Chapter 5: The Lie That Looked Like Truth
Detective Paul Mercer entered with two uniformed officers.
He had led the investigation into Isabelle’s case and sat beside me at her funeral.
“Grace Bennett,” he said, “you need to come with us.”
“For what?” I asked.
“Burglary, unlawful surveillance, and theft of confidential records.”
Grace remained beside the girls.
“Whose records?”
Vincent stepped into the doorway carrying a folder.
“Mine.”
I blocked his path.
“You called Mercer?”
“He called me.
Grace accessed private company accounts from a computer in this house.”
“That’s not true,” Grace said.
Vincent opened the folder and placed bank statements on the table.
“Then explain these transfers.”
The pages showed payments from Isabelle’s private account to Grace Bennett.
Sixty thousand dollars over four months.
I looked at Grace.
“What is this?”
“I have never received that money.”
“Your name is printed on every page,” Vincent said.
“A name is not an account.”
Mercer held up a warrant.
“We can settle this downtown.”
Sophie wrapped both arms around Grace.
“No!”
The shout echoed through the library.
Grace crouched immediately.
“Listen to me, Sophie.
I will come back.”
“He’ll make you disappear.”
Vincent’s eyes flicked toward the child.
Mercer reached for Grace’s arm, but I caught his hand.
“Do not touch her in front of my daughters.”
“Don’t make this worse, Dominic.”
“You closed Isabelle’s case in eleven days.”
“The evidence led to a failed r0bbery.”
“She was outside a preschool at nine in the morning.
Her purse was found beside her.”
“The suspect panicked.”
“What suspect?”
Mercer’s mouth tightened.
“The one who died resisting arrest.”
“Convenient,” Grace said.
Mercer pointed at her.
“You are already in enough trouble.”
Vincent moved beside me and lowered his voice.
“Let them take her.
We can straighten this out privately.”
“Like you straightened out Isabelle?”
His face hardened.
“I loved her.”
Olivia stood.
“Mommy hated you.”
“Olivia, you don’t understand.”
“She said you smiled when you lied.”
Vincent stopped smiling.
Mercer handcuffed Grace while Nora cried into her skirt.
I wanted to stop him, but Grace shook her head once.
“Stay with the girls,” she said.
“That is what Isabelle asked me to do, and it is what you should do now.”
Mercer led her toward the door.
Mrs.
Donnelly stepped in front of Vincent.
“You forged those statements.”
“Move.”
“You threatened my grandson.”
“Margaret, grief has made you confused.”
She slapped the folder from his hand.
Pages scattered across the carpet, and one slid beneath my shoe.
The account number ended in 4419.
I knew that number.
It belonged to a holding company Vincent and I had closed eight years earlier.
“You used an old company account,” I said.
Vincent glanced down and realized what I had seen.
“Isabelle must have reopened it.”
“She couldn’t.
It required both our signatures.”
“Then perhaps you signed something you don’t remember.”
Mercer pushed Grace into the hall.
“Enough.
We are leaving.”
Vincent bent to gather the statements, but I placed my shoe over the page.
“You forgot whose account this was.”
For the first time, fear passed across his face.
Then my phone rang.
The security chief at my youngest daughter’s preschool was calling.
“Mr.
Romano,” he said, breathless.
“Someone tried to collect Nora using a letter with your signature.”
Nora stood three feet from me.
“Who came for her?”
“A man driving Mr.
Caruso’s car.”
I turned.
Vincent was already gone.
Grace twisted away from Mercer and shouted from the hallway.
“Dominic, the blue music box!
Isabelle hid the real ledger inside the blue music box!”
May you like
A crash came from upstairs.
Then the mansion’s fire alarm began to scream.
