Chapter 9 - THE WOMAN WHO DISAPPEARED
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Dorian reached the driveway first, but the SUV was already gone.
He shouted orders into his phone, sending his security team toward the main road. I stood on the porch, gripping the ledger so tightly that its edges cut into my palm.
"Why would Margaret leave with Blythe?" I demanded.
Dorian's jaw tightened.
"Maybe she was taken."
"She got into the car willingly."
"You saw her from a distance."
"I know what I saw."
He looked at me, and for a moment the old arrogance returned.
Then he seemed to remember that I was no longer the woman who accepted his explanations.
He lowered his voice.
"We find them. We ask questions. We don't jump to conclusions."
"That's exactly how seventeen years disappeared."
I walked back inside.
The blue room was a narrow office overlooking the ocean. Behind a row of old books, I found a small metal box containing several photographs and a digital recorder.
The first photograph showed my mother speaking with Margaret in the garden.
The second showed Blythe as a teenager, standing beside Victor Kincaid.
I stared at the image.
"How old was Blythe when she started working for you?"
"Twenty-three," Dorian answered. "Why?"
The photograph had been taken at least fifteen years earlier.
Blythe had been connected to Victor long before her employment at the Kincaid organization.
I pressed play on the recorder.
A woman's voice emerged.
Blythe's.
"If you're listening to this, the original documents have been found. I need you to understand that I didn't begin working for Dorian to seduce him. I came to discover what happened to my mother."
I stopped breathing.
The recording continued.
"Her name was Catherine Sorrell. She worked for the Kincaids for years. She disappeared shortly after Audra's mother died. Victor told everyone she'd stolen money and run away."
Another voice followed.
Margaret's.
"Your mother discovered that Catherine had been keeping copies of the records. She wanted to help her escape."
"Then why did Catherine disappear?"
"Because she learned the truth about Victor. And because someone convinced her that her daughter would be safer if she stayed away."
Blythe began crying on the recording.
"My whole life, I believed my mother abandoned me. I only discovered the connection to the Kincaids six months ago. I approached Dorian because I thought he might know what happened."
I stared at Dorian.
"Six months?"
He nodded reluctantly.
"She told me her mother had worked for my father. She said she wanted access to old company records. I gave her a position because I thought it would help her find answers."
"And the affair?"
He looked away.
"That part was my choice. I won't pretend otherwise."
The recorder continued.
Margaret's voice became urgent.
"Catherine didn't run away. She was taken somewhere under a false name. I helped arrange it because Victor threatened her daughter."
I pressed the stop button.
"Where is Catherine now?"
Dorian shook his head.
"I don't know."
A new sound came from the recorder.
A final message, apparently recorded later.
Blythe's voice whispered, "Audra, if Margaret has taken you to the ledger, don't trust the first person who claims to know where my mother is. The person who ordered Catherine's disappearance is still alive."
The recording ended.
I looked at the date.
It had been made three days ago.
Then my phone rang.
An unknown number.
I answered.
A woman whispered, "Audra? This is Catherine Sorrell."
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My blood turned cold.
"I know what happened to your mother," she said. "And I know who was in the room when she died."
