Chapter 5
The apartment still existed.
Someone else lived there now.
The old leasing company retained records.
Natalie had paid a security deposit and first month’s rent.
Then, two days after she disappeared, someone emailed the landlord canceling the lease.
The cancellation message said:
Personal circumstances have changed. I will be leaving Illinois permanently. Please retain the deposit.
The message came from Natalie’s email address.
Digital records later showed the account was accessed from a device already known to investigators.
The Moretti estate office.
Cassandro looked at Claire.
“When?”
“Eleven forty-eight p.m.”
“Two days after she disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“Was Natalie anywhere near the estate?”
“No evidence.”
Her phone had already stopped connecting to Illinois towers.
Maya found more.
The $3.4 million project transfers did not disappear.
Most paid legitimate contractors.
But approximately $910,000 went through inflated change orders.
The excess flowed to a consulting entity connected to Damian.
Not directly owned by him.
Connected.
Maya was careful.
The entity, Lakeshore Project Advisory, was managed by Damian’s longtime business partner.
It paid Damian’s company for “project recovery services.”
Those fees totaled $620,000.
Cassandro stared at the page.
“Why inflate invoices instead of paying Damian openly?”
“Good question.”
Maya continued.
Damian’s company had a cash-flow problem at the time.
A private loan was approaching default.
The extra payments stabilized it.
Again.
Motive.
Not full proof.
Vivienne had also benefited indirectly.
She had personally guaranteed a line of credit for Damian’s company years earlier.
If Damian defaulted, she faced substantial exposure.
Cassandro had not known.
They were siblings.
They had hidden the problem together.
That explained why Natalie’s accusations threatened both.
Still, Cassandro refused the simple story.
Financial motive did not automatically explain disappearance.
Claire approved of the caution.
Then Sandra Wilkes, Natalie’s old family lawyer, found a handwritten note in her archived file.
Natalie had written it during their second meeting.
If something happens with Damian, I want Audrey nowhere near the business.
Sandra had asked what that meant.
Natalie refused to elaborate.
“Did she seem frightened?”
“Yes.”
“Of me?”
Sandra hesitated.
“Partly.”
Cassandro absorbed that.
He would not rewrite himself as harmless just because others had done worse.
Natalie had been afraid of what his world could become if she accused one of his associates of stealing.
Maybe she feared Damian.
Maybe Vivienne.
Maybe Cassandro’s reaction.
All three could be true.
Then Sandra remembered one final detail.
Natalie called her the morning she disappeared.
“She said she had proof.”
“Of the project transfers?”
“She didn’t specify.”
“What did she want?”
“To meet that evening.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Sandra’s face tightened.
“At four nineteen, I received an email saying she had changed her mind and was leaving the state.”
Again.
Natalie’s email.
Again.
After she had already left the estate.
Again.
A message canceling something she had planned before confronting Damian and Vivienne.
Cassandro looked toward Claire.
May you like
Someone had not simply wanted Natalie gone.
Someone had spent time cleaning up the future she had intended to return to.
