Chapter 9 - The second Rebecca
Digital forensics confirmed it.
Some Rebecca messages were genuine.
Others weren't.
Someone had been impersonating her for years.
But the payments?
Many were real.
Then Ortiz found surveillance from a bank in Switzerland.
A woman entered under Rebecca’s identity.
Same height.
Similar build.
Face partially obscured.
Audrey watched silently.
Then she paused the footage.
“That's not Mom.”
“How do you know?”
“She walks differently.”
Small detail.
Potentially meaningless.
Until facial reconstruction supported her instinct.
The woman wasn't Rebecca.
It was Margaret Vale.
Margaret had been using Rebecca's identity.
But that still left genuine Rebecca transactions.
Then Thomas contacted me.
Not Rebecca.
Thomas.
My brother's voice was older than memory.
“Danny.”
Nobody had called me that since childhood.
“Where's my wife?”
“With me.”
I nearly stopped breathing.
“Put her on.”
“I can't.”
“Then I'm done listening.”
“Margaret has Julian.”
That stopped me.
“Why?”
“Because Julian stopped following orders.”
Thomas claimed Julian had originally been planted near Audrey.
Not to harm her.
To watch her.
Rebecca approved it.
My rage became physical.
“My wife planted a man into our daughter's life?”
“She approved surveillance. Not marriage.”
Julian went beyond the assignment.
He genuinely pursued Audrey.
Then became controlling.
Violent.
Rebecca wanted him removed.
Margaret discovered the conflict and began manipulating Julian herself.
“Why was Audrey being watched at all?”
Thomas became silent.
“Because of you.”
“What did I do?”
“Nothing.”
“Then?”
“Your old corruption investigation uncovered something you never realized you had.”
“What?”
“Evidence.”
I laughed bitterly.
“I handed over everything.”
“No.”
Thomas lowered his voice.
“You took it home.”
I remembered boxes after resigning.
Old files.
Rebecca helped me dispose of them.
Or I thought she did.
“What evidence?”
“A list.”
“Of corrupt officials?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Thomas answered:
“People Margaret owns.”
Judges.
Police commanders.
Politicians.
Executives.
Prosecutors.
Hundreds of them.
May you like
The real architecture of the network.
And Rebecca had hidden the only surviving copy somewhere Audrey could unknowingly protect it.
