Chapter 15 - The Woman In The Security Video
For eleven days, nobody heard from Brooke.
Then Marcus Vance called.
“Clare, I need you to come to my office.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to explain this over the phone.”
That sentence should be illegal.
Daniel came with me.
Marcus closed his office door and turned his monitor toward us.
Security footage.
An assisted-living hallway.
Date stamped four months before Grandma Evelyn died.
A woman walked into frame.
Brooke.
My stomach tightened.
“What is this?”
“Evelyn’s facility.”
Brooke entered Grandma’s room at 8:43 p.m.
She left twenty-two minutes later.
The visit itself meant nothing.
But Marcus had obtained the footage because of Brooke’s claim that I prevented her from seeing Evelyn.
There were fourteen documented visits by Brooke during Grandma’s final six months.
I had made four.
“So she lied about being blocked,” Daniel said.
“Yes.”
Marcus clicked another file.
“This is the important part.”
Audio from Grandma’s room was unavailable.
But nursing notes existed.
At 9:17 that same evening, Evelyn used her call button.
A nurse entered.
Grandma was upset.
According to the chart, she said:
My granddaughter wants me to sign something about money. I told her no.
Daniel leaned forward.
“What did Brooke want signed?”
Marcus opened a scanned document recovered from Grandma’s desk after her death.
It was an authorization.
If signed, it would have named Brooke temporary financial agent over certain liquid assets.
Grandma had written NO across the first page in blue ink.
I actually laughed.
“That was Evelyn.”
Marcus smiled.
“There is more.”
Brooke had apparently attempted to convince Grandma that Richard and Daniel wanted her to sign.
Grandma called Marcus the next morning.
That call triggered the trust amendment process.
The entire amendment recognizing Ethan and Lily—and the no-contest clause—had begun because Brooke tried to gain access to Grandma’s money.
“She did this to herself,” Daniel whispered.
“In several different ways,” Marcus replied.
At the upcoming hearing, the nursing notes and unsigned authorization could be introduced to rebut Brooke’s claims.
But Marcus had another concern.
Brooke’s lawyers had withdrawn.
She was unreachable.
And her petition remained active.
“If she fails to appear?”
“The court can proceed appropriately.”
Daniel asked, “Does she lose everything?”
Marcus looked at him.
“Your grandmother’s trust says what it says.”
I should have felt satisfied.
Instead, I felt dread.
Because Brooke never disappeared quietly.
She disappeared when preparing something.
That afternoon, I returned to work.
At 3:40, security called my office.
“There’s someone downstairs asking for you.”
“Who?”
“She says her name is Kayla Reed.”
I knew the name.
Not personally.
From the police report.
Kayla had been with Brooke at the Golden Horseshoe casino six years earlier.
I took the elevator downstairs with hospital security nearby.
Kayla stood in the lobby.
Thin.
Nervous.
Maybe thirty-five.
She clutched a purse against her chest.
“Clare?”
“Yes.”
“I need to talk to you.”
“About Brooke?”
She nodded.
We went into a small conference room.
Kayla did not sit.
“She called me.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did she want?”
Kayla swallowed.
“Money.”
Of course.
“She said she needed to leave Pennsylvania.”
My chest tightened.
“Why?”
“She said everything had gone wrong.”
“Did she mention Ethan or Lily?”
Kayla looked away.
My stomach dropped.
“What did she say?”
“She said if she could get Ethan alone for five minutes, he’d understand you were lying.”
Daniel was not there.
Thank God.
“What else?”
“She said blood remembers.”
I felt physically ill.
Kayla began crying.
“I told her she was crazy.”
“Did she say where she was?”
“No.”
“Why come to me?”
Kayla looked down.
“Because six years ago, I walked out of that casino before police came.”
I stared at her.
“I knew the kids were in the car.”
Everything inside me stopped.
“What?”
“I thought Brooke was going out to check on them.”
Kayla covered her mouth.
“She kept saying one more hand. One more hand.”
My voice disappeared.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“And you left.”
“Yes.”
She sobbed.
“I’ve been sober four years. I have a daughter now.”
She looked at me.
“And every winter I think about those babies.”
I could barely speak.
“Why now?”
“Because Brooke hasn’t changed.”
Kayla placed a motel receipt on the table.
“She left this in my car.”
Location: Harrisburg.
Checkout date: tomorrow.
I called police before Kayla finished talking.
May you like
For the first time, we had a possible location.
And Brooke had already mentioned Ethan.
