Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Disappeared Second
Mara Quinn was never officially missing.
She resigned.
Closed apartment.
Moved money.
Sent sister postcard from Canada.
Police therefore treated her departure as voluntary.
But investigators now discovered something remarkable.
Mara was alive.
She had returned to United States two years earlier under married name Mara Bell.
She lived ninety miles away.
When police arrived, she did not run.
Her first question was:
“Did Victor finally open Room 17?”
Victor met her next morning.
Mara looked older, cautious, but unmistakable.
“Where is Catherine?”
Mara’s eyes lowered.
“I don't know.”
Victor slammed palm against table.
“Fourteen years.”
“I know.”
“You were her assistant. You disappeared three weeks after her.”
“I left because Eleanor threatened me.”
Victor stared.
“With what?”
“Prison.”
Mara said Catherine had been investigating Hale Family Foundation.
Not Victor’s primary business.
The charitable foundation controlled property, scholarships, medical grants and several old family trusts.
Catherine discovered payments she could not reconcile.
Roughly $2.8 million over six years.
Initially she suspected theft.
Then learned money was being moved into restricted beneficiary accounts.
For whom?
Mara didn't know.
Catherine believed Arthur and Eleanor were hiding something.
Room 17 became private archive Arthur allowed Catherine to use after she confronted him.
That complicated story.
If Arthur helped Catherine investigate, he was not simply part of cover-up.
Why did Eleanor fear room?
Mara answered:
“Because Catherine found a file with Eleanor’s name.”
What file?
“Number seventeen.”
Victor looked at gold key.
Room number was not random.
The archive contained seventeen restricted Hale family files.
File 17 belonged to Eleanor.
What was in it?
Mara never saw.
Catherine did.
On night she disappeared, Catherine called Mara.
“She said, ‘I know why Eleanor has been paying them.’”
“Them?”
“I don't know.”
Then Catherine said something else:
“If Victor learns this from his mother, he'll believe the wrong person.”
Victor leaned forward.
“Believe what?”
May you like
Mara looked him in eye.
“That Catherine had betrayed you.”
