Chapter 8 - The Woman in the Green Blouse
Claire was easy person to blame.
She had attacked Lily.
She had hidden evidence.
She had illegally accessed dental office system to create duplicate crown.
She had concealed threats.
Now corporate records named her owner of security company connected Emma’s investigation.
Even Ethan began wondering whether Claire had told partial truths because she knew larger truth would destroy her.
Maya kept separate facts.
Claire’s assault on Lily was clear and indefensible.
Corporate ownership was not.
Northstar sale paperwork was electronically filed eighteen months ago, six months before Emma disappeared.
Claire’s purported signature originated scanned employment document from years earlier.
Payment of one dollar came from dormant company expense account, not Claire personally.
Mailing address was virtual office.
Someone used her identity.
Why?
To create scapegoat.
Who benefited from Northstar?
Financial records showed company barely profitable.
But it held archive.
Security logs.
Old executive investigations.
Project Crown incident reports.
Ownership provided legal route to those records.
Someone wanted control.
Claire’s identity was cover.
Then Emma discovered.
Maybe she thought Claire responsible.
Maybe that caused disappearance.
Yet her motel form listed Claire emergency contact.
Suggesting she doubted Claire was culprit.
Maya located Northstar archive manager, retired woman named Susan Bell.
Susan remembered Emma.
“She came asking about Thomas Bennett.”
“When?”
“About year ago.”
“What did she want?”
“A 2012 visitor log.”
“Why?”
“Because somebody entered Bennett Biomedical lab night C-19 vanished.”
Susan gave copy.
Visitor:
Graham Vale.
Expected.
And another:
Eleanor Bennett.
Ethan’s mother.
Eleanor had died five years earlier.
What was she doing at lab?
Ethan remembered mother rarely discussed company.
Susan said Eleanor suspected Thomas hiding financial trouble.
She came to confront husband.
She witnessed Graham carrying case.
Later she wrote statement.
Where?
Northstar archived it.
Statement said Eleanor saw Thomas and Graham arguing.
Thomas accused Graham of stealing.
Graham accused Thomas of “building a second set.”
C19-B.
Eleanor left.
No violence.
But final sentence:
A WOMAN WAITED IN THOMAS’S OFFICE. I DID NOT KNOW HER.
Who?
Security photo attached.
Brunette.
Face partly turned.
Claire stared.
“That’s Emma.”
Impossible.
Emma would have been twenty-two.
She had met Ethan in 2016, according family history.
Emma had known Thomas Bennett four years before she met Ethan.
Ethan felt betrayed.
“Why would she hide that?”
Claire whispered:
“Maybe she didn't meet you by accident.”
That theory grew.
Emma had worked junior compliance role at contractor in 2012.
Perhaps Thomas consulted her professionally.
Employment records confirmed Emma Dawson worked at audit vendor supporting Bennett Biomedical.
So no secret conspiracy required.
She had encountered Thomas through work before Ethan.
Still, she never told husband.
Why?
Maybe confidentiality.
Maybe more.
Then Susan found audio statement Emma recorded in 2012.
Young Emma said:
“Mr. Bennett asked me to duplicate vendor reconciliation. I found two payments with same approval image.”
Nothing romantic.
Nothing familial.
Nothing mysterious.
She was junior analyst who helped uncover Graham fraud.
Thomas later asked her to preserve C19-B.
She refused because improper chain of custody.
So Thomas hid it elsewhere.
Years later Emma met Ethan socially and did not initially disclose old confidential audit involvement.
When she eventually realized Ethan’s father was same Thomas Bennett, she told Thomas? He was alive then. Unknown.
Could explain later marriage tension.
But not disappearance.
Then Susan produced final Northstar log.
Emma accessed archive two days before vanishing.
She removed sealed envelope Thomas had deposited years earlier:
C19-B LOCATION — RELEASE ONLY TO E. DAWSON.
Thomas had left second evidence location specifically for Emma.
Inside envelope?
Susan never knew.
May you like
Emma took it.
And vanished forty-eight hours later.
