Chapter 6 - The Girl At The Locked Window.
Emily reached the second floor before Daniel.
Nora stood outside the master bathroom pounding on the door.
"Sophie locked it, and she will not answer me."
Emily's heart stopped.
"Sophie, it's Mommy."
A small sob came from inside.
"Open the door, sweetheart."
"Is Grandma gone?"
Emily looked back as Margaret appeared at the top of the stairs.
"Not yet."
Sophie began crying harder.
Emily's fear became fury.
"Margaret, go downstairs."
"This melodrama is exactly the problem."
Daniel grabbed his mother's arm.
"Go downstairs."
Margaret stared at him.
He repeated himself.
"Now."
For once, she obeyed.
Emily waited until the older woman's footsteps disappeared.
"Sophie, she is downstairs."
The lock clicked.
Emily opened the door slowly.
Sophie sat beside the bathtub clutching a stuffed rabbit.
Emily knelt.
"What scared you?"
Sophie pointed toward the bathroom window.
The latch was open.
"Someone was outside."
Daniel frowned.
"Outside the second-floor window?"
Sophie nodded.
"A man with a camera."
Emily crossed to the glass.
Daniel stared at it.
"Mom hired people to photograph you."
Emily remembered the surveillance photos in the red folder.
"Maybe she never stopped."
She called Rebecca again.
This time she put the attorney on speaker.
Rebecca's voice became urgent when Emily described the forged documents and the photographer.
"Call the police."
"I am about to."
"And do not let Margaret remove anything from the property."
Daniel looked toward the stairs.
Too late.
A car engine roared outside.
Emily ran to the window.
Margaret's dark sedan accelerated down the drive.
Nora whispered, "She took a suitcase."
Daniel swore and pulled out his phone.
Emily stopped him.
"Do not warn her."
"I was calling the gate."
"Then put it on speaker."
The security guard answered.
Daniel ordered the front gate closed.
The guard hesitated.
"Sir, Mrs. Carter gave written instructions that she has unrestricted exit authority."
Emily's eyes narrowed.
"Which Mrs. Carter?"
"Margaret Carter."
Emily looked at Daniel.
He whispered, "I never authorized that."
A crash sounded faintly through the phone.
The guard shouted.
Then the line went dead.
Emily rushed downstairs with Daniel behind her.
Margaret's sedan was gone.
A black SUV sat sideways near the entrance.
The driver door was open.
No one was inside.
Police arrived within minutes.
Emily handed over the forged authorization, photographs of the closet, and the red folder.
Daniel voluntarily gave them the second phone.
The officer listened, took notes, and asked careful questions.
Then he looked at the deed copy.
"This part may be civil unless there is evidence of fraud."
Emily pointed to her forged signature.
"There is evidence of fraud."
The officer nodded.
"Then preserve everything."
Rebecca arrived an hour later carrying a laptop and a portable scanner.
She looked sick when she saw Sophie.
"I should have told you Margaret contacted me."
Emily did not comfort her.
"Yes, you should have."
They gathered in the library after Sophie finally fell asleep upstairs with Nora nearby.
Rebecca examined the trust deed.
"This copy is not recorded."
Emily exhaled.
"So the house is safe."
Rebecca did not answer.
"Rebecca?"
"A copy can be fake while the transaction behind it is real."
Daniel sat forward.
Rebecca typed the county record number into her laptop.
A document appeared.
Her face changed.
"Emily, there is a filing from six weeks ago."
Emily gripped the table.
"Whose name is on it?"
Rebecca turned the screen toward them.
The property had not been transferred to Margaret's trust.
It had been transferred to a company called Bellweather Holdings.
Daniel stared at the name.
"I know that company."
Emily looked at him.
"How?"
May you like
Daniel swallowed.
"Claire Maddox owns it."
