Chapter 7 - The Woman in the Recording
The message came from an unknown number.
Maya stared at it for several seconds.
Then another message appeared.
COME ALONE TO THE MARINA.
Ethan reached for her phone.
“Absolutely not.”
“We need the video.”
“It could be a trap.”
“It probably is.”
Lena read the message.
“Whoever sent this knows about the original recording. We should involve the police.”
“If they wanted police involvement, they would have sent the video to you.”
Maya looked at Ethan.
“Someone has been protecting the evidence for eleven years.”
“Or someone is trying to lure you into the same place your father died.”
Maya said nothing.
Daniel Cross sat in the corner of the conference room, staring at the ledger.
“I know who sent it,” he said.
Everyone turned.
Daniel’s expression was grim.
“Samuel had a personal assistant named Evelyn Park. She worked for him during the last year of his life.”
“Where is she?” Maya asked.
“She disappeared after the accident.”
“Why would she contact me now?”
“Because the people who threatened her are losing control.”
The marina lay south of the city, beneath a sky the color of steel.
Maya arrived in a Northstar security vehicle with Ethan and Lena hidden several yards behind her. Daniel remained at headquarters under protection.
The old dock had been renovated, but Maya recognized the shape of the shoreline.
Her father’s boat had been recovered from the water eleven years earlier.
She remembered the funeral. She remembered Victor Hale standing beside her mother, promising that Northstar would take care of them.
He had lied.
A woman stepped from beneath a covered boat.
She was in her fifties, wearing a brown coat and a knit hat. Her hair was silver at the temples.
“Maya Reed?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“I’m Evelyn Park.”
Maya’s breath caught.
“You worked for my father.”
“I did.”
“Do you have the video?”
Evelyn looked past her.
“Are you alone?”
“No.”
“I know.”
Ethan and Lena stepped into view.
Evelyn flinched, then seemed to decide she no longer had the strength to be afraid.
She removed a small black drive from her coat.
“Your father gave me this the night he died.”
Maya reached for it.
Evelyn pulled it back.
“He told me not to open it unless Victor Hale betrayed him.”
“Why did you wait eleven years?”
“Because I believed Victor had been protecting you.”
Maya’s voice hardened.
“He protected himself.”
Evelyn looked down.
“Your father did not die in an accident.”
“I know.”
“He was alive after the boat was damaged.”
Maya felt the world tilt.
“What?”
“The explosion disabled the engine. Samuel was thrown into the water, but he survived. He climbed onto the dock.”
“Then what happened?”
Evelyn’s fingers tightened around the drive.
“Helena Whitmore was there.”
The wind moved across the river.
“She had hired two men to destroy the boat. They were supposed to frighten Samuel into silence. But the explosion went wrong.”
Maya’s stomach turned.
“Did she kill him?”
“I don’t know. I saw her arguing with him. Victor arrived. Samuel gave Victor the drive and told him to protect the evidence.”
“Then?”
“Victor begged him to leave Chicago. Samuel refused.”
Evelyn looked toward the water.
“One of Helena’s men struck Samuel from behind.”
Maya closed her eyes.
“What did Victor do?”
“He stood there.”
Ethan’s face went pale.
“Why?”
“Because Helena told him she would destroy Northstar and send his family to prison if he went to the police. Victor believed her.”
Maya took the drive.
“Where is the video?”
“On that drive.”
Lena immediately secured it in an evidence bag.
“We’ll examine it at headquarters.”
“No,” Evelyn said. “You need to watch it first.”
Maya looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because the recording contains something you haven’t considered.”
Back at Northstar, Lena played the video on an isolated computer.
The footage came from a security camera mounted near the marina entrance.
The image was grainy but clear enough.
Samuel Reed stood on the dock, shouting at a woman in a green coat.
Helena Whitmore.
Victor arrived seconds later.
Samuel handed him a drive.
Then two men emerged from behind a storage building.
One struck Samuel.
The camera shook as Evelyn ran toward the dock.
Victor stepped backward.
Helena leaned close to him and said something.
The audio was faint.
Lena increased the volume.
“If he lives, your son goes to prison,” Helena said.
Victor looked toward the unconscious Samuel.
Helena continued.
“You choose, Victor.”
The video showed Victor kneeling beside Samuel.
For a moment, it seemed he might help him.
Then Victor stood.
He walked away.
Helena followed.
The recording ended.
Maya stared at the black screen.
Ethan turned toward his father, who had entered the room unnoticed.
“Is that what happened?”
Victor did not deny it.
“I thought Samuel was dead.”
“But you left him there.”
“I was afraid.”
“You left him there!”
Ethan’s voice broke across the room.
Victor looked at Maya.
“I called an ambulance from a pay phone.”
“Why didn’t you stay?”
“Because Helena had taken you from school. She told me she had people watching your mother. She said if I spoke, you would disappear.”
“You should have chosen my father.”
Victor’s eyes filled with tears.
“I know.”
The room was silent.
Then Maya noticed something in the final frame of the video.
Behind Helena stood one of the two men.
His face was partly visible.
Maya zoomed in.
A scar crossed his left cheek.
Lena’s expression changed.
“Who is that?”
Victor looked at the screen.
His voice became a whisper.
“Marcus Vale.”
Ethan frowned.
“Who?”
Victor stared at Maya.
“Northstar’s head of security.”
Maya felt cold spread through her body.
Marcus Vale had been standing outside the conference room during the board meeting.
He had been at the party.
He had been at the old building.
And he had known exactly where the vault was.
Lena grabbed her phone.
“Find him.”
The security system returned one result.
May you like
Marcus Vale had left the building eleven minutes earlier.
His destination was the private airport.
