Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Kept the Books

Diane Mercer called at 4:06 p.m.

Her voice was cool and professional.

“Nolan asked me to let you know he's staying at a hotel.”

“I didn't ask where he was.”

“Blair, there's no reason to be hostile.”

“My mother's wrist is fractured.”

A pause.

“I heard there was an altercation.”

“Who gave you that word?”

“Nolan.”

“Of course.”

Diane tried to redirect the conversation toward a property trust Nolan had supposedly discussed with Corinne for months.

Blair let her speak.

She wrote down every claim.

Then she asked why Diane's phone number was on her bank account.

The silence lasted long enough to answer the question.

“That must be a clerical error,” Diane said.

“Then you won't mind explaining it to the bank.”

Diane disconnected.

Five minutes later, Nolan sent a text.

STOP TALKING TO MY STAFF.

Blair saved it.

Camille secured an emergency hearing date.

Ruiz obtained a search warrant for Corinne's house and collected the iron rod visible in Nolan's photograph.

It bore no trace of Corinne's fingerprints.

That did not prove every detail of the encounter.

It did, however, make Nolan's account harder to sustain.

When officers photographed the living room, they found the newly painted baseboards, sealed hearth, and a pale rectangle where a picture had recently been removed.

Ruiz called Blair that evening.

“Do you know what hung over the mantel?”

“There hasn't been a mantel in eighteen months.”

“I mean the wall where it used to be.”

Blair thought back.

“A family portrait.”

“It's gone.”

Blair turned to her mother.

“Mom, did you move Dad's portrait?”

Corinne shook her head.

“He always said he hid the key behind the frame.”

“What key?”

“To the cedar chest.”

The envelope.

Blair asked Ruiz to preserve the area and photograph every trace of disturbance.

The detective went quiet.

“We found marks consistent with someone removing a hanging frame in a hurry.”

“Did you find the portrait?”

“No.”

Corinne sat very still.

“I think Nolan took it.”

Late that night, Blair received a message from an unknown number.

It contained a photograph of her father's portrait lying on a hotel bed.

Beneath it were five words.

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