Chapter 7 - What Erica Was Looking For
Erica nearly dropped the photograph.
“Noah?”
“What are you doing?”
She stepped into the hallway and closed the office door behind her.
“I was getting payroll records.”
“At midnight?”
Her face hardened.
“You shouldn’t be wandering around down here.”
“You shouldn’t be taking our picture.”
Erica looked at the photograph.
Then she pushed it toward him.
“I found it on Samuel’s desk.”
“You were searching his desk.”
“I work here.”
“That doesn’t make it yours.”
The words were Samuel’s.
Erica recognized them.
For a moment, anger flashed in her eyes.
Then something else replaced it.
Fear.
Noah took the picture.
“Why do you care about my dad?”
“I don’t.”
“You’re lying.”
Erica stepped closer.
“You need to stop asking questions about things that happened before you were born.”
Noah’s pulse quickened.
“Why?”
“Because Samuel is an old man who remembers things the way he wants to remember them.”
“What does that mean?”
Erica glanced toward the stairs.
“Ask him who owned the bakery before he did.”
Noah frowned.
“What?”
“Ask him.”
Then she walked away.
The next morning, Noah did exactly that.
Samuel’s hands stopped above a tray of rolls.
“My father owned it.”
“And before him?”
Samuel looked surprised.
“No one.”
“Erica said I should ask.”
Samuel’s expression changed.
“Why were you talking to Erica about this?”
Noah told him what happened.
Samuel immediately went to the office.
A drawer had been forced.
Several old documents were missing.
Samuel called Erica.
No answer.
He called again.
Still nothing.
By noon, she had not arrived for her shift.
Grace began reviewing the old bakery records.
She found something strange.
Fourteen years earlier, on the same week the deposit vanished, someone had attempted to transfer partial ownership of the bakery.
Samuel stared at the form.
“I never signed this.”
Grace pointed at the signature.
“Someone tried to make it look like you did.”
The name of the intended new owner had been blacked out.
But the notary stamp remained visible.
Samuel knew the name.
Walter Briggs.
His former accountant.
Samuel sat down.
“Briggs handled the missing deposit investigation.”
Grace looked at him.
“Where is he now?”
Samuel swallowed.
“Dead.”
Noah noticed another name written at the bottom.
A witness.
ELENA BRIGGS.
Samuel stared at it.
“That was Walter’s daughter.”
Noah felt cold.
“What happened to her?”
Samuel looked toward the front counter.
“She changed her last name after she got married.”
May you like
Noah understood before Samuel said it.
Her new name was Erica Lane.
