The Woman Across the Street
Chapter 07 - The Woman Across the Street
Claire moved Lily toward the kitchen.
Across the rain-soaked street, an abandoned laundromat stood dark.
One upper window reflected a faint red light.
Detective Ortiz entered through the rear alley with officers.
They found Evelyn inside the laundromat basement.
She was weak, feverish, and hiding behind broken machines.
Lily ran to her.
Evelyn held her daughter as though letting go would erase her.
Madeline stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
Her sister looked older than forty.
Years of forced medication had damaged her kidneys and caused tremors in both hands.
“You came,” Evelyn said.
“I should have come ten years ago.”
“Yes.”
Madeline did not ask her to soften the answer.
Evelyn explained that Richard Vale, not Victor, controlled the operation after Harrison died.
Victor was a lawyer and fixer.
Richard controlled the board, Green Hollow, and the pension shell companies.
Harrison ordered Evelyn confined because exposure would destroy Crosswell.
Richard expanded the network.
He used stolen pension money to purchase distressed properties, including the land beneath Miller’s Diner.
The diner’s lease expired in three days.
Richard planned to demolish it.
He knew the evidence was hidden somewhere inside.
Evelyn also revealed a final condition in the original Crosswell charter.
If proven fraud harmed employee pensions, voting control transferred to an employee restitution trust.
The trust administrator was Samuel Miller.
But Samuel was dead.
Ruth shook her head.
“My son died in prison.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“No. The man buried under his name was another inmate.”
Samuel had been transferred from prison to a federal witness program after agreeing to testify.
The transfer convoy was attacked.
Officials declared him dead to protect him.
Evelyn had seen him at Green Hollow two years earlier.
May you like
He was still alive then.
Richard held him because Samuel was the only person who could activate the restitution trust.
