Chapter 12 - The Woman Nora Named
Claire did not shout.
She did not defend herself immediately.
She simply stared at my phone.
Then she said, “Ask her when.”
I put the call on speaker.
“When did Claire give you the bottle?”
Nora sniffed.
“Tuesday night.”
Claire looked at me.
“I was in Boston Tuesday.”
Grant said, “You returned Wednesday morning.”
Claire nodded.
“Flight manifest. Hotel. Conference.”
I asked Nora, “Where did she give it to you?”
“At the villa.”
Claire’s face hardened.
“Impossible.”
Nora heard her.
“You were wearing a gray coat.”
Claire stepped closer to the phone.
“Nora, I was six hundred miles away.”
“You told me not to call you.”
“I never spoke to you.”
Nora’s breathing changed.
Then she whispered, “You’re lying.”
Claire looked at me.
“Ask Mason for Tuesday’s cameras.”
I did.
The answer came ten minutes later.
No Claire.
But someone had entered the villa at 10:14 p.m. using Claire’s executive card.
A woman.
Gray coat.
Face partially hidden beneath a hood.
Height similar.
Build similar.
She moved directly to the service wing.
Nora met her.
The woman remained twelve minutes.
Then left.
Claire watched the footage.
“That isn’t me.”
Grant leaned closer.
“You can’t see the face.”
“I know how I walk.”
I understood what she meant.
Claire moved quickly, shoulders square, always as if she were already late.
The woman in the video moved differently.
Carefully.
Slight drag in the left leg.
Lily, now awake, watched too.
“That’s not Miss Claire.”
I looked down.
“How do you know?”
“The lady had shiny shoes.”
Claire looked at her own feet.
Flat black shoes.
“What shoes did she wear Tuesday?” I asked Lily.
Lily shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
Nora was still on speaker.
I asked, “Did you see her face?”
“Yes.”
“Clearly?”
Nora hesitated.
“I thought I did.”
“What does that mean?”
“She looked like Claire.”
“Did she speak?”
“Not much.”
“What did she say?”
Nora repeated the words.
“The first one is already filed. Tomorrow night is the second.”
Claire’s expression changed.
“What?”
“What?”
“That phrase.”
She searched her phone.
Then opened one of the threatening emails.
THE FIRST ONE IS ALREADY FILED.
Same wording.
“Whoever met Nora also sent the emails.”
Grant said, “Or Claire did both.”
Claire looked at him coldly.
“Then why am I handing Ethan evidence?”
“To control what he finds.”
“Enough,” I said.
Neither argued.
I asked Nora about Daniel.
Her silence became longer.
“I met him.”
“When?”
“Three nights ago.”
“At Blackwood Tower?”
“Yes.”
“Grant?”
“No.”
“Was Claire there?”
Nora began crying again.
“I don’t know.”
“You just accused her.”
“I know.”
“Nora, look at what you actually know.”
She breathed in.
Out.
Then said, “Daniel was there. A woman was there. I thought it was Claire.”
“Did you see the woman’s face?”
“No.”
Grant sat back.
That was the impossible detail.
Nora claimed Claire gave her the bottle Tuesday at the villa.
But on the recording three nights later, she only thought the unidentified woman might be Claire.
If she had met Claire clearly on Tuesday, why would she be uncertain later?
I asked her directly.
Nora went silent.
“Nora.”
“They told me what to say if you found me.”
My skin went cold.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because I never knew who was above Daniel.”
Grant leaned forward.
“Above Daniel?”
Nora continued.
“Daniel gave instructions. But sometimes he was scared too.”
“Of whom?”
“The woman.”
Claire whispered, “What woman?”
Nora began speaking faster.
“She never used a name. She never showed her face to me. Daniel called her ma’am once.”
I looked at Grant.
He looked genuinely confused.
“Was the woman on the recording?”
“Yes.”
“The second voice?”
“Yes.”
Nora had just changed one of our assumptions.
We had all thought the second voice was a man because of the low tone and poor recording.
Nora said it belonged to a woman.
“Why did you do it?” I asked.
Her voice broke.
“My son.”
“What happened to Michael?”
“They found him.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did they threaten?”
“To send him to prison.”
“For what?”
Nora whispered, “For stealing from your company.”
I turned toward Claire.
She was already searching.
Then Nora said something else.
“He didn’t steal anything.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the money went into an account in his name before he even knew the account existed.”
A manufactured financial crime.
A way to control Nora.
Just like the manufactured medical record controlling me.
“Send me everything you have.”
“I don’t have it anymore.”
“What did you have?”
“Bank statements.”
“Who took them?”
Nora’s answer was barely audible.
“Daniel.”
Then Mason shouted something in the background.
Nora gasped.
The call dropped.
I immediately called back.
No answer.
Mason called me five seconds later.
“Sir.”
“What happened?”
“Someone triggered the fire alarm in the villa.”
“Where is Nora?”
“She ran.”
“Toward where?”
“The dining room.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Then his voice changed.
“Oh, hell.”
“What?”
“The teacup.”
My stomach dropped.
“What about it?”
May you like
“It’s gone.”
📖 Find out why Nora runs back toward the dining room during a sudden alarm—and who removes the only physical evidence from Ethan’s poisoned tea in CHAPTER 13. 👇
