Chapter 3 - The Photograph at Midnight
Daniel found me behind the reception hall, staring at the picture.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
I showed him my phone.
The office in the photograph had been locked since Grandmother's death.
Nobody was supposed to have access except the estate attorney and the facilities director.
"Call the police," Daniel said.
"First I need to know what's missing."
"Claire, you're wearing your wedding dress."
"I know."
He took my hand.
"Then we're going together."
We left through the service entrance while our guests finished dancing.
Twenty minutes later, a security guard named Lewis met us at the Mercer Hospitality headquarters.
He kept glancing at Daniel.
"Mr. Mercer told us you were no longer permitted upstairs," Lewis said.
"On whose authority?" I asked.
"His."
I was still the company's general counsel, whatever my father believed.
I asked Lewis to preserve the access logs and recorded my request in an email.
He hesitated before letting us into the building.
Grandmother's office smelled of cedar and furniture polish.
Her reading lamp was on.
The bottom drawer of her desk had been forced.
The folder holding her personal correspondence was gone.
So was the leather notebook in which she kept handwritten observations about the board.
But the original codicil wasn't there.
That document had been secured by her attorney months ago.
I opened the cabinet behind the desk and found the tiny brass key she had once shown me.
It unlocked a concealed compartment beneath the shelves.
Inside was an index card with three words written in her familiar script.
Look beneath appearances.
On the reverse was a number.
Fourteen.
Daniel looked around.
"Fourteen what?"
"I have no idea."
Then Lewis appeared in the doorway, holding his phone.
"Your father wants to speak to you."
I took the call.
Dad didn't say hello.
"You made a public fool of me tonight."
"You wrote the letter."
"You should have burned it."
I looked at the broken drawer.
"Did you send someone into Grandmother's office?"
He paused for half a second too long.
"Get out of my building," he said.
"Before I have you removed."
I ended the call.
When I turned back to the window, a black car was pulling away from the loading dock.
Vanessa sat in the passenger seat.
May you like
And the man driving was Mercer Hospitality's chief financial officer.
