Chapter 10 - WHAT CLAIRE KEPT
Detective Warren ordered Portia out of the blue room.
Flora stopped him.
"No."
Warren looked at her.
"Mrs. Hart."
"She knows something about my mother."
Portia folded her arms.
"I know many things about your mother."
Alonzo stepped beside Flora.
"Then start talking."
Gideon appeared behind the officers.
"My client will not participate in an interrogation in a hallway."
Flora stared at him.
"Your client just volunteered information."
Portia gave Gideon an irritated look.
"I can speak for myself."
"That has been the problem all evening," Cedric said.
Portia ignored him.
She looked at Flora with a kind of satisfaction that made Flora's skin crawl.
"Claire worked for Lenora."
Flora's breath caught.
"Doing what?"
"Officially, personal assistance during Lenora's treatments."
Portia tilted her head.
"Unofficially, helping her collect documents she had no right to take."
Cedric's voice sharpened.
"They were Lenora's own foundation records."
"They belonged to the foundation."
"Which carried her name."
Portia smiled.
"Names do not create ownership, Cedric."
Flora stepped closer.
"How did my mother know Daniel Mercer?"
Portia's expression changed slightly.
"Very well."
"What does that mean?"
"They met constantly."
Flora shook her head.
"My mother never mentioned him."
"Your mother did not mention a great many things."
"Did they have a relationship?"
Portia's smile widened.
"That depends on what you mean by relationship."
Alonzo's voice became cold.
"Do not play with her."
Portia looked at him.
"You should be more interested than anyone."
"Why?"
"Because your bride's mother and Daniel Mercer were the last two people seen carrying files out of the foundation office before eighteen million dollars disappeared."
Cedric slammed the blue-room door shut behind Portia so the officers in the corridor could control who came in.
"That is a lie."
Portia faced him.
"You signed the loss report."
Cedric stared at her.
Flora looked between them.
"What loss report?"
Cedric rubbed his forehead.
"After Daniel's crash, we discovered that several archive boxes were missing."
"And my mother took them?"
"I never believed that."
"But you signed something saying she did."
Cedric did not answer.
Flora felt fury rise again.
"You let my mother be blamed for this too."
"Privately."
"That is supposed to make it better?"
"No."
Portia watched them with open enjoyment.
"Claire was paid very well to disappear."
Flora turned on her.
"By whom?"
"Perhaps Daniel."
"Perhaps you."
Portia's smile vanished.
Flora continued.
"You forged a marriage certificate connecting me to Daniel because you needed the police to believe my family was tied to him."
"Prove it."
"I intend to."
Gideon stepped forward.
"Portia, stop."
She gave him a warning look.
That tiny exchange told Flora more than either of them meant it to.
Portia knew Gideon was afraid of what she might say.
Flora changed direction.
"What did Claire keep for Lenora?"
Portia looked away.
"Ask your mother's storage company."
The words slipped out before she caught them.
Flora went still.
"What storage company?"
Portia looked at Gideon.
He closed his eyes briefly.
Cedric stepped closer.
"Portia."
"I meant nothing."
Warren spoke from the doorway.
"It did not sound like nothing."
Portia turned toward him.
"I am tired."
"Then you should stop accidentally remembering useful facts."
Flora's mind raced.
Her mother had died eight years earlier after a short illness.
Claire had rented a small apartment, kept meticulous records, and never accumulated much property.
Flora had handled the estate herself.
There had been no storage unit.
At least none she knew about.
She called Nora.
Her sister answered from the guest room where Maisie slept.
"What happened?"
"Did Mom ever have a storage unit?"
Nora was silent.
"Why?"
"Just answer me."
"Not that I remember."
Flora closed her eyes.
"Any boxes she told you not to touch?"
Another pause.
"There was a key."
Flora's eyes opened.
"What key?"
"In the old recipe tin."
"What recipe tin?"
"The yellow one from Mom's kitchen."
Flora pressed a hand to her forehead.
"Nora, I gave that to you after the funeral."
"I know."
"Do you still have it?"
"I think so."
"Where?"
"In my attic."
Portia heard enough to understand.
Her face changed.
Flora looked directly at her.
"You did not know Nora had it."
Portia said nothing.
Alonzo immediately told security to send someone with Nora to retrieve the tin.
Warren insisted an officer accompany them.
Nora objected to leaving Maisie.
Flora told her to stay.
They would send a detective to collect the tin instead.
It was nearly four in the morning when the yellow recipe tin arrived.
Flora recognized it instantly.
Her mother had kept handwritten recipes inside for years.
Nora had never opened the false metal base because she did not know it existed.
A small flat key was taped underneath.
Beside it was a paper label.
BRIAR STORAGE - 214.
Portia stared at the label.
Gideon stared at Portia.
Alonzo noticed.
"You knew the number."
Gideon looked at him.
"No."
"You reacted before anyone read it aloud."
"I reacted because this is increasingly bizarre."
Flora took a photograph of the key and label.
"Briar Storage is still open?"
Warren checked.
"Facility still exists."
"Then we go now."
"No."
Flora stared at him.
"Detective."
"We obtain access lawfully."
"The unit is in my dead mother's name."
"Which makes the estate the legal renter if the account is still active."
Flora closed her eyes in frustration.
"How long?"
"We will contact the manager now."
Portia smiled faintly.
"By the time you get there, it will be empty."
Every person in the room looked at her.
Portia realized too late how that sounded.
Warren stepped closer.
"Why would it be empty?"
"Because if someone has been staging all of this, they are clearly ahead of you."
"You seem impressed with them."
"I am impressed with incompetence too."
Warren's phone rang.
He listened for less than a minute.
Then he looked at Flora.
"The storage account is active."
Flora stared at him.
"After eight years?"
"It has been paid automatically every month."
"From what account?"
"A trust account."
Cedric's face tightened.
"Which trust?"
Warren ended the call.
"Lenora Vale Preservation Trust."
Alonzo looked stunned.
"I have never heard of that."
Gideon suddenly spoke.
"I have."
Cedric turned.
"What?"
Gideon looked almost resigned.
"Lenora created it shortly before her death."
"Why did you never tell me?"
"Because you were not the beneficiary."
Alonzo's eyes narrowed.
"Who was?"
Gideon looked at Flora.
"Claire Hart."
Flora felt the floor shift beneath her again.
"My mother?"
"For administrative purposes."
"And after she died?"
Gideon said nothing.
Flora understood before he answered.
"Me."
Gideon nodded.
Portia looked furious now.
Not amused.
Not smug.
Furious.
Alonzo stared at Gideon.
"So Flora has been connected to my mother's trust for eight years and nobody told her."
"The trust was not designed to distribute money to her."
"What was it designed to do?"
"Preserve property until certain conditions were met."
"What conditions?"
Gideon's eyes moved toward the envelope from the vase.
"Alonzo choosing his own family."
Silence swallowed the room.
Flora suddenly understood why Lenora's envelope said it should be opened on the day he chose his own family.
The wedding had activated something.
Portia had not been trying only to hide an old crime.
She had been trying to stop a trust from taking effect.
Warren's phone rang again.
This time he listened longer.
His expression hardened.
"What?" Alonzo asked.
Warren looked at him.
"A petition was filed electronically twenty minutes ago in county court."
"A petition for what?"
"Emergency control of the Vale family trusts."
Cedric stared at Portia.
"By whom?"
Warren's eyes moved to her.
"Portia Vale."
Portia finally smiled again.
"If Lenora wanted to play games from the grave, she should have hired a better lawyer."
Gideon's face went completely still.
Alonzo looked at him.
"She did."
He stepped closer.
"She hired you."
Gideon said nothing.
While they waited for the storage key to arrive, Alonzo quietly removed the boutonniere from his shirt.
The red carnation had wilted at the edges.
He set it on the blue-room piano.
Flora watched him.
"You okay?"
"No."
He looked at the flower.
"I spent months thinking tonight would be the first day Portia stopped treating our relationship like a temporary mistake."
Flora took his hand.
"She does not get to decide when we become real."
Alonzo looked at her.
"I know."
Then he glanced toward the hidden compartment behind Lenora's china.
May you like
"I think my mother knew that before I did."
