Chapter 9 - The Dead Woman Speaks The next morning, a video appeared online.
Claire was sitting in front of a white wall.
Alive.
She looked directly into the camera.
"My brother Daniel has been harassing me."
Noah watched the video.
His face became pale.
"That's not Mom."
The video continued.
"I left because I was afraid of him."
I replayed it.
Something was wrong.
The eyes were Claire's.
The voice was Claire's.
But the rhythm wasn't.
Claire always rushed when she was nervous.
This woman didn't.
Ruiz sent the footage to a forensic analyst.
Two hours later, the answer came.
The video was fake.
Face replacement.
Synthetic voice layers.
But the background was real.
The analyst enhanced a reflection in a television screen behind Claire.
In it stood a woman holding the camera.
Vanessa.
Behind her was a wall of photographs.
A place I recognized.
Her mother's condo on Harbor Street.
Ruiz obtained a warrant.
Police arrived.
Vanessa was gone.
But she had left behind wigs.
A green screen.
Voice recordings.
Claire's passport.
And a laptop.
Inside were folders labeled:
DANIEL.
NOAH.
BOARD.
BANK.
There were scripts.
Emails.
Fake messages.
Even a draft statement scheduled for the following week.
Daniel Carter is unstable.
I stared at the screen.
Then I realized something.
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Vanessa hadn't simply been impersonating Claire.
She had been preparing to destroy me.
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