Chapter 6 - THE TWIN IN THE MIRROR
Investigators searched Vanessa’s apartment.
They found two passports.
One identified her as Vanessa Cole.
The other identified her as Veronica Crane.
The birth date matched.
The photographs were almost identical.
Almost.
In one image, a tiny mole appeared near the left eyebrow.
In the other, it appeared near the right.
Mara enlarged security footage from the estate.
Some recordings showed the mole on one side.
Others showed it on the opposite side.
There were two women.
Identical twins.
Vanessa and Veronica Crane.
Elliot Crane was not merely their attorney.
He was their uncle.
Their father, Gregory Cole, recruited wealthy targets.
One sister built the relationship.
The other studied the household, practiced the voice, and appeared when needed.
That explained several moments Daniel had dismissed.
Vanessa forgetting a private joke.
Vanessa suddenly disliking a restaurant she once loved.
Vanessa speaking fluent French one evening and denying it the next.
They had shared the role.
“Which one threw the water?” Daniel asked.
Mara reviewed the recording.
“The woman arrested at the estate has the mole near her right eyebrow.”
“That passport identifies her as Veronica.”
“Where is Vanessa?”
Nobody knew.
Her phone last connected near the wedding venue.
Then it disappeared.
The real bride might still be free.
Mara showed Daniel photographs from the previous marriages.
Vanessa had courted Michael Sutton.
Veronica appeared during the weeks before his collapse.
The sisters created confusion.
If a witness noticed inconsistent behavior, they described the victim as forgetful.
If the husband questioned contradictions, Dr. Voss documented paranoia.
The target became unreliable before the money moved.
Daniel sat beside the fireplace.
“She told me I forgot things.”
I looked at him.
“When?”
“After our trip to Paris.”
“She said I had promised to add her to the foundation account.”
“I said I never did.”
“She cried.”
“Then she asked whether stress was affecting my memory.”
The manipulation had already started.
The wedding night would only make the story official.
Mara received a call.
Her expression changed.
“What happened?”
“Dr. Voss is missing.”
Federal officers had arrived at his clinic.
His office was empty.
One nurse was unconscious.
A patient had been removed from the locked psychiatric wing.
The patient’s name was Andrew Hale.
He was the fourth husband from Claire’s investigation.
The man who disappeared after losing his company.
Security footage showed a blonde woman pushing his wheelchair through a rear exit.
The mole appeared near her left eyebrow.
Vanessa.
She had taken a living witness.
Mara traced the clinic vehicle toward the coast.
A private airfield waited eighty miles away.
Daniel stood.
“I’m going.”
“No,” Mara said.
“She may want you to follow.”
“That man was almost killed because nobody believed him.”
“You cannot help by becoming another hostage.”
Daniel looked toward me.
I wanted to protect him.
I also knew protection could become the same control Vanessa had accused me of using.
“You will follow Mara’s instructions,” I said.
“That is not permission to act recklessly.”
He nodded.
For once, he did not hear my caution as an order.
He heard it as love.
We left for the airfield in separate vehicles.
Halfway there, Rosa called.
Her voice was terrified.
“Mrs. Whitmore.”
“Someone is inside the house.”
The security alarms had not activated.
The caller ID showed the estate landline.
Then another voice took the phone.
My own voice.
Perfectly copied.
May you like
“Daniel,” it said.
“Come home alone.”
