Chapter 6 - The Missing Witness
The anonymous report had been sent from a public library three miles from Northstar's headquarters.Nina found the location through the metadata, though the message had been scrubbed clean. A security camera showed a woman leaving the library at 9:14 p.m. on the night the report was transmitted. She wore a dark coat and carried a canvas bag.“Do we have a face?” Laura asked.Nina enlarged the image. “Not a useful one. Hood up, head down.”“The library has staff records.”“The police would need a reason to request them.”“We are the majority owner.”“That is not a legal reason.”Laura disliked the reminder. Ownership could open doors, but it could not turn suspicion into proof. She had spent three days surrounded by attorneys and bankers, and every conversation seemed to end with someone telling her what she could not do.Ethan entered the conference room carrying two coffees.“I brought yours black,” he said.Laura looked at the cup. “You remembered.”“I remember a lot of things.”Nina took the other coffee. “I am going to pretend that was not loaded.”Ethan sat beside the monitor. “The employee list narrows the possibilities. Only four people had access to the payment archive.”“You, Victor, Marlene, and Nora Bell,” Laura said.“Nora was compliance director.”“Was?”“She stopped coming to work yesterday.”Nina lowered the cup. “She did not resign.”“Her badge was used at the east entrance at 6:41 Tuesday morning,” Ethan said. “After that, nothing.”Laura felt the room contract. “Where is her home?”“We checked,” Ethan said. “Her apartment is empty.”“How empty?”“Clothes gone. Phone left behind.”“That sounds like a disappearance.”“It sounds like someone wanted us to think she disappeared,” Nina said.Ethan pulled a printed photograph from the folder. “Nora's car was found at a commuter station. The driver's door was unlocked.”Laura studied the image. A small blue sticker marked the rear window.“What is that?”“Nora's daughter was born with a heart condition,” Ethan said. “The sticker is from the children's hospital.”Laura looked at him. “Does she have a daughter?”“Yes. Mia. Six years old.”“Where is the child?”“With Nora's sister in Ohio.”Nina stood. “We need to contact the sister.”“Already did,” Ethan said. “She has not heard from Nora in three days.”Laura closed the folder. “We go to Nora's apartment.”“That could compromise the investigation,” Nina said.“So could allowing whoever took her to remove the evidence.”The apartment building stood over a laundromat, its brick façade darkened by years of traffic. A property manager let them inside after Laura showed identification. The door to Nora's apartment opened onto a narrow living room with a child's drawings taped to the wall.Nothing looked disturbed until Laura entered the kitchen.One cabinet door hung open. Inside, a row of glass jars contained rice, flour, and dried beans. The jar labeled SUGAR had been placed upside down.“Why would someone do that?” Ethan asked.Laura touched the lid. “Nora was sending signals.”Under the jar lay a small memory card.Ethan's hand reached for it, but Laura stopped him. “Photograph it in place.”They returned to headquarters and opened the card on an isolated computer. It held one audio file.Nora Bell's voice emerged thin and hurried.“If this reaches anyone, Victor knows I copied the Harbor Nine records. The payments were approved through a secondary account. The authorization code belonged to Julian Vale, but Julian had been dead for nine months when the largest transfer went through.”The recording crackled.“Marlene knows about the account. I don't believe she created it. She is meeting someone outside the company. If anything happens to me, look for the blue key. It opens the archive beneath the old river terminal.”The file ended.Ethan stared at the screen. “The archive beneath the river terminal was sealed after the flood.”“Can it be accessed?” Laura asked.“The terminal belongs to Northstar.”“Then we go tonight.”“No,” Ethan said.Laura turned. “No?”“If someone is watching the company, they may expect us to follow the recording.”“Nora may be in danger.”“Which is exactly why we do not walk into an empty terminal with no backup.”“You are not in charge of my movements.”“And you are not in charge of mine.”The old tension returned, sharpened by fear.Laura said, “You have spent three days reminding me that I do not understand your company.”“I have spent three days trying to keep you alive.”“You do not get to use concern as another form of control.”Ethan stepped back.His face closed, and Laura realized she had struck close to something he had not yet named. He had grown up under Marlene's control. He might now be frightened of becoming the kind of man who protected people by deciding everything for them.“Fine,” he said. “We go together. We take security. We tell Helena.”“And Priya.”“And no one else.”Nina slipped the memory card into an evidence envelope. “You two are exhausting.”Outside, a black sedan waited across the street.Laura noticed it because its headlights were off.The car pulled away as soon as she looked directly at it.That evening, while Ethan arranged security, Laura received a message from an unknown number.The blue key is not in the archive.A second message followed.It is in your mother's house.Laura thought of Calder House, the locked rooms, and Adrian's fear.Then the sender added one final sentence.Ask your sister what she took from Elise's desk.
