UP IN FLAMES

“Yikes.” Chloe raised her hands up in the classic gesture of defeat. “You win. I’ll show you where he kept all his private, top-secret files. I know where he kept the key.”

Finally, they were getting somewhere. Chloe led the way into Christopher’s office, opening his middle desk drawer and retrieving a full key ring. “It’s one of these,” she said, turning to the back wall and removing a large, framed picture that concealed a safe. Instead of a keypad, it had an inset lock.

Chloe began trying keys. Her fourth attempt turned out to be the right one.

“Here we are,” she said, opening it. Once she had, she stepped back, allowing Vanessa to see the inside.

Instead of stacks of cash, there were several large envelopes and folders, stuffed with papers. Vanessa moved forward, half-afraid of what she’d find.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Chloe told her, backing out and closing the door behind her.

Vanessa transferred everything from the safe to the desktop, then she pulled up a chair. As she’d suspected, the first folder was full of financial records. Clearly, Christopher maintained several bank accounts. The recorded balance of them made her stomach churn. No way he could have amassed this much money so quickly. There was more than enough to pay back the missing three million dollars-assuming she could gain access to the accounts. From what she vaguely remembered reading about such things, doing so would be difficult, if not impossible if Christopher hadn’t put her name on them.

Judging by these records, he had not. She would have to go through the long, tedious court process before she could touch any of that money. There wasn’t enough time for that. Replacing the bank records in the envelope, she moved on to the next folder. When she slid it toward her, she realized an old-fashioned photo album was underneath.

Intrigued, she decided to check that out first. It had to be old, since people rarely printed out photos these days, preferring to store them in the cloud or on CDs. As far as she knew, Christopher hadn’t been any different.

With the exception of their wedding pictures, which they kept in a glossy white album similar to this one.

Maybe Christopher had printed extras, though why he’d keep them in a safe, she couldn’t fathom.

Slowly, she opened the album. An enlarged photograph of Christopher decorated the first page. But instead of her, Christopher had his arm around some man’s shoulders.

Both of them beamed at the camera, eternally young and clearly, blissfully happy. Christopher appeared to be in his late twenties or early thirties at the time it was taken, which made it around ten years old. Studying the picture, she wondered. She thought she knew most of Christopher’s friends, even the ones he’d known since childhood. And she was familiar with his business associates. This man in the photo was none of these. She didn’t recognize him. That didn’t mean much-he could have been an old friend who’d dropped out of Christopher’s life long before she entered it.

Carefully, she removed the photo, hoping she might see names and a date written on the back. But the back was completely blank. Once she’d replaced the picture under the clear plastic, she turned the page. More photos of Christopher and his friend, arm in arm, gazing into each other’s eyes, and finally, embracing. Love and adoration showed in both men’s expressions. Some of the pics were reminiscent of staged wedding photographs. It dawned on her that maybe, just maybe, this man wasn’t merely Christopher’s platonic friend. Clearly, they were much, much more to each other.

She got up, carrying the photo album, and walked to the door and out into the hall, making a beeline for Chloe’s office, where Chloe sat working on something at her desk. Vanessa slid the photo album across the desk.

“Who is this?” she asked

Chloe paled. “I’m not sure,” she hedged, swallowing hard. “Come on, Chloe. Tell me.”

Looking away, Chloe appeared to be considering. When she finally met Vanessa’s gaze, resignation mingled with pity in her expression.

“That’s Chris,” Chloe said. “The man Christopher truly loved.”

——-

Alaric and Paul had been talking for a while before Alaric left him and went inside to grab them more beers. The house felt strangely silent and empty. He called for Vanessa, looking around the entire downstairs before deciding to check out the rest of the house. He noted no signs of forced entry and nothing to indicate a disturbance.

Taking the stairs two at a time, he pushed back the awful sense of foreboding prickling at the back of his neck. “Vanessa?” he called. “Where are you?”

Nothing but silence answered him.

Damn it. Not finding her in any of the rooms, he ran downstairs and started to rush outside to get Paul. A folded slip of paper on the kitchen counter caught his eye. He snatched it up and read it, cursing under his breath.

She’d gone to meet Chloe for lunch. Alone.

He stood still for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts and calm his racing heart. As far as he could tell, while Chloe might be annoying, she wasn’t dangerous. But the fact that Vanessa had blithely gone into town, unprotected and exposed, worried the hell out of him. He knew if anything happened to her while she was out there, it would be on him.

He nearly jumped when his phone rang. Seeing Vanessa’s name on the caller ID brought an interesting combination of relief and rage.

“Where are you?” he demanded when he answered, not even bothering to say hello.

“I’m at Christopher’s office downtown, with Chloe ,” she replied, her voice vibrating with barely suppressed excitement. “I found out who Chris is.”

“Chris?” For a moment, he didn’t make the connection. “You mean the Chris that was on the prenup we found?”

“Exactly!”

Intrigued, he waited for her to explain. When she didn’t, he prodded her. “Well? Are you going to tell me who she is?”

“That’s just it. Chris isn’t a ‘she.’ Chris is a man. And judging by the photo album I found, he and Christopher were deeply in love.”

It took a moment for her words to sink in. “Christopher was gay?” he asked,