Chapter 4 - THE DEAD LAWYER WHO WALKED AGAIN
The lawyer who had supposedly died twenty years earlier was waiting inside Eleanor Monroe’s abandoned studio.
At least, that was what Dante Russo discovered when he traced the security cameras surrounding the old building.
Niko showed Ava the footage.
An elderly man in a brown coat stepped from a black sedan, looked over his shoulder, and entered through a service door.
Ava studied his face.
“Do you recognize him?” Niko asked.
She shook her head.
“His name is Samuel Bennett. He handled your mother's estate.”
“Dad told me her lawyer died in a car crash.”
“That is what the records say.”
Ava stared at the screen.
“Then why is he alive?”
“That's what we're going to ask him.”
Twenty minutes later, Niko’s SUV stopped outside the old garment district building.
Ava stepped onto the sidewalk wearing the simple black dress the hotel manager had brought her.
She had folded her mother's damaged emerald gown into a garment bag.
She refused to leave it behind.
Inside, the old studio smelled of dust and aging wood.
Moonlight fell across abandoned cutting tables.
Ava ran her fingers over one.
“My mother worked here.”
Niko stood a respectful distance behind her.
“She built something extraordinary.”
A faint sound came from the back room.
Ava turned.
An elderly man emerged from the shadows.
He looked at her.
Then his eyes filled with tears.
“Eleanor,” he whispered.
Ava took a step forward.
“My name is Ava.”
The man pressed a hand against his chest.
“You look exactly like her.”
Niko moved beside Ava.
“Samuel Bennett?”
The old man nodded.
“I knew this day would come.”
“Then explain why the world believes you're dead,” Niko said.
Samuel looked toward the windows.
“Richard Whitmore needed everyone who knew about Eleanor's ownership documents to disappear.”
Ava felt cold.
“Did my father threaten you?”
Samuel nodded.
“After your mother's funeral, I discovered alterations to her trust. I refused to sign them.”
“What happened?”
“My office burned that night. I escaped through the rear stairwell. The body they identified as mine belonged to another man.”
Niko’s jaw tightened.
“Why didn't you come forward?”
“Because they threatened my family. I spent years collecting proof from a distance.”
Samuel pointed to Ava’s key.
“Eleanor gave you that, didn't she?”
“It was sewn into her dress.”
“She always was clever.”
He led them to a wall of old filing cabinets.
Behind one cabinet was a narrow steel compartment.
Ava inserted the key.
The lock clicked.
Inside lay a black leather notebook, several sealed envelopes, and a small recorder.
Samuel reached for the recorder.
“Your mother made this shortly before she died.”
Ava pressed PLAY.
Static crackled.
Then a woman's voice filled the room.
A voice Ava remembered only from distant childhood dreams.
“If Ava is hearing this, Richard has betrayed us.”
Ava covered her mouth.
Her mother continued.
“Please don't trust Victoria. She knows what happened to the first shipment.”
The recording paused.
May you like
Then Eleanor spoke one final sentence.
“And if anything happens to me, find the daughter Richard has been hiding.”
