Vera Addison

Vera Addison is the widow of the arsonist Jimmy Addison, living in comfort at the Geoffrey Hotel on the money her husband earned for burning down Silvermane's mansion. She has poured the windfall into fine clothes and rich meals, an upmarket life bought with dangerous money.

When the reporter Robbie Robertson comes asking questions, she tries to shut him out and threatens to scream, relenting only when he points out she would not want the most dangerous man in the city learning how her husband's payment is being spent. She shows no grief at word of Jimmy's death, telling Robbie that he began setting fires six months earlier after discovering a talent for it and that, as far as she is concerned, he dug his own grave. She will not say who hired him.

Vera Addison is still living high at the Geoffrey Hotel on her dead husband's blood money when Ben Reilly comes calling a second time. He presses her on whether Cat Hardy hired Jimmy to burn down Silvermane's mansion, and her reaction tells him what he needs to know. Sensing he means to shield Cat, Vera turns the moment to her advantage, demanding a thousand dollars to keep silent and leave town for good.

Ben pays, and she sets to packing, but the money she takes proves her undoing. Winston and Gio catch sight of her preparations, and Winston beats the truth out of her, learning the detective bought her silence. Hauled to the woods before Silvermane, Vera names Cat as the one who paid Addison the thousand dollars to torch the mansion. The accusation collapses when the marked bills she was paid with turn the crime lord's suspicion onto his own lieutenant instead.