Chapter 5 - The Scarf That Should Have Been Buried
Laura Reed touched the embroidered initials on Megan's scarf as though she were touching her daughter.
For seventeen months, she had waited for an explanation.
A telephone call.
A witness.
Anything that might tell her whether Avery was alive.
Now, standing inside Damian Caruso's mansion, she had found a piece of her daughter's life wrapped around another young woman's neck.
Megan carefully removed the scarf.
"I'm so sorry."
Laura shook her head.
"You didn't know."
"Rick brought it home. He said someone had moved away and left some things behind."
Laura closed her eyes.
"Avery wore this scarf the week she disappeared."
Damian stepped forward.
"Laura, please sit down."
She ignored him.
"Did Rick know my daughter?"
"I don't know," Megan whispered. "He never mentioned her."
"Think carefully. Did he ever talk about a woman named Avery?"
Megan searched her memories.
Rick had always been secretive about his work.
He described himself as a consultant, although his employment changed frequently.
Sometimes he returned home with expensive watches.
Other times he claimed they couldn't afford groceries.
He often took late-night calls in the garage.
Once, Megan remembered, she'd heard him arguing with someone about a woman who was asking too many questions.
She had forgotten the conversation until now.
"About a year and a half ago," Megan said slowly, "Rick came home angry. He said some stupid girl was going to ruin everything."
Laura's face changed.
"What else?"
"He said she should have kept her mouth shut."
The older woman's knees buckled.
Damian reached for a chair.
Megan felt sick.
Back then, she'd asked Rick what happened.
He had told her that a temporary employee stole company files.
When she questioned him, he accused her of being jealous.
"I believed him," Megan whispered.
Laura grasped her hands.
"Sweetheart, look at me."
Megan did.
"You didn't make him do those things."
"I lived with him."
"You were surviving him."
The room became quiet.
Then Laura reached into her handbag and removed a small notebook.
It was worn at the corners, its pages crowded with dates, names, and telephone numbers.
"Since Avery disappeared, I've written down everything that might matter."
She opened it.
"Avery worked for Harborline Freight Services. She was auditing transportation invoices before she vanished."
Damian stiffened.
"Harborline?"
Laura looked at him.
"You know it?"
"One of its affiliated companies leased warehouse space from my family's port operations."
"Then maybe you'll finally tell me why my daughter disappeared."
The accusation hung between them.
Damian didn't look away.
"I should have investigated that company sooner."
Laura gave a bitter laugh.
"You told me that six months ago."
Megan looked from one to the other.
"You've met before?"
"Yes," Laura answered. "Mr. Caruso hired investigators after I started asking questions about one of his properties."
"Did they find anything?"
"Not enough."
Damian spoke quietly.
"I gave Detective Grant what they found."
Laura's expression remained hard.
"And Avery is still missing."
No one contradicted her.
Megan looked down at the settlement document.
Something had been bothering her since she'd first examined it.
The reference number near the bottom was printed differently from the surrounding text.
73-B.
"Laura, did Avery ever mention a place with that number?"
Laura frowned.
"Why?"
Megan showed her.
Laura went still.
Then she flipped through the notebook.
Several pages later, she stopped.
"Three days before Avery disappeared, she sent me a message."
She handed Megan the phone.
The message was short.
Mom, if anybody asks where I worked Thursday night, tell them I wasn't at the main office. I was at 73B. I'll explain after the weekend.
Megan stared at the screen.
"She never explained?"
Laura shook her head.
"She vanished the next day."
Damian took out his phone.
"Seventy-three B could refer to an internal storage unit."
He contacted his head of operations and requested the historical warehouse allocation records.
Megan watched him closely.
"You don't know what's happening in your own buildings?"
The question was sharper than she'd intended.
Damian accepted it.
"Not everything. That's part of the problem."
Laura crossed her arms.
"If Victor Kade used your properties, you had a responsibility to know."
Damian nodded.
"I did."
It was the first time Megan had heard a powerful man acknowledge responsibility without immediately blaming someone else.
But words weren't enough.
"Then help the police find Avery," she said.
Damian looked at her.
"I intend to."
That evening, Detective Grant collected the scarf as potential evidence with Laura's consent.
Megan gave a detailed statement about Rick bringing it home.
She also provided the original agreement and identified the account where she had made her payments.
The investigation was becoming larger than anything she'd imagined.
But the danger wasn't disappearing.
It was moving closer.
Before Megan departed for the confidential apartment, Damian approached her with a sealed envelope.
"What is it?"
"A copy of the account records you requested. Elena can verify them."
Megan opened it.
The payments were arranged chronologically.
At the bottom was a note documenting the final settlement.
There was also a separate bank reference.
"What's this?"
"An outgoing transfer authorized after your final payment."
"How much?"
"Seventy-five thousand dollars."
Megan stared at him.
"To whom?"
"An account controlled by Victor Kade."
"Why?"
"That's what I want to know."
The transfer had been made the same week Rick told Megan they still owed almost the entire debt.
And it had come from a company connected to the original loan.
Damian pointed to an internal transaction reference.
"Someone used your payments to trigger an additional disbursement."
Megan looked at the numbers.
She had sacrificed years of savings to escape a debt.
Somebody had used her sacrifice to move even more money.
"Rick knew?"
"I can't prove that yet."
Her phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
She ignored it.
A message appeared.
YOU FOUND THE SCARF. GOOD. NOW ASK CARUSO WHAT HAPPENED AT PIER SIX.
Megan turned the screen toward Damian.
For the first time since meeting him, she saw genuine fear cross his face.
May you like
Not fear for himself.
Fear that something he had buried was finally coming back.
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