Chapter 3
Grace found Mara’s old foundation audit notes.
Not because they were hidden.
Because nobody had looked at them in years.
Three archive boxes sat inside the Cade Foundation’s off-site storage facility.
Mara’s handwriting appeared across dozens of pages.
Vendor renewals.
Program costs.
Grant reviews.
Donor restrictions.
Then:
Vail Protective Group.
Mara had circled six invoices.
The total was almost $1.8 million.
Each claimed to cover emergency-site security and transport during one particularly severe winter.
Mara had written:
Too high.
Another note:
Same vehicles billed across different cities.
Then:
Ask W directly. Do not route through E.
Bramwell read the line again.
“E.”
Grace looked at him.
“Elspeth?”
“Probably.”
“Probably isn’t evidence.”
He nodded.
They kept reading.
Another page:
E says no contact with W except child matters. Records disagree.
Bramwell became still.
Warren and Elspeth shared Julian.
Some contact would have been normal.
Mara apparently believed it went beyond co-parenting.
One invoice listed a subcontractor:
Northline Event Logistics.
Grace searched the company.
It dissolved three years earlier.
Its registered address had been a mailbox.
One officer was an accountant who later worked for Elspeth’s design company.
That did not prove theft.
It created a path worth following.
The ring now made sense as possible evidence that Mara had been investigating the former couple together.
Still, why hide it inside a music box?
Mara had access to lawyers.
Safes.
Vaults.
Bramwell asked the same question.
Grace answered:
“Maybe she didn’t trust the obvious places.”
That bothered him.
The family archive was secure.
His office was secure.
The foundation had counsel.
If Mara hid something in a child’s music box, perhaps she believed ordinary security was part of the problem.
Bramwell checked old correspondence.
Six months before her death, Mara requested an outside review of foundation vendors.
The review never happened.
A note in the board minutes said:
Deferred at chair’s request pending medical leave.
Bramwell frowned.
“Mara didn’t take medical leave then.”
Grace checked.
She had missed two weeks for treatment.
Not enough to explain canceling the review.
“Who submitted the deferral?”
The board secretary.
Elspeth Cade.
At the time, Elspeth Marlowe.
Bramwell read the name twice.
She had not merely volunteered at charity dinners.
She had served as temporary board secretary for eight months.
That gave her access to meeting records.
Vendor discussions.
Mara’s concerns.
And potentially enough procedural authority to delay an audit.
Grace looked at him.
“Now we have something.”
“What?”
“A documented action.”
Elspeth’s role in delaying Mara’s vendor review.
Not murder.
Not theft.
A decision.
One that benefited Warren’s company.
Bramwell called Elspeth through counsel.
She denied wrongdoing.
She admitted serving as secretary.
She admitted Warren’s company held contracts.
She said Mara became suspicious of everyone while dealing with illness.
That statement made Bramwell angrier than an accusation would have.
Grace noticed.
“Don’t respond.”
“She’s blaming Mara.”
“Don’t respond.”
He obeyed.
Then Elspeth’s lawyer added one more statement.
Elspeth had no idea how Warren’s ring entered the music box.
She claimed she had not seen the ring in more than a decade.
Bramwell looked at Grace.
“That can be tested.”
May you like
“Yes.”
And it was.
