Chapter 8 - THE MURDER SHE NEVER COMMITTED
By sunrise, Nora Hastings was wanted for questioning in a murder investigation.
Her photograph appeared on a local news website beneath a headline connecting her to Julian Romano's death.
She stared at the screen.
“I've never even met him.”
Victor's attorney, Rebecca Sloan, placed a folder on the table.
“Someone submitted security footage showing a woman resembling Nora entering Julian's apartment building at 11:42 last night.”
“I was with Victor.”
Rebecca nodded.
“And we can prove it. But the footage is already circulating.”
Nora looked at Victor.
“They're trying to make me run.”
“Exactly.”
He turned to Rebecca.
“Contact the detectives. Preserve the original recording and request the building's access logs.”
Rebecca stepped outside to make the call.
Nora sank onto the sofa.
“My father is missing. My mother's death was murder. And now someone wants me arrested.”
Victor sat across from her.
“You are not facing this alone.”
She looked at him.
“Why are you doing all this?”
He held her gaze.
“Because you trusted me enough to do your job, even when everyone at that dinner table wanted you humiliated.”
“That doesn't explain why you're risking everything.”
Victor's expression softened.
“No. It doesn't.”
For a moment, the silence between them changed.
Then Leo appeared.
“We have a problem.”
He showed them a newly recovered image from a traffic camera near Julian's building.
The woman in the footage wore Nora's midnight-blue dress.
The same style.
The same shoes.
The same pinned hairstyle.
But her face was partly hidden.
Nora felt cold.
“Someone dressed like me.”
Victor studied the image.
“Camilla knew what you were wearing.”
“She saw me at dinner.”
“Exactly.”
Leo enlarged the photograph.
The woman carried a pale handbag with gold hardware.
Camilla's handbag.
Victor's jaw tightened.
“Find her.”
But Camilla Davenport had disappeared.
Her father publicly claimed she was visiting relatives overseas.
Airport records showed no such departure.
Rebecca returned with more troubling news.
“Julian's apartment was searched before the police arrived. His safe was open.”
“What was taken?” Victor asked.
“A sealed inheritance agreement signed by Anthony Romano.”
Nora frowned.
“Why would anyone murder a man over an inheritance agreement?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Because the agreement identifies the legal beneficiary of a family trust worth nearly six hundred million dollars.”
Victor stared.
“My father left everything to me.”
“Not everything.”
Rebecca opened the document.
Under the beneficiary section appeared a name none of them expected.
NORA EVELYN HASTINGS.
Nora stared at the page.
May you like
Six hundred million dollars.
And a secret inheritance she had never known existed.
