Chapter 5 - THE TORN SUITCASE
Clara’s suitcase had not been packed by a maid.
It had been searched.
She realized that when the estate returned it through Samuel’s office.
The lining had been cut exactly where Clara hid the envelope.
But the envelope had survived because she moved it before the confrontation.
Whoever searched the case expected evidence.
What were they looking for?
Samuel’s investigator found the answer in a missing item.
Clara’s mother’s silver compact.
Not valuable.
Sentimental.
Inside it, Clara had hidden a microSD card.
She had forgotten about it.
The card was gone.
“What was on it?” Samuel asked.
Clara thought.
Then remembered.
Three months earlier, she had copied financial reports from the estate accountant’s laptop after the accountant told her certain charitable expenses were “not what they seemed.”
The files showed transfers from Ashford Foundation grants into consulting companies.
One company:
Vaughn Strategic Outreach.
Owned by Amelia Vaughn’s brother.
Another:
M.A. Heritage Advisory.
Owned by Maribel Ashford.
Total over four years:
$3.6 million.
Clara had not yet determined whether the payments were illegal.
Some might have represented real work.
But the conflicts had not been disclosed to the foundation board.
Edmund’s affair was not the only thing hidden.
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The people framing Clara were also protecting money.
And someone inside the estate knew she had copied the files.
