The Guest List of the Dead
Chapter 03 - The Guest List of the Dead
Ortiz ordered the ballroom guest list preserved.
Each name carried a donation number, seating assignment, and digital identity code.
Eighteen codes matched children who had supposedly died while in foster care.
Yet the Haven Trust had continued paying tuition, therapy, food, and housing under those names for years.
The dead children were profitable.
One name was Nora Bennett.
Evelyn’s sister.
Nora vanished at age six during a crowded waterfront festival. Three months later, police declared her presumed dead after finding her red coat near the river.
Catherine never accepted the conclusion.
She created Haven to search for children lost inside damaged records.
Mason had told Evelyn the investigation proved Catherine could not let go.
Now Nora’s identity had received more than four million dollars in “specialized residential care.”
The payments went to Crowe Family Services.
Robert stared at the page.
“I approved the early contracts.”
Evelyn turned toward him.
Robert had been police commissioner when Nora disappeared. After leaving public service, he built Sentinel and became wealthy protecting banks, hospitals, and government buildings.
He had allowed Crowe Family Services access to Haven because Victor promised advanced search technology.
“Did you know they used her name?”
“No.”
“You stopped checking.”
Robert did not defend himself.
“Yes.”
Across the ballroom, a young server dropped a tray.
The sound echoed.
She was about twenty-eight, with dark hair and a crescent-shaped scar beneath her left ear.
Evelyn remembered the scar from childhood.
Nora had received it after falling from a bicycle.
The server looked toward the exits.
Mason saw her too.
“Security,” he shouted. “That woman stole donor files.”
The server stepped behind Robert’s officers.
“My name is Rachel Stone,” she said.
Then she looked at Evelyn.
“But Catherine Bennett called me Nora.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Evelyn took one step forward.
Nora raised both hands.
“Please don’t come closer yet.”
Evelyn stopped.
May you like
For twenty-two years, everyone had told her the sister she remembered belonged to grief.
Now grief was asking for distance in a crowded ballroom.
