Chapter 7 - Two Sisters, One Identity
Celeste denied having a sister.
Her lawyer denied it too.
Unfortunately for Celeste, birth records did not.
Twenty-eight minutes after Brooks sent the request, Connecticut records produced two birth certificates.
Celeste Marie Crane.
Camille Elise Crane.
Identical twins.
Born six minutes apart.
Adrian sat in the hospital consultation room staring at both documents.
“I lived with her.”
Naomi stood beside the window.
“For how long?”
“Four months.”
“And you never knew?”
“No.”
He looked humiliated.
Naomi did not soften the truth.
“Maybe you lived with both.”
Adrian stared.
The possibility made him physically ill.
Detective Brooks entered.
“You did.”
Adrian stood.
“What?”
Brooks dropped a folder onto the table.
“We checked building security at Celeste’s Manhattan apartment.”
Naomi leaned closer.
“Two women entered separately on multiple occasions.”
“Identical?”
“Very.”
“Same clothes?”
“Sometimes.”
Brooks continued.
“One would enter.”
“Twenty minutes later the other would leave.”
Adrian sank into a chair.
Naomi understood the cruelty of it.
His memories had become evidence.
Every intimate conversation.
Every private promise.
Every night.
He could no longer know which sister had been present.
Brooks turned another page.
“Camille has a record.”
“For what?”
“Fraud.”
“When?”
“Eight years ago.”
“Under her own name?”
“No.”
Brooks looked at them.
“Camille Crane was convicted in Switzerland under the name Elise Martin.”
“What kind of fraud?”
“Identity manipulation.”
Adrian laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“Of course.”
Brooks continued.
“She served fourteen months.”
“Then disappeared after release.”
Naomi thought of the twins moving through the estate.
One creating an alibi.
The other planting evidence.
One being questioned.
The other stealing Samuel Reed’s document.
The entire scheme expanded.
“Which sister tried to kill Evelyn?”
Adrian asked.
Brooks paused.
“We don’t know.”
Naomi answered.
“Celeste.”
Brooks looked at her.
“How can you be sure?”
Naomi remembered the diamond.
The left hand.
A detail.
“She wore the engagement ring.”
“They can exchange rings.”
“Not that morning.”
“Why?”
“Celeste had a small cut beside her left thumbnail from opening champagne two nights before.”
Naomi closed her eyes.
She saw the hand pressing the pillow.
“There was a cut.”
Brooks wrote it down.
Adrian stared at Naomi.
“You notice everything.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“I notice what people assume I won’t.”
Silence followed.
Brooks’s phone vibrated.
She read the message.
“Samuel Reed’s car was found.”
“Where?”
“Norwalk.”
“Samuel?”
“Not in it.”
“Camille?”
“No.”
Naomi’s stomach tightened.
Brooks continued.
“There’s blood on the back seat.”
Adrian stood.
“Whose?”
“Unknown.”
Naomi looked toward Evelyn’s ICU room.
The deadline had become a race.
Find Samuel.
Find the protective schedule.
Stop whoever wanted Evelyn dead.
Before the wedding.
But then Naomi realized something.
“What date is Friday?”
Brooks looked confused.
“August twenty-eighth.”
“No.”
Naomi shook her head.
“What?”
“The legal deadline isn’t necessarily the wedding.”
Adrian looked up.
“You think something else happens Friday.”
Naomi nodded.
“Your engagement agreement.”
Adrian frowned.
“What about it?”
“When does your marriage license become valid?”
He stared.
Brooks understood first.
“Connecticut doesn’t have a waiting period.”
Adrian shook his head.
“We haven’t applied.”
Naomi looked at him.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Did Celeste ever ask for your birth certificate?”
Adrian froze.
Two months earlier, Celeste had told him the wedding planner needed identification copies for an international honeymoon reservation.
He had given her a scanned passport.
Brooks was already moving.
“I’m checking.”
The answer came quickly.
A marriage license application had been filed in Greenwich that morning.
At 8:03 a.m.
Signed electronically.
Adrian Vale.
Celeste Arden.
The signature looked authentic.
Adrian stared.
“I never signed that.”
Brooks nodded.
“It was notarized.”
“By whom?”
Brooks read the name.
“Malcolm Voss.”
Naomi’s stomach twisted.
A marriage license required both parties to appear.
Unless somebody had manipulated records.
Or bribed someone.
Or impersonated Adrian.
Then Brooks found the appointment.
A civil ceremony had been reserved at a private chapel for Friday morning.
10:00 a.m.
Adrian whispered.
“She planned to marry me without telling me?”
Naomi shook her head.
“No.”
“She planned to make you think you were attending something else.”
“How?”
“Wedding rehearsal.”
Adrian stared.
Their private rehearsal had been scheduled Friday morning.
At the estate chapel.
10:00 a.m.
Exactly.
Brooks’s voice became hard.
“Your Saturday wedding may never have been the legal wedding.”
Naomi understood.
Celeste intended Friday’s rehearsal to include enough signatures and officiant language to create a legally binding marriage.
Adrian might not even realize until afterward.
Then if Evelyn died before the protective schedule was filed, Celeste would become Adrian’s lawful spouse.
And gain whatever rights the existing trust allowed.
Adrian stood.
“I want every wedding event canceled.”
Naomi said nothing.
Brooks did.
“Maybe don’t.”
Adrian turned.
“What?”
“If Celeste and Camille think they’re still on schedule, they make fewer changes.”
“You want me to pretend I’m still marrying her?”
“I want them to believe their plan hasn’t completely collapsed.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“Celeste is in a police station.”
“For now.”
“You heard her admit enough.”
“For conspiracy.”
“Attempted murder.”
“We have Evelyn’s statement.”
“Then arrest her.”
“We will.”
Brooks lowered her voice.
“But Camille is missing.”
“Voss is missing.”
“Samuel Reed is missing.”
“The trust document is missing.”
“And somebody inside your family is still helping them.”
Naomi thought of Marcus.
Brooks continued.
“If we move too early, the others scatter.”
Adrian looked toward Naomi.
She knew what he was asking.
Should he play along?
Naomi hated the idea.
Then she remembered Celeste smiling while being escorted away.
“She expects to get out.”
Brooks nodded.
“Her attorney filed for emergency release.”
“Can she?”
“Maybe.”
Adrian turned away.
Naomi thought of Samuel Reed’s missing car.
“Find Samuel first.”
Brooks looked at her.
“We’re trying.”
Naomi walked toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
“Back to the estate.”
“No.”
Naomi looked at her.
“Evelyn told me to find him first.”
Brooks sighed.
“This is not a mystery novel.”
“No.”
Naomi opened the door.
“In mystery novels, the police usually arrive after everything is over.”
Brooks almost smiled.
Then her phone rang.
She answered.
The smile disappeared.
“What?”
Naomi stopped.
Brooks listened.
“When?”
Silence.
“Is he alive?”
Adrian came closer.
Brooks ended the call.
“They found Samuel Reed.”
“Where?”
“In an abandoned greenhouse outside New Canaan.”
Naomi’s pulse accelerated.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Adrian exhaled.
“Can he talk?”
Brooks looked at him.
“He keeps repeating one sentence.”
“What?”
Brooks answered.
“He says Evelyn’s document never existed.”
Naomi stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Brooks nodded.
“Which means either Evelyn lied.”
She paused.
May you like
“Or Samuel Reed is terrified of the person who took it.”
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