Chapter 4: The Woman Wearing Victoria’s Name
For several seconds, Victoria Hart couldn't hear anything except the low hum of her refrigerator.
“My identification badge?”” she repeated.
General Samuel Reeves sounded older than she remembered.
“That's what the photograph shows.””
“Then the photograph is wrong.””
“I thought you'd say that.””
“Samuel, I was stationed in Germany when Claire Donovan disappeared. My personnel records will prove it.””
“I know. But someone used your credentials to access the Prescott Foundation's logistics records three days before she vanished. Your identification number appears on the authorization.””
Victoria stared at the laptop. The memory card lay inside its evidence sleeve beside her notebook, looking absurdly small for something that had just turned her life upside down.
“Did you examine the original photograph?”” she asked.
“Yes. It's in the sealed file.””
“Who took it?””
“We don't know. The timestamp is 11:32 p.m. on October seventeenth. The location appears to be the eastern shore of Lake Mercer.””
Rachel Donovan pressed both hands against her mouth.
“That's where Claire disappeared.””
Victoria closed her eyes briefly.
Lake Mercer was a private property outside the town of Briar Glen, Pennsylvania. The Prescott family had purchased the estate decades earlier, ostensibly as a retreat for corporate guests and charitable donors.
She had never visited it.
Yet someone had apparently wanted investigators to believe she had.
“Samuel, don't circulate that photograph,” Victoria said.
“Not until we establish whether it's authentic.””
“Too late. Someone requested a review of your service record this morning.””
“Who?””
“A civilian attorney representing the Prescott family.””
Victoria's expression hardened.
“Margaret is preparing her defense before anyone has accused her of anything.””
“Or she's making sure you're too busy defending yourself to investigate her.””
Victoria glanced at Emily.
Her niece sat motionless, still struggling with the claim that her signature appeared in a police file.
“Samuel, preserve everything. Don't confront anyone. I'll contact you through the secure channel.””
After ending the call, Victoria locked her phone.
Emily stood beside the kitchen table.
“They forged my signature?””
“That's one possibility.””
“You don't believe me?””
Victoria turned toward her.
“I believe you didn't sign a statement about a woman you had never met. But I won't tell you how they did it until we have evidence.””
Emily's eyes filled with tears.
“They've been doing this for years, haven't they? Making people doubt themselves until they stop asking questions.””
Rachel reached across the table and took Emily's hand.
“That's what happened to Claire.””
Victoria opened her notebook.
“Then we stop playing their game.””
She wrote three names on a fresh page: Margaret Prescott, Ethan Prescott, Daniel Prescott.
Beside her own name, she wrote a question mark.
The next morning, Victoria drove to a secure office maintained by a former military colleague. She brought the copied audio files, the photograph of the brass key, and a written account of everything Samuel had told her.
Emily and Rachel stayed behind with instructions not to contact the Prescotts.
At 9:15 a.m., Victoria sat across from Samuel in a windowless conference room.
He placed a printed photograph on the table.
It showed a woman standing beside Claire near the lake. The woman wore a dark coat, her face partially obscured by a scarf. A rectangular military identification badge hung near her collar.
The badge bore Victoria's identification number.
But the woman's left hand was visible.
Victoria leaned closer.
A thick gold ring sat on the middle finger, engraved with a tiny eagle.
“I've never owned that ring,” Victoria said.
Samuel nodded.
“I checked your service photographs. You were wearing your father's silver watch on that date. The woman in this picture has neither the watch nor your usual insignia placement.””
“So someone dressed to resemble me.””
“Or someone had access to your identification and wanted investigators to connect you to the scene.””
Victoria examined the background.
Behind the two women stood a stone boathouse. Its upper windows were dark, and a narrow service road curved behind the building.
She pointed to a small object near the doorway.
“Enlarge that.””
Samuel used his laptop to magnify the image.
A vehicle registration plate emerged from the shadows.
The image was grainy, but enough characters were visible to identify the vehicle as belonging to Prescott Holdings.
“Whose car?”” Victoria asked.
“Registered to Margaret Prescott's personal office.””
Victoria sat back.
“Then the person wearing my badge may have been working for Margaret.””
“Or someone wants us to think so.””
Samuel handed her another sheet.
It contained a photocopy of a witness statement dated October 18, 2020. The signature at the bottom read Emily Prescott.
The statement claimed that Emily had seen Claire enter a vehicle with an unidentified woman at 11:40 p.m. on the night of her disappearance.
Victoria read it twice.
“Emily was in college in Boston that week,” she said.
“Her university records confirm that she attended an examination the following morning.””
“Can we verify where she was at 11:40 p.m.?””
“Not conclusively. Her phone location records weren't preserved.””
Victoria looked at the signature.
It was convincing enough to fool someone who didn't know Emily's handwriting.
But something else bothered her.
The statement referred to Claire as “Mrs. Donovan-Prescott.””
Victoria circled the phrase.
“Was Claire ever legally married to Ethan?””
“That's unclear. The Prescott family claimed they were married in a private ceremony. We found no publicly accessible marriage certificate.””
“Yet the statement uses a hyphenated surname.””
Samuel nodded slowly.
“Someone wanted the witness statement to establish a relationship between Claire and Ethan.””
“Someone wanted to create an official-looking story in which Emily witnessed Claire leaving voluntarily.””
Victoria slid the papers into a folder.
“And if Emily's signature was forged, whoever did it needed access to documents containing her handwriting.””
“Which means someone close to her.””
Victoria thought of Margaret's locked cabinet, Ethan's study, and the box of photographs that had disappeared into a fireplace.
“Or someone who had been collecting her records for years.””
Her phone vibrated.
A message from Emily appeared.
*Margaret just called. She says she wants to make peace. She invited me to lunch at the Prescott estate.*
Victoria typed a reply.
*Don't go alone.*
Emily answered almost immediately.
*She says you aren't invited.*
Victoria called her.
“Emily, listen carefully. You don't have to accept that invitation.””
“I know.””
“Then why are you considering it?””
“Because Margaret mentioned Claire.””
Victoria went still.
“What did she say?””
Emily's voice trembled.
“She said she could explain everything, but only if I came without you. She also said she had something that belonged to my mother.””
Victoria frowned.
Emily's mother, Laura Hart, had died when Emily was sixteen. She had been Victoria's younger sister and a fiercely private woman who rarely discussed her years working in charitable administration.
“What could Margaret possibly have that belonged to Laura?””
“I don't know.””
“Emily, this could be a trap.””
“I know that, too.””
Victoria heard a door close on Emily's end.
Then Emily whispered, “Aunt Victoria, there's something I haven't told you.””
“What is it?””
“When I was a child, my mother used to receive letters from a woman named Claire.””
Victoria's pulse quickened.
“Why didn't you tell me this last night?””
“Because I didn't remember until Margaret mentioned my mother. I thought those letters were from one of her old charity friends.””
“Where are they?””
“Somewhere in my mother's storage boxes. I haven't looked through them in years.””
Victoria rose from her chair.
“Don't go to the estate. I'll come to you, and we'll find those letters together.””
Emily hesitated.
Then she said, “It's too late.””
Victoria heard a car door slam through the phone.
“Emily?””
“My driver is here. Margaret sent him.””
“Tell him to leave.””
“He says Margaret will be waiting.””
“Emily, do not get into that car.””
A moment of silence followed.
Then Emily whispered, “Aunt Victoria, I think I need to find out what my mother knew.””
The call ended.
Victoria stared at her phone.
Samuel was already standing.
“Where is she going?””
“Lake Mercer.””
He reached for his coat.
“Then we'd better get there first.””
But before they reached the door, Victoria received a photograph from an unknown number.
It showed Emily standing beside a black SUV.
Behind her was the stone boathouse from the photograph of Claire.
May you like
And beneath the image was a single message.
*Ask Laura Hart why she helped Margaret Prescott make a woman disappear.*
