CHAPTER 6: THE WOMAN IN THE CAMERA
Detective Cole returned to New York that afternoon.
He advised Emily not to go anywhere near the Black Harbor Club.
“It could be a trap,” he said.
“It is a trap,” Emily replied. “The question is what Vincent wants me to see.”
They met inside a secure conference room at the district attorney’s office.
Cole examined the matchbook through a plastic evidence sleeve.
“The address belongs to a private social club near the old financial district. Membership records are hidden behind several holding companies.”
“Vincent is a member?”
“So are two judges, a state senator, three hospital executives, and a former police commissioner.”
Thomas leaned forward.
“The same judge signed the order freezing the Covenant.”
Cole looked at him.
“Judge Malcolm Reed.”
Thomas nodded.
Emily studied the list.
Black Harbor had not disappeared.
It had changed its name.
Cole agreed to send undercover officers to the club. Emily was ordered to remain at her hotel with Elena and the baby.
At eleven thirty that night, Thomas received an alert from his office security system.
Someone had entered the evidence room.
Cole sent officers immediately.
The room was empty when they arrived.
Nothing appeared to be missing.
Then Thomas checked the hidden cabinet containing Jonathan’s recovered letters.
The cabinet stood open.
The letters were gone.
Security footage showed a woman entering with Thomas’s access code.
She wore a dark coat and a scarf over her hair.
When she turned toward the camera, Emily felt the room tilt around her.
It was Elena.
Every feature was unmistakable.
Her face.
Her height.
Even the small scar near her eyebrow.
Cole looked toward the hotel bedroom, where Elena was putting Elizabeth Elena to sleep.
“She hasn’t left this floor all evening,” Emily said.
“I know.”
“Then the footage is false.”
“Or it was recorded earlier.”
Thomas checked the timestamp.
“It was live.”
Cole sent the footage to a forensic team.
Before they could receive an answer, two uniformed officers arrived at the hotel.
They carried an arrest warrant for Elena.
The evidence room had contained more than Jonathan’s letters. It had also held confidential documents from Richard’s criminal case.
Someone had sent the district attorney a video showing Elena stealing them.
Emily blocked the doorway.
“She was here.”
One officer looked uncomfortable.
“We have orders.”
“From Judge Reed?”
Neither officer answered.
Cole stepped between them.
“This is my investigation. I’ll bring her in myself.”
Elena emerged from the bedroom.
The baby was asleep against her shoulder.
For a moment, no one moved.
Then Elena kissed the child’s forehead and handed her to Emily.
“Don’t fight them.”
“They’re using you.”
“I know.”
Elena held out her hands.
The officers placed her in handcuffs.
Elizabeth Elena woke and began crying.
The sound followed Elena down the hallway.
Emily stood frozen until the elevator doors closed.
Then she turned to Cole.
“Find out who made that video.”
Cole’s phone rang before he could answer.
It was the forensic team.
The footage had not been altered.
According to every technical test, the woman in the recording was Elena.
But there was one detail the software could not explain.
The woman’s left hand carried no burn scar.
Elena had received that scar while trying to reach Jonathan and Elizabeth’s vehicle after the crash.
The woman on the video looked exactly like her.
But she was not Elena.
Thomas returned to the security footage and enlarged the image.
Around the woman’s neck hung a thin chain.
A black key rested against her chest.
Emily removed the brass key from her bag.
They were identical.
“Someone else has a key,” she said.
Thomas stared at the screen.
“Or the key belongs to a matched set.”
Cole received another message.
The undercover officers had entered the Black Harbor Club.
They found no trace of Vincent.
But in a locked private room, they discovered framed photographs of women who had given birth at the original maternity home.
One image showed Elena.
Another showed Margaret.
A third photograph showed two young women standing beside each other.
They had the same dark hair.
The same eyes.
The same scar near the eyebrow.
Cole turned the screen toward Emily.
“Elena had a sister.”
Beneath the second woman’s photograph was a handwritten name.
SOFIA MARIN.
Emily looked at Thomas.
“Why has my mother never mentioned her?”
A voice answered from the doorway.
“Because she believes I died thirty-three years ago.”
The woman from the security footage stepped into the room.
May you like
She looked exactly like Elena.
And she was holding Emily’s sleeping daughter.
