Chapter 3 - I had already found one clue
My answer to Delphine—
“You think you’re the only one who knows that place?”
—was not a bluff.
Three weeks before the hotel party, my company had uncovered a strange recurring vendor payment.
Not through my criminal businesses.
Through Graves Hospitality.
Vendor:
North Vale Executive Recovery Services
Monthly charge:
$18,400.
Sometimes higher.
Description:
Long-term executive rehabilitation and confidential residential care.
Patient name?
Redacted from standard corporate invoice.
Cost center?
A closed hotel subsidiary.
Authorization trail?
Originally approved by someone named:
Eleanor Cross.
Delphine’s mother.
Eleanor had died the previous year.
Why would a hotel subsidiary pay for private rehabilitation?
My finance team began digging.
Then someone tried to delete the old records.
That got my attention.
The vendor existed.
Legitimate private medical rehabilitation network.
Three locations.
One in New Hampshire.
One in Maine.
One in western Massachusetts.
Then we found a four-year payment history.
Starting:
Six days after Vivienne disappeared.
I had told Caleb:
“Do not contact the facility yet.”
Why?
Because I did not know whether:
Vivienne was there.
Someone else was there.
Or the invoice was camouflage.
I wanted evidence before noise.
May you like
Then Delphine spoke to Rosie.
Now I knew the clue had a human connection.
