Chapter 9 - The SUV Held More Than Flowers
By the time Bellamy’s corporate counsel reached the curb, Camille no longer stood beside Pierce.
She stood beside Rosa.
That change alone seemed to unnerve him more than anything else had.
The counsel, a sharp-eyed woman named Dana Reeve, listened fast and asked sharper questions. Then she looked at Camille.
“Did he arrive in that SUV?”
“Yes.”
“Is it yours?”
“No.”
Dana nodded. “Then I want security cameras preserved and the vehicle held.”
Pierce took one step backward. “You have no right.”
Dana didn’t even look at him.
“Actually, if property connected to Bellamy business was used in suspected financial misconduct involving a corporate principal, I have more right than you’d like.”
She motioned to security.
The SUV was opened.
At first there was nothing spectacular inside. A garment bag. A leather briefcase. Two coat hangers. Expensive things arranged by someone who liked surfaces neat.
Then Dana opened the briefcase.
Inside were three folders.
One held the draft authorization for Bellamy hospitality shares.
Another contained proposed spousal-beneficiary changes already printed with Pierce’s fake surname attached to Camille’s future paperwork.
And the third made Rosa’s breath stop.
A cracked white phone with a dried floral sticker on the case.
Ellen’s.
Rosa reached for the edge of the car to steady herself.
“No,” she whispered.
Mr. Keane looked stricken. “That was hers.”
Camille turned slowly toward Pierce.
“You told me you never even heard of Ellen.”
He said nothing.
Dana held up the phone. “If this belonged to a deceased woman connected to an open financial complaint, your problems just multiplied.”
Rosa stared at the phone as tears finally rose into her eyes.
She had spent eleven months wondering if Ellen’s last evidence had died with her. Wondering whether she had failed her daughter by not understanding fast enough.
And all this time, he had kept Ellen’s phone inside his own car.
Not destroyed.
Hidden.
Which meant one thing.
Whatever was on it terrified him more than any accusation ever had.
Dana looked at Rosa.
“Can you unlock it?”
Rosa swallowed.
“I might.”
Pierce spoke for the first time in nearly a minute.
“Don’t.”
No one missed how panicked he sounded.
Rosa took the phone in both hands.
And as her thumb hovered over the cracked screen, she suddenly remembered the only date Ellen ever used when she wanted to hide something important.
Her little brother’s birthday.
The son Rosa had buried at nineteen.
The phone lit up.
May you like
And Pierce’s face drained white.
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