Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN IN THE SECURITY FOOTAGE
The private backup file contained no financial records.
It contained photographs.
Hundreds of them.
Noelle sitting in restaurants.
Noelle leaving work.
Noelle visiting her father's rehabilitation facility.
Noelle buying groceries.
Noelle standing beside Gabriel behind her apartment building six months earlier.
She stared at the computer screen inside Gabriel's downtown office.
"They've been watching me."
Gabriel stood behind her.
"Yes."
"For how long?"
"The earliest photograph is almost three years old."
Noelle turned.
"Before Derek and I broke up."
Gabriel nodded.
A knot formed in her stomach.
"Why would my fiancé have someone follow me while we were still together?"
"Control."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the beginning of one."
Gabriel's security specialist, Marco Bellini, entered carrying a tablet.
"Found something."
Gabriel gestured.
Marco placed the device beside Noelle.
Security footage appeared.
Hearthline headquarters.
October 18th.
9:36 p.m.
The night Noelle had supposedly entered the building.
A woman stepped from the elevator.
Baseball cap.
Long coat.
Dark hair.
Her face hidden.
She held Noelle's access card.
Noelle leaned closer.
"Can you enhance it?"
"Already did."
Marco tapped the screen.
The image sharpened.
The woman turned slightly.
Noelle felt the air leave her lungs.
"No."
Gabriel's expression darkened.
"You recognize her."
Noelle stood.
"That's impossible."
"Who is she?"
Noelle looked at him.
"Chloe."
Silence.
Gabriel stared at the screen.
"Derek's wife?"
"She wasn't his wife then."
Noelle's hands began shaking.
"She'd only been working at Hearthline four months."
Marco continued the footage.
Chloe entered Noelle's former office.
Twenty-one minutes later, Derek Pierce appeared.
They kissed before closing the door.
Noelle looked away.
Gabriel immediately stopped the video.
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not."
"I already knew they were sleeping together."
"Knowing something happened isn't the same as watching it."
Noelle swallowed.
"Keep playing."
Gabriel hesitated.
Then nodded to Marco.
The footage resumed.
At 10:17 p.m., Derek left carrying a laptop.
Chloe followed.
But before the elevator doors closed, a third person emerged from the stairwell.
An older man.
Gray hair.
Expensive coat.
Noelle froze.
Gabriel noticed.
"Who is that?"
She couldn't answer.
The man crossed toward Noelle's office.
He remained inside for eleven minutes.
When he left, he looked directly toward the security camera.
Marco paused the image.
Gabriel's face went still.
Noelle whispered the name.
"Henry Pierce."
Derek's father.
A former federal prosecutor.
Current chairman of the Pierce Foundation.
One of the most politically connected men in Illinois.
Gabriel leaned against the desk.
"This explains why your complaint disappeared."
Noelle looked at him.
"You think Henry buried it."
"I think Henry did more than bury it."
His phone rang.
Gabriel answered.
"Yes."
He listened.
Then his expression changed.
Noelle stood.
"What?"
Gabriel ended the call.
"Someone just broke into the storage facility holding Hearthline's original financial records."
"Did they take anything?"
"No."
Relief lasted exactly one second.
Gabriel continued.
"They burned it."
Noelle stared.
"Everything?"
"Almost."
"Almost?"
A strange look passed between Gabriel and Marco.
Noelle's heartbeat accelerated.
"What survived?"
Marco placed a sealed plastic evidence sleeve on the desk.
Inside was a partially burned photograph.
Noelle picked it up carefully.
Three people stood outside Hearthline's first office.
Noelle.
Derek.
And a man whose face had been burned away.
On the back, someone had handwritten:
THE THIRD FOUNDER KNOWS WHERE THE MONEY WENT.
Noelle whispered, "There was no third founder."
May you like
Gabriel looked at her.
"Apparently there was."
