The Sister's Visit

The empty drawer gaped at Elena like a missing tooth. The false bottom wasn't just lifted; it was splintered, pried open with something sharp.

Someone had known exactly where to look.

She heard the front door chime. The electronic beep echoed through the silent office, followed by the heavy *thud* of the glass door closing.

"Hello? Earth to Elena?"

Bella.

Elena slammed the drawer shut. She shoved the stack of printed evidence under her desk blotter, her heart hammering a frantic rhythm against her ribs. She smoothed her hair, checked her reflection in the dark monitor of her computer, and forced her face into a mask of annoyed sisterly patience.

"In here," she called out.

Bella breezed into the office. She was wearing a vintage slip dress over a t-shirt, combat boots, and a oversized cardigan that looked like it cost more than Elena’s car. She looked chaotic, artistic, and entirely harmless.

"God, it smells like toner and despair in here," Bella said, wrinkling her nose. She dropped her canvas tote bag onto the visitor chair. "Do you ever open a window?"

"The windows don't open, Bella. It's a climate-controlled building."

"Ugh. Corporate prison." Bella wandered over to the bookshelf, running a finger along the spines of the tax code manuals. "So, did Mom call you? Is the money on its way?"

"I told you, Bella. Not until the first."

Bella turned, her eyes wide and wet. The tears were instant, a faucet she could turn on at will. "You're ruining this for me, El. You really are. It's like you want me to fail so you can keep being the Perfect One."

She moved toward the desk, her movements jerky and uncoordinated. She bumped into a stack of blueprints, sending them cascading to the floor.

"Oops. Sorry. I'm just so... upset."

"Leave it," Elena said sharply. "I'll get it."

"No, no, I'll help." Bella bent down, gathering the papers. She was close to the desk. Too close. "I'm not useless, you know. I can pick up paper."

Elena watched her. Bella was shuffling the blueprints, her hands fluttering. But her eyes weren't on the floor.

They were darting to the side. Toward the bottom drawer.

"Did Mark tell you where the backups were?" Elena asked.

Bella froze. She was mid-crouch, holding a roll of schematics. She looked up, her expression a perfect mask of confusion.

"What backups?"

"The hard drives," Elena said, her voice steady. "The ones from the bottom drawer. The ones that were there yesterday."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Bella said, standing up. She dumped the blueprints onto the desk in a messy pile. "Why would I want your boring hard drives? Unless they have, like, secret Bitcoin on them."

She laughed, a brittle, high-pitched sound.

"You seem nervous, Bella."

"I'm not nervous! I'm broke!" Bella threw her hands up. "And my sister is gaslighting me about computer parts instead of helping me achieve my dreams."

She grabbed her tote bag. "I'm leaving. I'm going to tell Mark you're being mean to me. He actually listens."

She spun on her heel and marched out of the office.

Elena waited until she heard the front door beep again. Then she moved to the window. She watched Bella cross the parking lot.

Bella didn't walk like a distraught artist. She walked quickly, purposefully. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and typed something fast.

Then she stopped at her car. A beat-up Volkswagen Jetta that she claimed was "vintage."

She opened the trunk. She moved something from her tote bag into the cargo space. It was a small, rectangular object. Heavy.

Elena grabbed her binoculars from the windowsill—she used them to inspect the roofline of the warehouse across the street. She focused on Bella's car.

Bella was adjusting something in the trunk. The light caught the object for a split second.

It was a silver hard drive. The Seagate 4TB she used for the forensic backups.

Elena lowered the binoculars. Bella hadn't just come to beg for money. She had come to sanitize the crime scene.

She watched her sister get into the car. Bella checked her makeup in the rearview mirror. Then she looked up.

Straight at Elena's window.

When Bella thought Elena wasn't looking, her eyes weren't vacant. They were sharp, scanning the invoice on the desk.