Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN IN THE RED DRESS|
Graham stared at the photograph.
His mother had been dead for twenty-three years.
He had spent his entire life believing she was gentle, loving, and incapable of hurting anyone.
Now her name appeared in a letter connected to a murder.
"Where did Daniel get this?"
Tabitha answered.
"Mom gave it to him."
"Why didn't he tell you?"
"He said she told him to keep it secret until someone from your family came looking."
Graham walked toward the window.
For the first time, he looked genuinely lost.
Tabitha approached him.
"You don't have to believe it."
He turned.
"What if it's true?"
"Then we find out why."
Graham looked at her for a long moment.
Then he called Walter Hayes.
The elderly attorney arrived the following afternoon.
He examined the photograph and immediately recognized the handwriting.
"Your mother wrote this?"
Tabitha nodded.
Walter sighed.
"Then there's something I should have told you years ago."
He explained that Graham's mother, Isabella, had been involved in a complicated relationship with a woman named Elizabeth Hayes.
The two had been close friends.
But Isabella had also discovered that her husband was secretly financing an operation that involved illegal medical trials and the disappearance of several witnesses.
Elizabeth had helped her collect evidence.
When the women realized they were being watched, Isabella arranged for Elizabeth to escape with her daughter.
"Then why would she order Elizabeth's death?" Graham asked.
Walter shook his head.
"That is what we must determine."
He removed a second document from his briefcase.
It was a photograph of a woman wearing a red dress.
Tabitha recognized her from the old family portrait.
Isabella Costa.
But standing behind her was another woman.
A woman whose face had been deliberately scratched out.
"Who is she?" Tabitha asked.
Walter looked uncomfortable.
"Your mother's sister."
Tabitha stared at him.
"My mother had a sister?"
"Yes. Her name was Margaret."
"Where is she?"
Walter hesitated.
"She died in a private clinic shortly after Isabella."
Graham looked toward the photograph.
"Why was this hidden?"
"Because Margaret was the only person who knew what happened in the room where Isabella died."
The attorney explained that the official report had described Isabella's death as a medical emergency.
But there had been no independent autopsy.
The family doctor had signed the certificate.
And that doctor had been Simon Hale.
Tabitha felt sick.
"He's the man who took Daniel."
Graham's expression hardened.
"Then Hale knows more than he's telling us."
Walter nodded.
"There's another problem. The Costa family trust was designed to pass to Isabella's descendants. If the documents are genuine, Tabitha may have legal rights to the estate."
Graham stared at him.
"How much?"
Walter named a figure.
Even Graham went silent.
But the money was not what interested him.
He looked at Tabitha.
"Does that change anything?"
She shook her head.
"I didn't know any of this existed."
"Good."
He turned toward Walter.
"Find Margaret's records. Every hospital, every burial document, every person who signed anything."
The attorney agreed.
As Walter left, Graham noticed a small envelope beneath the photograph.
It contained a hotel receipt from twenty-three years earlier.
The name of the guest was Margaret Hayes.
The address was an old Manhattan hotel.
And the date was the same night Isabella Costa died.
Tabitha looked at the receipt.
"She was there."
Graham nodded.
"Which means she may have witnessed everything."
Then his phone rang.
The caller ID displayed a name that had not appeared in his contacts for years.
MARGARET HAYES.
A woman's voice came through.
"Tell the girl her mother was innocent."
Graham froze.
May you like
Then the woman added:
"And tell her I know who really killed Isabella."
