The next morning, Naomi's attorney preserved the available camera footage and advised her not to distribute it publicly while the investigation was ongoing.
Brandon's confession was incomplete, but it gave the legal team a new direction.
Rebecca requested records related to the salon appointment, the property filings, and the communications between the companies involved in the proposed development.
She also advised Naomi to avoid meeting Brandon or Brianna alone.
Meanwhile, Claire found a name in Evelyn's old correspondence that neither she nor Miriam had expected to see.
Thomas Bell.
A handwritten note beside his name read:
He knows where the original deed is.
The note was dated five years after Evelyn disappeared.
Claire searched the family papers again and found a second document: an old business card for Bell's law office, with an address in Monterey.
The office had closed years earlier, but a public directory listed Thomas Bell as living in a retirement community outside Santa Cruz.
Rebecca recommended that any contact with him be handled carefully and that no one make threats or promises in exchange for testimony.
Nevertheless, Thomas agreed to meet them.
He was eighty-three, thin, and walked with a cane. His eyes were sharp, but his hands trembled as he examined the photograph of Parker House.
"I wondered when someone would finally come looking," he said.
Miriam leaned forward.
"Why did you sign that document?"
Thomas looked at her.
"Because I was afraid."
"Of whom?"
He glanced toward the window.
"Your father had borrowed money from people he shouldn't have trusted. When he died, the debt didn't disappear. Evelyn discovered that some of the property records had been altered to conceal the obligations."
Miriam shook her head.
"My father would never have willingly stolen from us."
"I didn't say he stole anything. I said he was in debt."
Thomas explained that he had been pressured to prepare documents that would make it appear the family had transferred its interests in Parker House. He claimed he had refused to finalize the transfer, but copies of the preliminary paperwork had disappeared from his office.
"Then why did your name appear on the later affidavit?" Naomi asked.
"Because someone copied my signature from an earlier document."
"Who?"
"I never knew for certain."
Rebecca asked him to describe what he remembered, making it clear that his recollections would need to be checked against independent evidence.
Thomas described a man who had visited his office shortly before Evelyn vanished.
The man introduced himself as a representative of a private investment group. He had offered to settle the outstanding debt in exchange for assistance with the property records.
Thomas refused.
Several days later, Evelyn disappeared.
"I thought she had run away," Thomas admitted. "Then I received a letter telling me to stop asking questions."
"Who sent it?" Claire asked.
"I never saw the original envelope. It was left at my office."
Thomas opened a drawer beside his chair and removed a small notebook.
"I kept a record of the people who contacted me. I was afraid that one day someone would accuse me of helping them."
Rebecca reviewed the notebook and identified several dates and company names that could be independently verified.
One company stood out.
Vale Urban Development.
It had been dissolved years earlier, but its former registered director was listed as a man named Richard Vale.
Brianna's father.
Naomi felt her pulse quicken.
"Was Richard Vale involved in my grandmother's property?"
Thomas nodded slowly.
"He was the investor who wanted control of Parker House."
"And Brianna inherited his business?"
"Not exactly. She inherited his contacts, his records, and his ambitions."
Thomas explained that Richard Vale had spent years attempting to acquire distressed properties throughout California. Parker House had been particularly valuable because its location made it suitable for redevelopment.
But the family ownership structure complicated any sale.
Evelyn had discovered that the original trust protected the property from being transferred without the consent of all legitimate beneficiaries.
That meant a forged document would not necessarily erase their rights.
"Where is the original trust?" Naomi asked.
Thomas closed his eyes.
"I don't know where it is now."
"Who last had it?"
"Your grandmother."
Miriam suddenly remembered something.
After her mother's funeral, she had found a small brass key inside a sewing box. She had kept it for years, believing it belonged to an old cabinet.
She hurried home and returned with the key.
Thomas examined it.
Then his expression changed.
"That belongs to a safe-deposit box."
"Which bank?" Rebecca asked.
Thomas gave them the name of a bank that had merged with another institution decades earlier.
The following day, Rebecca contacted the successor institution to determine whether the box could be located and whether the family had the legal authority to access it.
The process required identity verification, proof of inheritance, and a review of the relevant estate records.
For several days, Naomi waited anxiously.
Then the bank confirmed that the box still existed.
Inside, they found old family photographs, tax records, letters, and a sealed envelope containing a certified copy of the original trust instrument.
The document identified Miriam and Evelyn as beneficiaries and established conditions governing any sale or transfer of Parker House.
It also named a third beneficiary.
A child born to Evelyn.
Claire stared at the page.
"My mother told me I had no claim to Parker House."
Miriam shook her head.
"Maybe she was trying to protect you."
The trust did not automatically settle every question of ownership, but it gave Rebecca a crucial document to examine alongside the title records.
Then Naomi noticed a final page.
It contained a handwritten amendment, signed and dated years after the original trust was created.
The amendment referred to a confidential settlement involving Richard Vale.
But the beneficiary's name had been covered by a strip of old adhesive tape.
Rebecca carefully documented the page.
"We need a qualified specialist to examine this. We cannot assume what was written beneath the tape."
Naomi looked at Claire.
"Do you think it names someone else?"
Claire swallowed.
"I think my mother knew more about the trust than she ever told me."
Before they could investigate further, Daniel called.
Brandon had contacted him with an offer.
He was willing to provide internal company records showing how the disputed property documents had been prepared.
But he wanted protection from Brianna.
Rebecca immediately made clear that any cooperation would need to occur through lawful channels and that Brandon would remain responsible for his own actions.
Naomi was not ready to forgive him.
Still, she agreed that the records should be preserved.
Because the truth was becoming clearer.
Richard Vale had wanted Parker House thirty years earlier.
Brandon and Brianna were now attempting to gain control of it.
And someone had spent decades making sure the Parker family never discovered why the property mattered so much.
The next morning, a courier delivered a letter to Rebecca's office.
It contained no return address.
Inside was a photograph of Evelyn standing beside Richard Vale.
On the back were the words:
The woman you are searching for was never the real target.
Beneath that sentence was another.
Ask who inherited the money.
