Chapter 5: The Name She Didn't Want to Say
Patricia was already moving toward the entrance.
One of the two men in dark suits followed her.
The doors slid open.
They stepped outside.
Thirty seconds later, Patricia came back in alone.
"Gone," she said quietly to Amelia.
"Black sedan.
No plates visible."
Amelia looked at Vanessa.
"Who did you signal?"
"I didn't signal anyone."
"You looked directly at that door the moment you saw your phone."
"I was looking at the exit," Vanessa said.
"I wanted to leave.
That's all."
"Then leave," Amelia said.
"The doors are unlocked now.
But if you walk out of this lobby without answering my questions, I will assume the worst about everything — the account, the signatures, the database breach — and I will instruct Patricia to file every available action before end of business today."
Vanessa's chin lifted.
"You can't prove I had anything to do with a database breach."
"I can prove someone used a dead login to access guest records.
I can prove that login was reactivated from an IP address registered to a property in Scottsdale, Arizona." Amelia paused.
"The same city where Croft Holdings is registered."
The room was very still.
Vanessa sat down.
Not gracefully.
Her legs simply decided they were done.
She set her clutch on her knee and looked at the floor for a long moment.
"His name is Daniel," she said finally.
"Who is Daniel?"
"My husband's brother." She said it like it cost her something.
"He was supposed to be managing the estate.
After Richard d*ed, everything was supposed to go through him until probate cleared."
"And?"
"And he's been using the resort account to cover debts that have nothing to do with the estate." She looked up.
"I found out four months ago.
I told him to stop.
He didn't stop."
"So you knew about the unauthorized charges," Patricia said.
"I knew about some of them."
"And the director signatures?"
Vanessa was quiet for three seconds.
"He asked me to sign some documents.
He said they were standard estate filings.
I didn't read them carefully enough."
"Mrs.
Croft," Patricia said, "your signature authorized over four hundred thousand dollars in charges against a fraudulently registered corporate account.
Not reading carefully is not a legal defense."
"I know that." Her voice was flat.
Empty.
"I know."
Donna had lowered her phone.
Not stopped recording — just lowered it.
She was watching Vanessa the way you watch someone standing too close to an edge.
Amelia pulled a chair from beside the concierge desk and sat down across from Vanessa.
"Where is Daniel now?"
"I don't know.
He stopped returning my calls three weeks ago."
"Was that him outside?"
Vanessa looked at her hands.
"I think so."
"Why would he come here today?"
"Because I told him last night that I was meeting with an attorney this week.
That I was going to come clean about the account." She pressed her fingers together.
"I didn't know he was following me."
Amelia leaned forward slightly.
"Vanessa.
Look at me."
Vanessa looked up.
"Is there anything else?
Anything you haven't said yet that I'm going to find out anyway?"
The silence stretched.
"The guest database," Vanessa said.
"The login he used.
He was looking for someone specific."
"Who?"
Vanessa's eyes dropped to the chain still lying on the concierge desk.
"You," she said.
"He was looking for you."
The air in the lobby shifted.
Amelia sat very still.
"Why?"
"Because of what you're building," Vanessa said.
"The new development.
The coastal properties." She exhaled.
"He has investors who want that land.
They've wanted it for two years.
And when they found out you were the one blocking the permits —" She stopped.
"Finish it," Amelia said.
"They decided the easiest solution was to find something on you.
Something they could use."
Amelia stood up slowly.
"And did they find anything?"
Vanessa shook her head.
May you like
"No.
But Daniel said they didn't need to find something real."
