Chapter 4: The Bracelet in the Safe
Marcus Webb had been the Cole family's attorney for eleven years.
He answered on the second ring, which told me he had been expecting a call that wasn't entirely routine.
"Daniel."
"I need you to do something tonight."
A pause.
"It's nearly nine o'clock."
"I know what time it is.
I need you to check the inventory from my father's estate.
Specifically the personal effects listed under my mother's jewelry.
There should be a gold bracelet with a sapphire clasp."
Another pause.
Longer.
"Can this wait until morning?"
"No."
I heard him move.
A chair.
A door closing.
Then the sound of a keyboard.
Emily had carried Mia off the plane ahead of me.
I had let her go.
We had exchanged numbers in the jet bridge with the wordless efficiency of two people who understood that the conversation was not finished, only paused.
I stood now on the curb outside baggage claim, the velvet box still in my jacket pocket, a car waiting ten feet away.
"Daniel." Marcus's voice had changed.
"The bracelet is listed in the inventory.
It was designated to remain in the family safe pending your decision on personal distribution."
"Is it still there?"
The silence that followed lasted four full seconds.
"I'll need to make a call to the estate manager."
"Make it."
"Daniel, if something is missing from that inventory—"
"Make the call, Marcus.
Tonight.
And pull every visitor log for the property going back thirty months."
I ended the call and stood on the curb.
The driver had stepped out and was waiting at a respectful distance.
He had worked for Cole Meridian for six years.
He knew when not to speak.
I took the velvet box from my jacket.
It was heavier than it should have been for its size.
Or perhaps that was just the weight of what it had almost become.
I had chosen the ring eight months ago.
A private jeweler in Geneva.
Three carats, cushion cut, set in platinum because Claire had once mentioned she found yellow gold old-fashioned.
I had noted that preference.
Filed it away.
Used it.
That was how I had loved Claire Beaumont.
By noting her preferences and fulfilling them.
I put the box in my coat pocket and got into the car.
"Change of destination," I said.
"I won't be going to Napa tonight."
The driver nodded and pulled into traffic without a word.
My phone rang before we reached the bridge.
Not Marcus.
Not Claire.
My mother's sister.
My Aunt Vera.
Seventy-one years old, sharp as she had ever been, and one of the very few people in my life who had ever told me the truth without softening it first.
"I heard you were coming to Napa this weekend," she said.
"Plans changed."
"I see." A pause.
"Does this have anything to do with Emily Carter?"
I went very still.
"Why would you ask that?"
"Because I saw her name in the charter manifest.
A friend at the terminal mentioned it.
I have friends everywhere, Daniel, you know this." Her voice was careful.
Not gossiping.
Measuring.
"I've been waiting for you to call me for two years."
"Two years."
"Since I found out she had a child."
The car crossed onto the bridge.
The bay spread out below, black and silver.
"You knew," I said.
"I suspected.
I saw her once, from a distance.
At a farmers' market in the city.
She was with a baby in a carrier." Aunt Vera paused.
"The child had your grandfather's coloring.
I recognized it immediately."
"And you said nothing."
"I said nothing to you." Her voice was quiet but steady.
"Because I also knew what Claire had done.
And I needed to understand how much you already knew before I added to it."
My hand tightened on the phone.
"Tell me what you know about Claire and that bracelet."
Silence.
Then: "I know your mother never liked her.
I know she told your father so, twice, before she passed.
And I know that six weeks after your father's funeral, I went to the house to collect some of your mother's personal things that had been set aside for me." A pause.
"The bracelet was already gone."
"You didn't report it."
"I had no proof.
And you were barely holding yourself together.
I didn't want to add to it." Her voice tightened slightly.
"That was my mistake.
I see that now."
I looked out at the water.
"I need you to write down everything you remember.
Dates.
What you saw.
What you were told.
Everything."
"I can do that."
"Tonight, Vera."
"Daniel." Her voice softened for just a moment.
"Is the little girl all right?"
I thought of Mia asleep on the plane.
Her hand around Emily's sleeve.
The stuffed rabbit.
The silver-gray eyes that had stopped me cold in a terminal in Los Angeles.
"She's fine," I said.
"She's perfect."
Vera was quiet for a moment.
"Your father would have loved her."
I couldn't answer that.
I didn't trust my voice.
"Tonight," I said again.
"Please."
"Tonight," she agreed.
I set the phone down as the car came off the bridge into the city.
Marcus called back eleven minutes later.
"The bracelet is not in the safe," he said.
"The estate manager says it was removed approximately twenty-eight months ago.
The visitor log shows one authorized entry around that time." He paused.
"Claire Beaumont.
She was listed as accompanying you for a property walkthrough."
I had no memory of that visit.
None.
"Pull everything," I said.
"Every log.
Every access record.
Every document she signed."
"Daniel, I have to ask — are we preparing for a legal action?"
I looked out the window at the city moving past.
May you like
"We're preparing for a conversation," I said.
"And then we'll see."
