Chapter 5
Behind the Portrait
Tomas drove them to the restoration barn, where no camera had worked since the winter flood.
"You have eight minutes," he said. "Then I report an electrical fault."
Mira cut the paper backing from her mother's portrait with a palette knife. Inside lay the missing half of the passport page, a balcony maintenance invoice, and one memory card.
Nessa had not hidden proof in a single place. She had hidden a chain.
Elias matched the passport halves while Dr. Shaw photographed the declaration's electronic signature block. Her licensing portal showed the credential token created three days after the supposed examination.
"Backdated," she said. "But someone still needs to connect the token to Hawthorne House."
Tomas removed the memory card from Mira's hand. "The south-balcony cameras went dark for seven minutes. Mrs. Hawthorne made me replace the recorder."
"You kept the old one," Mira said.
"I kept its drive. She kept my daughter under a theft charge."
The barn door opened. Nessa entered without her uniform. She looked at the portrait, then at Mira.
"Mara found Celia practicing your signature. She threatened to tell Owen before the trust vote. Lydia followed her onto the balcony."
Mira set down the knife. "Who fell?"
Nessa's breath caught once.
"Mara," she said. "Your sister died as herself. Lydia decided the trust could not survive another Hawthorne death. So she made you die instead."
Headlights swept across the barn windows.
Tomas checked his phone. The electrical fault had been cleared remotely.
Lydia had arrived four minutes early.