Chapter 9 - The Boardroom Funeral
I wanted to follow Rosa immediately.
Evelyn wanted me nowhere near Richard's people.
Nora wanted facts before movement.
For ten minutes, the three of us argued inside a rented cottage outside Ojai while my phone filled with updates from Daniel.
Grant Morrow's SUV had turned west.
Then north.
Then disappeared from traffic cameras near a private road owned by Kane Capital.
The property at the end of that road was a coastal conference retreat Victor used for executive meetings.
I knew the place.
I had attended a board strategy weekend there two years earlier.
A beautiful glass house above the ocean.
No neighboring homes.
No public beach access.
No cell service unless you knew the private network password.
Perfect for a conversation no one was supposed to hear.
"Call the sheriff."
I said.
Evelyn shook her head.
"And tell them what?"
"That Rosa was taken against her will."
"We do not know that she was."
"She was escorted into a vehicle by Richard's investigator after being fired."
"Which is suspicious, not proof of kidnapping."
I hated legal language most when it was accurate.
"Then call Rosa."
"Her phone is off."
"Call Grant."
"And alert him that we are watching?"
I pressed both hands against the table.
"She helped me."
"I know."
"She is in danger because of me."
"She is in danger because Richard is dangerous."
Evelyn leaned closer.
"Do not let him turn your loyalty into a tracking device."
That stopped me.
Richard knew me.
Or at least he knew the version of me he had studied for years.
He knew I would not ignore someone who helped me.
If he suspected I had survived, taking Rosa was exactly the kind of move designed to force me into the open.
Nora received a message from one of her contacts.
"Grant's SUV just left the property."
"Is Rosa still there?"
"Unknown."
"Then we need eyes on the house."
"Already happening."
At nine the next morning, Richard gave another press conference.
This time he stood outside Hayes Technologies headquarters.
Behind him, the flags had been lowered.
Employees filled the lobby in silence.
A giant photograph of me had been placed beside the entrance.
I was alive thirty miles away while my husband held my corporate funeral.
"Natalie devoted her life to this company."
He said.
I nearly threw the remote at the screen.
Richard had complained about Hayes Technologies for years.
He called my board meetings tedious.
He resented product launches because they took attention away from him.
He once told me he hated walking into headquarters because everyone there knew my name and treated his as an accessory.
Now he stood beneath my company's logo speaking like its guardian.
"Until we have answers, my responsibility is to protect what she built."
Daniel had warned me this statement was coming.
That did not make hearing it easier.
A reporter asked whether Richard expected to take a formal role at Hayes Technologies.
He lowered his eyes.
"This is not about titles."
Victor stood three feet behind him.
Lauren stood on the other side.
Both wore carefully arranged expressions of grief.
The three people trying to take my company were standing together at a memorial for a woman they believed they had removed.
Then a reporter asked about the estate.
Richard's jaw tightened for half a second.
"My wife and I never measured our marriage in money."
I laughed out loud.
The sound startled even me.
Evelyn looked over.
"Sorry."
I said.
"That was actually funny."
Richard continued.
"There has been irresponsible speculation about Natalie's trust."
"I will not dignify it."
"Our focus is finding her and protecting our child."
Our child.
The baby he had watched fall from the sky.
The fury that moved through me was so clean it felt almost peaceful.
Then Richard did something I had not expected.
He reached into his pocket and removed my wedding ring.
Not his.
Mine.
I recognized the platinum band and small emerald immediately.
He held it up for the cameras.
"The Coast Guard recovered this from the helicopter cabin."
I looked at my left hand.
My ring was still there.
I had not removed it.
I was wearing it now.
"That is not mine."
I whispered.
Evelyn leaned toward the screen.
"No."
Richard's voice broke.
"It was the last thing she touched before she fell."
The room went cold.
He had created evidence.
A duplicate ring.
A sentimental object the public would remember.
Something that made his story feel intimate and true.
"Why?"
I asked.
Evelyn's expression hardened.
"Because facts persuade investigators."
"Objects persuade juries."
Richard kissed the fake ring and put it back in his pocket.
Every network replayed the moment within minutes.
By noon, photographs of the ring were everywhere.
By one, a former pilot on television was explaining how a frightened passenger might unclip herself near an open helicopter door.
By two, a columnist described my death as a tragic example of thrill-seeking among the ultrawealthy.
I had been pushed from an aircraft by my husband, and the world was slowly deciding I had killed myself by being careless.
That was when I understood the second half of Richard's plan.
The murder was only the beginning.
He needed to control the story afterward.
At three twelve, Daniel called.
"They are voting again."
"On what?"
"Victor wants authority to negotiate the Kane Capital bridge facility."
"No."
"I know."
"If he controls the financing, he can attach conversion rights."
"Exactly."
"How many directors?"
"He thinks he has six."
"How many does he need?"
"Seven."
I knew the board better than Victor did.
One director, Helen Ward, would never support him if she understood the trust freeze.
Another, Samuel Ortiz, hated emergency financing arranged by insiders.
"Put Evelyn on the call."
We spent the next forty minutes building a legal notice that disclosed only enough to stop the vote.
It stated that independent trustees had reason to believe my disappearance involved potential criminal conduct.
It warned directors that any attempt to encumber my voting shares before resolution could expose them to personal liability.
It did not say I was alive.
Evelyn sent it at three fifty-eight.
The board vote was scheduled for four.
At four fourteen, Daniel called back.
"Victor lost."
I let out a breath.
"Five to six."
"He lost two directors?"
"The notice scared them."
"Good."
"Do not celebrate yet."
Daniel sounded strange.
"What happened?"
"Richard reacted badly."
"How badly?"
"He accused Evelyn of obstructing your wishes."
"My wishes?"
"Then he produced a letter."
My stomach tightened.
"What letter?"
"One supposedly written by you."
"Saying what?"
Daniel hesitated.
"That if you became incapacitated during pregnancy, you wanted Richard to exercise your shareholder rights."
I went still.
"I never wrote that."
"I know."
"When is it dated?"
"Three weeks ago."
"Forgery."
"Probably."
"Probably?"
"It carries your digital signature."
I looked at Evelyn.
She was already pale.
"That is impossible."
I said.
My digital signature required a hardware token I kept in a biometric safe inside my office.
The same office Lauren entered the night I disappeared.
Daniel continued.
"Victor moved to recognize the letter as evidence of your intent."
"Did it pass?"
"No."
"Then what is the problem?"
"The problem is where the signature came from."
"My token?"
"Security logs show the token was used at eleven forty-two on the morning of your helicopter flight."
I stared at the phone.
At eleven forty-two that morning, I had been thirty miles from headquarters.
I had been sitting beside Richard in the back of a car on the way to the airfield.
My hardware token had been locked inside my office.
Or so I believed.
Daniel spoke more quietly.
"Natalie, the system also shows that you personally authorized the access."
"I did not."
"I know."
"Then someone cloned my credentials."
"Yes."
"Who can do that?"
"Very few people."
"Names."
He took a breath.
"Maya Chen."
I shook my head instinctively.
Maya had worked for me for nine years.
She had designed half our security architecture.
She was also the person Evelyn had just used to loop the cameras so I could enter my house.
"Who else?"
"Two senior engineers."
"And?"
Daniel hesitated.
"Your father."
I frowned.
"My father is dead."
"I know."
"Then why mention him?"
"Because the authorization log does not identify Maya or the engineers."
"Who does it identify?"
Daniel did not answer immediately.
Then he said something impossible.
May you like
"Thomas Hayes."
