Chapter 9 - A Funeral for the Wrong Woman.
Evelyn's story sounded impossible.
Then she began producing documents.
She carried them in a plain black case handcuffed to her wrist.
Brooks had the lock opened under supervision.
Inside were passport records, medical files, photographs, bank statements, and correspondence dating back more than a decade.
The woman who died in Switzerland had been Evelyn's younger sister, Marianne Vale.
The sisters resembled each other strongly.
Marianne had lived quietly in Europe for years.
According to Evelyn, Grant had used the confusion after Marianne's accident to file Evelyn's death under Marianne's body.
Marianne's actual identity had then been buried under sealed foreign records.
"Why?" Brooks asked.
Evelyn's voice was steady.
"Because I had removed Grant as counsel for the Vale estate."
Chris watched from the observation room with Elena beside him.
Elena's face was almost expressionless.
"Did Natalie know her mother was alive?" Chris whispered.
Elena shook her head.
"Not when I last spoke to her."
Inside the room, Evelyn continued.
She said Grant had spent years positioning himself around both the Hale and Vale families.
He handled estate documents.
He advised on taxes.
He created shell companies.
He learned which signatures nobody questioned.
When Evelyn discovered unauthorized land purchases around Hawthorne Lake, she fired him.
Three weeks later, Marianne died.
Within days, official records said Evelyn was dead.
Grant took control of several administrative functions through powers that appeared valid because no one expected fraud at that scale.
"Why did you not simply come home?" Brooks asked.
For the first time, Evelyn looked ashamed.
"Because someone tried to kill me two days after the funeral."
She described a vehicle forcing her off a mountain road in France.
She survived with minor injuries.
After that, she disappeared deliberately.
She hired investigators.
She collected evidence from abroad.
She trusted almost nobody.
"Not even your daughter," Brooks said.
Evelyn's eyes hardened with pain.
"Especially not my daughter."
Chris felt anger flare.
He entered the room before Brooks could stop him.
"Natalie spent years believing you were dead."
Evelyn looked at him.
Her composure cracked for the first time.
"Chris."
"Do not say my name like we are family."
Brooks stepped between them.
"Mr. Hale, you were told to stay outside."
Chris ignored her.
"Natalie grieved you."
"I know."
"She needed you."
"I know."
"Then she died while you were hiding."
Evelyn lowered her eyes.
"I know."
The repetition took some force out of Chris's anger.
Evelyn looked older suddenly.
"I believed distance would protect her."
"It did not."
"No."
Chris sat down across from her.
"Did Grant kill Natalie?"
Evelyn did not answer immediately.
"I believe he arranged it."
"Believe?"
"I cannot prove it yet."
"Then why are you here now?"
Evelyn looked toward the black case.
"Because Vanessa contacted me."
Chris froze.
"When?"
"Three days ago."
"Before she attacked Lily?"
"Yes."
"And you did nothing?"
Evelyn's eyes filled with tears.
"She said Grant was preparing something dangerous, but she would not tell me what."
"She wanted money to disappear."
"I refused until she gave me proof."
Chris stood again.
"My daughter nearly drowned because you were negotiating."
"I did not know Lily was the target."
"That does not make me feel better."
Brooks forced the conversation back to evidence.
Evelyn provided an encrypted drive containing years of financial records.
One file included a list of payments from Grant to Vanessa.
Another listed a private investigator who had followed Natalie during the month before her death.
The investigator was still alive.
His name was Paul Mercer.
Police found him in a retirement community outside Albany.
Mercer agreed to speak after being told Natalie Hale's death investigation might be reopened.
He admitted Grant hired him to follow Natalie.
He claimed he thought the work involved a divorce case.
Then he described the final assignment.
Grant asked him to photograph Natalie's car in a parking garage.
Mercer saw another man enter the garage carrying a mechanic's bag.
"Who was the man?" Brooks asked over the recorded interview.
Mercer hesitated.
"I only saw him from the side."
"Did you know him?"
"I had seen him with the Vale family."
Chris leaned toward the laptop screen.
"Who?"
Mercer swallowed.
"Thomas Vale."
Elena gasped.
Evelyn went completely still.
Thomas Vale was Natalie's father.
Elena's father.
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And unlike Evelyn, Thomas had never been declared dead.
He had simply vanished six months after Natalie's funeral.
