Chapter 9 - CLARA’S DEAD SISTER
Clara had spent twelve years refusing to speak Megan’s name.
Not because she hated her.
Because she had loved her too much.
Megan Bennett had been seven years older.
Beautiful.
Restless.
Impossible to control.
She disappeared when Clara was twenty-one.
Police initially classified her as missing.
Her car was discovered outside Rockford.
Three weeks later, a body was recovered near the river.
Dental records confirmed Megan’s identity.
Case closed.
Clara attended the funeral.
Buried her sister.
Watched their mother collapse beside the grave.
Then rebuilt her life.
Now someone had moved money using Megan’s name.
Detective Monroe joined them by secure video.
She examined the transaction.
“Identity theft involving deceased individuals is common in financial crimes.”
Clara’s voice remained tight.
“So it may mean nothing.”
“It may mean someone needed a clean identity.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Not clean.”
Everyone looked at him.
“Megan worked for me.”
Clara stopped breathing.
“What?”
Daniel looked ashamed.
“Briefly.”
“You knew my sister?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Thirteen years ago.”
Clara stood.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“What did she do?”
“Field work.”
“Surveillance?”
“Sometimes.”
Clara’s eyes filled with fury.
“You recruited her?”
“She applied.”
“You turned her into a spy?”
“She was already doing investigative work.”
“For whom?”
“Insurance firms.”
Clara backed away.
Everything she knew about Megan seemed suddenly unstable.
Daniel continued.
“She was talented.”
“So talented she ended up dead.”
Adrian watched Clara closely.
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“I have wondered for years whether her death was connected.”
“To what?”
“Megan discovered financial irregularities in one of our assignments.”
Clara laughed bitterly.
“Bellweather?”
“No.”
Daniel looked at her.
“The network that eventually became Bellweather.”
Silence.
The conspiracy was older than Adrian’s marriage.
Older than Rachel’s investigation.
Older than Vanessa’s arrival.
Marcus asked the obvious question.
“Who was the client?”
Daniel hesitated.
Then gave them the name.
Thomas Cole.
Adrian’s father.
Adrian stared at him.
“My father?”
Daniel nodded.
The room changed again.
Thomas Cole had died six years ago.
A powerful developer.
Feared in business.
Admired publicly.
Complicated privately.
Adrian had built Cole Development from a company his father started, though he often claimed he had transformed it completely.
“What did my father hire you to investigate?”
“Internal theft.”
“Who?”
“Several executives.”
“Martin?”
“He joined the company later.”
“Then who?”
Daniel looked at Adrian.
“Your uncle, Stephen.”
Adrian’s father’s younger brother.
Stephen Cole had vanished from family life after a bitter corporate fight.
Adrian had not spoken to him in fifteen years.
He lived somewhere in Europe.
Or Adrian thought he did.
Daniel explained.
Thomas believed Stephen was stealing company funds through offshore accounts.
Daniel assigned Megan to trace them.
She found something larger.
Not theft by one person.
A network.
Executives.
Attorneys.
Accountants.
Private contractors.
Money moved through charities and shell corporations.
And somebody called Bellweather.
“Was Bellweather a person?”
Clara asked.
“We never knew.”
“Then why the name?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Megan used it first.”
Clara froze.
“What?”
“In her notes.”
He opened another folder.
An old scanned page appeared.
Megan’s handwriting.
BELLWEATHER ISN’T THE COMPANY.
BELLWEATHER IS THE ONE GIVING ORDERS.
Clara touched the screen.
She recognized the handwriting instantly.
Her sister had been chasing the same shadow Rachel later discovered.
“What happened after she wrote this?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Three days later, she disappeared.”
Clara left the room.
Adrian started after her.
Then stopped.
Old instincts told him to follow.
New understanding told him she might not want him there.
Olivia quietly said, “Go.”
He looked at her.
“But don’t touch her unless she asks.”
Adrian found Clara outside beside the lake.
She was crying.
He stopped several feet away.
“I’m here.”
She did not answer.
He remained there.
Minutes passed.
Finally Clara whispered, “She called me.”
Adrian knew.
“The night she disappeared.”
Clara nodded.
“Just like my brother.”
He had not realized both losses carried the same wound.
“I ignored her.”
“Clara.”
“I ignored Megan too.”
She covered her face.
“I spent years telling myself it couldn’t have mattered.”
Adrian stayed where he was.
“You don’t know what would have happened.”
“I know.”
She looked at him.
“That doesn’t stop the question.”
No.
He understood questions that never stopped.
She turned toward the water.
“Megan raised me more than our mother did.”
Adrian listened.
“She taught me how to ride a bike.”
“She punched a boy who bullied me in seventh grade.”
“She bought me my first prom dress even though she couldn’t afford it.”
A broken laugh escaped her.
“She was terrible with money.”
Adrian smiled faintly.
Clara wiped her eyes.
“If she was investigating something before she died, I need to know.”
“We’ll find out.”
She immediately looked at him.
Adrian corrected himself.
“I’ll help if you want me to.”
That mattered.
Clara nodded once.
“Yes.”
It was not forgiveness.
But it was the first time since the staircase that she had invited him into anything.
When they returned inside, Marcus had discovered new information.
Stephen Cole had entered the United States two months earlier.
Under his real passport.
He had rented a house outside Chicago.
And one of the cars registered to that rental company matched the vehicle seen near Olivia’s school.
Adrian looked at Daniel.
“You think Stephen is Bellweather?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I think Stephen knows who is.”
Marcus’s phone rang.
He listened.
Then swore.
“What?”
“Police found Vanessa.”
Adrian stood.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Marcus looked toward Clara.
“In a motel outside Madison.”
“And?”
“She’s asking for immunity.”
“From what?”
Marcus’s expression hardened.
May you like
“Rachel’s murder.”
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