“Claire believed someone was creating false beneficiaries.”
“Why use Emma after Claire died?”
“I don’t know.”
My phone rang.
Sergeant Mercer.
“We obtained authorization to secure the archives room,” she said. “The compartment in the badge cabinet was empty.”
“The photograph showed a folder.”
“I know.”
“Someone removed it.”
“Possibly. But there is something else. The lock on the compartment does not match the brass key Emma found.”
The note had told the truth.
The key was never meant for the cabinet.
“Did you find anything?”
“An indentation in the dust where a folder had been. And a small label stuck behind the drawer.”
“What did it say?”
“C-17.”
The designation meant nothing to me.
Rachel, however, had gone pale.
I ended the call.
“You recognize it.”
She did not answer.
“Rachel.”
“Claire used letters and numbers for storage boxes.”
“What was C-17?”
“I don’t know exactly. After she died, most of her committee papers disappeared.”
“From where?”
