Chapter 6: What Happened to Margaret Chen
Margaret Chen was not difficult to find.
She was working at a hotel in the city — front desk, morning shift — and she agreed to meet me the same afternoon at a coffee shop three blocks from her workplace.
She arrived five minutes early and was already seated when I walked in, both hands around a glass of water, watching the door.
She was in her mid-fifties.
Neat.
Composed in the way of someone who has learned to be composed as a form of protection.
"You're Daniel's sister," she said when I sat down.
"Yes."
"I wondered if someone from that family would ever come." She said it without bitterness.
Just fact.
"I want you to know I don't hold anything against Daniel.
I don't think he knew the full story."
"Tell me the full story."
She looked at her water.
"I worked for your brother for almost two years.
Before Victoria.
When she moved in, things changed gradually.
Small things at first.
She'd rearrange what I'd cleaned and tell Daniel I hadn't done it properly.
She'd leave items out of place and then mention them in front of him — a glass left on the counter, a window left open.
Things I hadn't done."
"She was building a record," I said.
"Yes.
I understand that now.
At the time I just thought I was losing my mind." She looked up.
"Then one morning she told me she'd found money missing from her purse.
Two hundred dollars.
She said she'd counted it the night before."
"Had you taken it?"
"No." Her voice was steady.
"I had never taken anything in my life.
But she told Daniel.
And Daniel — he was kind about it.
He said he was sure it was a misunderstanding.
But Victoria had already called an agency to send a replacement." She paused.
"I was given a week's pay and asked to leave by the end of the day."
"Did Daniel know she'd called the agency?"
"Not until the replacement arrived, I think.
By then I was already gone." She folded her hands on the table.
"I tried to find other work.
But Victoria had been contacted for a reference.
I found out later — from a woman at another agency — that Victoria had described me as untrustworthy.
That she had concerns about items going missing."
The coffee shop was quiet around us.
A couple at the next table was talking about a film.
Normal, ordinary life, six feet away.
"She blacklisted you," I said.
"She tried to.
I eventually found work through a personal recommendation, not an agency.
But it took eight months.
I had a daughter in her last year of school." She looked at the table.
"Eight months is a long time."
I thought about the envelope Victoria had placed on the kitchen table.
The check inside it.
The clean, simple offer of money in exchange for silence.
"Margaret," I said.
"Would you be willing to speak to someone about this?
Formally?"
She looked up.
"What kind of someone?"
"I'm not certain yet.
But I want to know if you would, before I decide what to do next."
She was quiet for a moment.
"She hurt my daughter too," she said finally.
"Not directly.
But when a mother can't work for eight months — that hurts everyone in the house." She met my eyes.
"Yes.
I'll speak to someone.
If it means she can't do this to the next person."
I thanked her.
I paid for the water she hadn't drunk.
I walked back to my car and sat in it for a full minute before starting the engine.
Three women.
That I knew of.
The housekeeper before Bev.
The woman at the gym.
And now me.
My phone rang.
Daniel.
"Where are you?" he said.
"Victoria's been asking."
"I'll be there in forty minutes."
"Clara." His voice dropped.
"She's been on the phone most of the afternoon.
I don't know who she's calling."
"I do," I said.
"She's calling anyone who might be able to tell her how much I know."
A silence.
"How much do you know?" he asked.
"Enough," I said.
"Daniel — I need you to pull every financial record you have access to for the last two years.
Business accounts, household accounts, everything."
"Why?"
"Because I don't think the money she accused Margaret Chen of taking was ever in her purse to begin with."
May you like
The silence on the other end lasted a long time.
"I'll start pulling them now," he said.
