
"What nurse?"
"Woman in her forties, red hair, blue scrubs."
"Did you know her?"
"No."
"What did she do?"
"She said Detective Quinn needed me moved because reporters had found the floor."
Grace looked at Daniel.
"She showed me a badge."
Daniel's expression darkened.
"A police badge?"
"Yes."
"Real?"
"It looked real."
Grace continued.
"She walked me into a service elevator."
"Then?"
"The elevator stopped in the basement."
Grace's hand trembled against the table.
"A man was waiting."
Nathan leaned forward.
"Rourke?"
"No."
"Conrad?"
"No."
"Who?"
Grace closed her eyes as if trying to fix the face in memory.
"I had never seen him before."
"What did he look like?"
"Tall, maybe fifty, shaved head, scar under his left ear."
Daniel wrote it down.
"What happened next?"
"He put something over my mouth."
Grace swallowed.
"I woke up in a car."
"Was Conrad there?"
"I heard his voice, but I could not see him."
"What did he say?"
Grace looked directly at Nathan.
"He said your father should have finished the problem before you were born."
Nathan felt cold.
"Before I was born?"
"That is what he said."
Daniel looked at Nathan.
Evelyn.
Nathan's supposedly dead mother suddenly mattered again.
"Then what?"
Grace shook her head.
"I woke up on concrete."
"With the knife?"
"Yes."
"Did you see Victoria?"
"Not until I stood up."
Grace's eyes hardened.
"She was lying behind a car, bleeding."
"Did she say anything?"
"She looked at me and whispered, 'You should have stayed gone.'"
Nathan's jaw tightened.
"Then she knew exactly what was happening."
"Maybe."
Grace looked away.
Nathan frowned.
"What do you mean maybe?"
"She looked terrified."
"She tried to kill you."
"I know."
"Then why are you defending her?"
"I am not."
Grace leaned forward.
"I am telling you that the woman I saw in that garage did not look like the woman standing over Lily with the hockey stick."
Nathan stared at her.
"She had been stabbed."
"No."
Grace shook her head.
"It was something else."
"What?"
"She was scared of whoever was behind me."
A knock sounded at the door.
Quinn entered carrying a tablet.
"You need to see the footage."
Daniel objected.
"Not before we discuss counsel."
Grace looked at him.
"Show me."
Quinn placed the tablet on the table.
The video was black and white.
A timestamp showed 5:18 a.m.
Victoria walked into the parking garage wearing a long dark coat.
Twenty seconds later, Grace appeared.
The image was unmistakable.
Grace's hair.
Grace's face.
Grace's hospital bracelet.
Grace watched herself on screen.
"That is not me."
Quinn paused the footage.
"I believe you may believe that."
Grace's eyes flashed.
"I was unconscious."
Nathan leaned closer to the image.
Something bothered him.
He watched again.
The woman walked with her left arm swinging normally.
Grace's left shoulder had taken the hockey-stick blow.
She could barely raise that arm.
"Stop."
Nathan pointed.
"Grace cannot move like that."
Quinn looked at Grace.
Grace slowly tried lifting her left arm and winced before reaching chest height.
Daniel took the tablet.
"The gait is wrong too."
Quinn zoomed in.
"The face still matches."
Nathan stared at the screen.
"Then someone made it match."
Daniel looked at him.
"Deepfake?"
"On fixed security video, yes."
Quinn frowned.
"That level of manipulation would leave artifacts."
"Then find them."
Quinn took the tablet back.
"I already sent it to the state lab."
The door opened again.
A uniformed officer whispered something to Quinn.
She followed him into the hall.
Nathan watched through the glass.
The officer handed her a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a red coat.
Quinn returned.
"This was found in Grace's hospital room."
Grace stared at it.
"That is not mine."
Quinn held up the bag.
"Fibers from this coat were found on Victoria's clothing."
Nathan looked at Grace.
She seemed genuinely confused.
Daniel asked the obvious question.
"Who had access to the room?"
Quinn's face tightened.
"Hospital staff, officers, and one visitor."
"Who?"
Quinn looked at Nathan.
"Evan Cole."
Nathan stood.
"My cousin?"
"Security video shows him entering Grace's room at 4:41 a.m."
"I was with him at the board meeting after seven."
"He left the hospital before five."
Nathan took out his phone.
Evan did not answer.
He called again.
Straight to voicemail.
Daniel checked his own phone.
"His office says he is in a confidential meeting."
Nathan laughed without humor.
"As acting CEO, I suppose he has many of those now."
Quinn looked at Daniel.
"I need to interview him."
"Good luck getting through Cole security after what the board just did."
Nathan was already walking toward the door.
Grace called his name.
He turned.
"Do not confront Evan alone."
"Why?"
Grace looked at him for a long moment.
"Because your father used to mention him."
Nathan stopped.
"Mention him how?"
"He said Evan understood what family loyalty cost."
Nathan's pulse slowed.
"You never told me that."
"There are many things I never told you."
The words hurt because they were true.
Daniel stepped between them before Nathan could respond.
"We need the rest now, Grace."
Grace looked at the glass wall.
"Not here."
"Why not?"
"Because the woman who escorted me out of the hospital was not a nurse."
Quinn frowned.
"You said you had never seen her."
"I had not seen her face."
Grace looked at Nathan.
"But I had seen the red coat she wore over her scrubs."
Nathan looked at the evidence bag.
May you like
Grace whispered.
"It belonged to your mother."
