Chapter 7 - The Other Cole
The answer came from Jenna.
“Victor Cole.”
Vincent’s face drained.
“My brother.”
Nobody spoke.
Vincent had never mentioned a brother.
“Where is he?” Alexander asked.
“Prison, last I heard.”
Jenna shook her head.
“He was released fourteen months ago.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
Victor had been the family disappointment: armed robbery, fraud, debts, violence. Vincent had cut him off years earlier.
But the ledger showed payments beginning three months before Claire died.
Then another line appeared.
V. COLE - STAIR ACCESS.
Alexander looked at Vincent.
“You know the service stairs better than anyone.”
“So does Victor,” Vincent said. “He worked maintenance here before I fired him.”
I remembered a man in a gray cap near the pantry the week before Claire died. I had assumed he was a contractor.
Vincent showed me an old photograph.
Same jaw. Same eyes.
“That was him,” I said.
Vincent cursed under his breath.
Alexander called the district attorney directly.
Then my phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.
YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT ISN’T YOURS.
A second message arrived.
THE NANNY ALWAYS TAKES THE BLAME.
I showed Alexander.
He took the phone.
“No more going home alone.”
“I’m not leaving Noah.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
Jenna suddenly sat upright.
“There’s another problem.”
“What?”
“The will amendment is scheduled to become irrevocable tomorrow at nine a.m.”
Alexander frowned.
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if Nolan filed a capacity challenge against you this afternoon.”
She turned the laptop.
A court filing appeared.
It claimed Alexander was mentally unstable after Claire’s death and unfit to administer Noah’s trust.
May you like
The petitioner was Vanessa Whitmore.
And attached was a psychiatric report Alexander had never seen.
