Chapter 19 - The Woman Beyond the Frame
The photograph was old enough that its corners had begun to curl.
I recognized the room, the silver winter decorations, and the dark blue dress I had worn that evening.
Mauro stood near the edge of the frame, looking toward me.
But the words on the back referred to someone else.
Veronica asked me not to romanticize the mystery.
"It may be a threat, a prank, or a genuine witness," she said.
"We'll preserve it and find out what we can."
The event photographer still operated a studio in Chicago.
He agreed to check his archives after receiving a properly documented request.
The wider photograph showed an event planner standing behind Mauro.
She wore a red scarf and held a clipboard.
Her name, according to the archived guest list, was Naomi Pierce.
Naomi had once worked for the same agency listed on Patricia's introduction-services receipt.
I felt another wave of anger.
But Naomi's account, when she agreed to speak, complicated the story.
She had been hired to make sure Mauro and I received an introduction at the fundraiser.
She had also been instructed by an unknown client to keep a record of everyone who approached me that night.
"I thought it was a standard security assignment," she said.
"Who hired you?"
"The agency. I didn't know who paid the second invoice."
She supplied the invoice reference and a copy of her contemporaneous notes.
Veronica asked for the originals to be preserved.
I expected the records to point to Patricia again.
Instead, the second invoice belonged to a private security company retained by my grandfather.
I went completely still.
Arthur Bellamy reviewed the transaction.
He confirmed that my grandfather had commissioned a discreet assessment after receiving reports that people connected to the old dispute were trying to approach me.
"Why didn't he tell me?" I asked.
"He didn't want you to live suspiciously," Arthur said.
"He believed he could protect you without interfering in your life."
I stood by the window and watched the afternoon traffic crawl down LaSalle Street.
My grandfather had seen the danger before I had.
He had also made a mistake by leaving me uninformed.
Both things could be true.
Naomi's notes included a description of a woman who had left immediately after Mauro introduced himself.
The woman had spoken briefly to Patricia near the service entrance.
Naomi remembered one detail clearly.
The woman had been carrying a leather portfolio stamped with the Blackridge insignia.
Adrian Kessler had been part of the story earlier than anyone admitted.
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And if he had been there that night, I wanted to know why my grandfather had not stopped the introduction.
