Chapter 3 - The Second Signature.
The urgent care clinic was nearly empty when Vincent brought Lena through a side entrance just before midnight.
Mara had called ahead, so there were no forms waiting at the desk and no questions Lena had to answer twice.
A physician examined her arm, ordered an X-ray, and confirmed there was no fracture.
The relief should have calmed her.
It did not.
She kept thinking about the storage-unit form in Vincent's folder.
Her name appeared in three places.
Every signature was close enough to pass at a glance and wrong enough to make her feel as if someone had copied her shadow.
When the physician left, Vincent sat in the chair near the door.
"Tell me everything Naomi found."
Lena's voice sounded steadier than she felt.
Vincent folded his hands.
"Naomi was cleaning old client files after changing firms."
"Derek stopped using her a year ago."
"That's what made her curious."
Vincent explained that Naomi had found a sequence of transfer requests tied to Lena's former savings account.
The documents moved money first into a joint account, then into a business account controlled by Derek, then into two short-term certificates opened under a company name Lena did not recognize.
"Is that illegal?" Lena asked.
"The transfers aren't the problem if both owners approved them."
"I didn't."
"That's the problem."
Lena looked toward the frosted clinic window.
"Why didn't Naomi call me?"
"She did."
Lena turned back.
"No, she didn't."
Vincent slid his phone across the small table.
A screenshot showed four missed calls from Naomi's number routed to voicemail over the previous two months.
Lena had never seen them.
"Derek managed your phone plan," Vincent said.
The words filled the room with a new kind of silence.
Lena remembered Derek offering to combine their plans because it would be cheaper.
She remembered him setting up the account while she cooked dinner.
She remembered laughing when he told her not to worry about passwords because he would remember them for both of them.
Suddenly, convenience looked different in hindsight.
"He blocked her?"
"It looks that way."
Lena pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead.
"What else?"
Vincent hesitated.
That hesitation frightened her more than the answer.
"Naomi also found a rental application for Unit 314 at Grant Street Storage."
"In my name."
"In both your names."
"What's inside?"
"We don't know."
Lena gave a humorless laugh.
"You brought men to my apartment, broke through my door, and somehow the one thing you don't know is what's in a storage unit?"
Vincent did not react to the accusation.
"I brought one security contractor because your message said you were in immediate danger."
"And Derek disappeared anyway."
"Yes."
The honesty stopped her.
Vincent leaned forward.
"Which means we stop assuming he's predictable."
A nurse returned with discharge papers and a temporary sling.
As she explained care instructions, Vincent's phone vibrated again.
This time he read the message without opening it fully.
Lena saw the sender name.
Naomi Reed.
Vincent stood.
"What did she say?"
He turned the screen toward Lena.
Naomi had sent a photograph of a brown envelope resting on her desk.
Across the front, in Derek's handwriting, were four words.
FOR LENA IF NEEDED.
Below the photograph was one more message.
May you like
I never opened it.
But someone just tried to get into my office.
