Chapter 12 - March Eighteenth
The flash drive contained security footage.
Not stolen company files.
Footage.
Vanessa had copied it from Reed Restoration’s office system the night she entered the building.
Denise watched the timestamp.
March 18.
12:47 a.m.
The camera showed the hallway outside Marcus’s office.
Vanessa appeared wearing jeans, a dark coat, and gloves.
Denise paused.
“Gloves?”
“I didn’t want fingerprints.”
Denise stared at her.
“Continue.”
Vanessa entered Marcus’s office.
Twenty-three minutes passed.
Then another person appeared.
Derrick.
Denise looked at Vanessa.
“He knew you were there?”
“He gave me the alarm code.”
The recording showed Derrick carrying a cardboard file box.
He entered the office.
At 1:19 a.m., both emerged.
Derrick carried the box out.
Vanessa left empty-handed except for a small USB drive.
Denise paused again.
“What was in the box?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were there.”
“He told me they were old vendor records.”
“You believed him?”
“At the time.”
“Where did he take them?”
“I don’t know.”
Denise continued playback.
At 1:26 a.m., Derrick returned alone.
He went into another office.
Rochelle Gaines’s bookkeeping room.
He remained there fourteen minutes.
Then left with nothing visible.
Vanessa rubbed her arms.
“I never understood why he went back.”
“Did you ask?”
“He said he forgot something.”
Denise wrote notes.
“What did you copy from Marcus’s computer?”
“Investment statements. Business reports. A draft purchase agreement.”
“Anything else?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“Emails.”
“Whose?”
“Marcus’s.”
Denise looked at her.
“You accessed his email?”
“He left his desktop account logged in.”
“Vanessa.”
“I know.”
“What did you find?”
“Messages with a woman.”
Denise stopped writing.
“What woman?”
“Her name was Simone Harris.”
“Romantic?”
“I thought so.”
“Were they?”
Vanessa looked down.
“I never found proof.”
“What did the messages say?”
“She thanked him for helping her.”
“Helping how?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Did you confront him?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted more evidence.”
Denise frowned.
“Do you still have the emails?”
“Copies.”
Vanessa opened a folder.
The messages were brief.
Simone: I don’t know how to thank you for this.
Marcus: You don’t owe me anything.
Simone: Your father would be proud of what you’re doing.
Another.
Simone: Closing is Friday.
Marcus: Porter confirmed everything is ready.
Denise looked up.
“James Porter?”
“I assumed so.”
The messages continued.
Marcus: Vanessa doesn’t know. Keep it that way for now.
There.
The sentence Vanessa had built years of suspicion around.
Denise read the entire thread.
“Did you ever determine what closing referred to?”
“No.”
“Did you ask Derrick?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“That Marcus probably bought property with her.”
“And you believed him.”
“Yes.”
Denise leaned back.
“Did you search public property records?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I was afraid of what I’d find.”
Denise almost smiled sadly.
“You were willing to break into his office but not search public records?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“I wanted to believe what I already believed.”
That admission changed the room.
Denise copied the files for formal preservation.
Then she contacted Porter.
By afternoon, Marcus was sitting in Porter’s office reading the Simone emails.
He went pale.
“Where did Vanessa get these?”
Porter told him.
“She broke into my office?”
“She entered with Derrick’s assistance.”
Marcus stood.
“That’s why those archive files disappeared.”
“What files?”
“Old vendor records.”
Porter looked up.
“The ones Crown Oak invoices would have appeared in?”
Marcus stopped.
“Yes.”
Porter wrote something down.
“Who is Simone Harris?”
Marcus sat again.
“My father had a daughter before he married my mother.”
Porter waited.
“Simone is her child.”
“Your cousin?”
“My niece technically, depending how you count generations. She’s family.”
“And the closing?”
Marcus looked at the emails.
“My father left me instructions before he died. He had never publicly acknowledged Simone’s mother. He wanted me to correct something.”
“What?”
“He owned a small duplex in Savannah through an old partnership. I transferred his remaining interest to Simone after probate issues were resolved.”
“Why keep it from Vanessa?”
Marcus’s face tightened.
“Because my father asked me to keep it private until Simone was ready.”
Porter nodded.
“So no affair.”
“No.”
“No hidden marital purchase?”
“No. It came from my father’s estate.”
Porter leaned back.
“Can you document that?”
“Every page.”
Marcus stared at Vanessa’s copied emails.
One sentence stood out.
Vanessa doesn’t know. Keep it that way for now.
He understood how it looked.
He also understood something he had resisted.
His habit of secrecy had created empty spaces.
Vanessa had filled those spaces with her worst assumptions.
But then she had done more.
She had turned assumptions into action.
Porter interrupted his thoughts.
“There’s a larger problem.”
Marcus looked up.
“The security video shows Derrick removing company files.”
“Yes.”
“If those files contained Crown Oak vendor records, he may have been trying to destroy evidence.”
Marcus stared.
“And if Vanessa preserved this footage without realizing what it showed…”
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Porter finished the thought.
“She may have just provided the best evidence against her own accomplice.”
