Chapter 5: What Vanessa Knew
Daniel found Newport at half past nine in the morning.
It was smaller than he expected.
One main street running parallel to the harbor, fishing boats rocking in their slips, a coffee shop with steamed-up windows, a hardware store that hadn't updated its sign since the nineties.
He drove through it twice before he accepted that this was the whole town.
He didn't know where Amy was.
He only knew she was here.
He parked near the harbor and sat in the rental car with his phone in his hand.
He had called her four more times during the drive from Portland.
Four more voicemails.
He typed one more message.
*I'm in Newport.
I'm not here to pressure you.
I just need to know you're safe.
Please.*
He watched the screen.
Nothing.
He got out of the car.
He was standing at the harbor railing, watching the water, when his phone rang.
Not Amy.
His attorney, Graham Fisk.
"Graham, I'm in the middle of something—"
"I know.
I'm sorry to call early.
But Vanessa Cole contacted my office last night."
Daniel went still.
"Why?"
"She says she has documentation.
She's claiming that Amy has been in contact with a journalist from the Financial Tribune for the past three months.
She's saying Amy has been feeding information about Harrison Freight's internal operations."
The harbor sounds continued around him.
A gull called somewhere overhead.
"That's not possible," Daniel said.
"I'm telling you what she told my office."
"Amy doesn't know anything about internal operations.
She's never been involved in the business."
"Vanessa says she has emails."
"Then they're fabricated."
"Daniel—"
"Graham, listen to me carefully." Daniel turned away from the water.
"Vanessa Cole has been sending me personal messages for six months.
My wife saw those messages.
Last night my wife left her wedding ring with my mother and got on a plane alone while she is four months pregnant, and this morning Vanessa is calling my attorney with allegations.
Do you understand what I'm telling you?"
A pause.
"Yes."
"Good.
I want you to document every contact Vanessa has made with your office.
Every call, every email, every message.
I want a record."
"Already doing it."
"And Graham — I want to know everything about Vanessa's role at the Foundation.
Contracts, scope of authority, what she has access to.
Everything."
Another pause, longer this time.
"How deep do you want me to go?"
"All the way," Daniel said.
"Start this morning."
He ended the call.
He stood at the harbor for another moment.
Then he walked up the main street, looking at storefronts, looking for anything that matched the description of a harbor bookstore.
He found Tidal Pages at the end of the second block.
The lights were on inside.
Through the window he could see shelves of books, a wooden counter, a woman with gray hair arranging a display near the door.
He pushed the door open.
The woman looked up.
"Morning," she said.
"Can I help you?"
"I'm looking for someone.
A woman.
She would have arrived late last night.
She's—" He stopped.
"She's pregnant.
Dark hair.
She's a friend of Claire Maddox."
The woman's expression didn't change.
But her hands stopped moving.
"I'm her husband," Daniel said.
"My name is Daniel Harrison.
I'm not here to cause trouble.
I just need to know she's safe."
The woman looked at him for a long moment.
The kind of look that takes a full inventory.
"She's safe," she said finally.
"Is she here?"
"She's nearby."
"Will you tell her I'm here?
Please.
That's all I'm asking.
Tell her I'm here, and if she doesn't want to see me, I'll go back to my car and wait until she's ready.
Or I'll leave.
Whatever she wants."
The woman — Ruth, though he didn't know her name yet — studied him for another moment.
"Wait here," she said.
She went to the back of the shop and picked up an old telephone on the counter.
She dialed a number.
She spoke quietly, her back half-turned.
Daniel waited.
He looked at the books on the nearest shelf without reading any of the titles.
Ruth came back.
"She says you can come upstairs," she said.
"But I'm going to be right here.
And if she wants you to leave, you leave.
No argument."
"Understood," Daniel said.
Ruth pointed to the stairs at the back of the shop.
Daniel walked toward them.
His hand found the ultrasound photograph in his breast pocket.
Still there.
He didn't know yet what Vanessa was really planning.
May you like
He didn't know that while he stood in that bookshop, she was on the phone with someone else entirely — someone whose name would appear in Graham Fisk's research three days later and change the shape of everything Daniel thought he understood about the past two years.
He only knew there were stairs in front of him, and Amy was at the top of them, and he had never been more frightened of a door in his life.
