Chapter 5 - EMMA’S KEY
Maria had known Emma for nine years.
Not as an employee.
As a friend.
They met at a women’s shelter fundraiser where Maria volunteered on weekends. Emma had quietly paid for Maria’s son’s first semester of college after learning he had been accepted but couldn’t afford tuition.
“She never told me,” I said.
“She didn’t want you to think she was trying to be a hero.”
That sounded exactly like Emma.
The grief came back sharp and fresh.
Maria placed the brass key in my palm.
“Three days before the accident, Emma called me. She was scared.”
“Of what?”
“She wouldn’t say on the phone. She told me if anything happened to her, I should wait until Lily was old enough to be in danger from the same people.”
My skin went cold.
“Same people?”
Maria nodded toward the key. “She said this opens a box at Harbor Trust Bank.”
James immediately arranged access for the morning.
At sunrise, while Lily slept in a pediatric observation room with a nurse nearby, Detective Ortiz came with us.
The safe-deposit box contained a flash drive, a sealed envelope, and a photograph of Emma standing beside a man I recognized instantly.
Grant Mercer.
My chief financial officer.
My best friend since business school.
On the back, Emma had written: HE KNOWS ABOUT THE TRANSFERS.
The flash drive held spreadsheets showing millions moving through shell vendors connected to Bennett Medical Systems.
Grant’s division.
There were also emails between Grant and someone using the initials C.R.
Claire Reynolds.
Her maiden name.
The dates began seven months before Emma’s car crash.
Before I had ever “met” Claire at a charity dinner.
My stomach turned.
“She knew Grant before she knew me.”
Detective Ortiz looked at the screen. “More than knew him.”
She opened an audio file.
Emma’s voice filled the small bank room.
“If Daniel is listening to this, I’m probably gone.”
I stopped breathing.
May you like
Then Emma said the sentence that broke whatever remained of my old life.
“Grant is stealing from the company, and Claire is helping him.”
