Chapter 7 - The Photograph
Ethan’s eyes moved from Vanessa to me.
“Private investigator?”
Vanessa pulled several photographs from the tote.
She spread them across the table.
The images showed her leaving a restaurant in downtown Nashville.
Beside her was a man in a gray jacket.
Vanessa pointed at him.
“That man followed me.”
I looked at the photographs.
“No.”
She laughed.
“You’re denying it?”
“I’m saying he wasn’t following you.”
Ethan picked up one picture.
“Then who is he?”
“His name is Marcus Bell.”
George entered behind Vanessa.
His face changed when he saw the photographs.
That reaction answered the question before I did.
I looked at him.
“You recognize him.”
George said nothing.
Vanessa turned.
“Dad?”
Marcus Bell had worked for Mitchell Hospitality for eleven years.
Not publicly.
His employment existed through a property services contractor.
But his actual job involved internal risk management.
Three weeks earlier, he contacted my office.
He claimed George had ordered financial records destroyed.
I did not know whether to believe him.
So I agreed to meet.
Vanessa happened to meet him first.
Ethan looked at her.
“Why were you meeting him?”
“I wasn’t.”
I tapped the photograph.
“You sat with him for forty-three minutes.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“It was accidental.”
“At a private dining room reserved under your assistant’s name?”
Silence.
George stepped forward.
“That’s enough.”
Vanessa turned toward him.
“Tell them.”
He looked at his daughter.
Something passed between them.
Fear.
Warning.
Maybe both.
Ethan saw it too.
“Tell me what?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Nothing.”
I looked at Ethan.
“Marcus claimed Vanessa was trying to stop him from releasing documents.”
Her head snapped toward me.
“That’s a lie.”
“Possibly.”
I nodded.
“That is why I didn’t accuse you.”
I picked up my phone.
“But after tonight, your credibility has become more complicated.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“So because I was rude to someone, now I’m guilty of financial crimes?”
“No.”
I met her eyes.
“Those are separate questions.”
George stepped beside her.
“We are leaving.”
Ethan blocked his path.
“No.”
George stared at him.
“You have no authority to detain us.”
“I’m not detaining anyone.”
Ethan pointed toward the door.
“You can walk out whenever you want.”
Then he looked at Vanessa.
“But if you walk out without explaining these records, our engagement ends tonight.”
Vanessa’s face crumpled.
For the first time, I could not tell whether the emotion was real.
“Ethan.”
“Tell me the truth.”
She looked at her father.
George’s expression remained rigid.
Then Vanessa whispered.
“I signed what he told me to sign.”
George closed his eyes.
Patricia gasped.
Ethan stared at her.
“What?”
Vanessa’s voice shook.
“I didn’t ask questions.”
“About four million dollars?”
“I thought it was family money.”
“What did Marcus tell you?”
She began crying.
“He said Dad was moving money through companies before the Carter partnership.”
George snapped.
“Vanessa.”
She turned on him.
“You told me everything was legal.”
Patricia looked between them.
“George?”
Suddenly the powerful Mitchell family did not look powerful at all.
They looked terrified.
And that was when my phone rang.
Marcus Bell.
I answered.
May you like
His first words changed everything.
“Mrs. Carter, someone broke into my apartment.”
