We left Claire's office through the service elevator.
Nobody trusted the main entrance anymore.
Dad wouldn't speak.
I sat beside him in the back seat while Adrian drove.
Samuel followed in his own car.
Finally I asked, “How well did you know Daniel Hale?”
Dad stared through the windshield.
“Too well.”
“That's not an answer.”
“He was my closest friend.”
“And Victor?”
“His father.”
“So you knew the family.”
“Yes.”
“Were you involved with them?”
Dad shook his head.
“Not willingly.”
“Again, that's not an answer.”
He exhaled.
“Your grandfather introduced us.”
“When?”
“Before I met your mother.”
I waited.
“Daniel and I were supposed to build the property business together.”
“But you didn't.”
“I left.”
“Why?”
“Because I found the first fraudulent transfer.”
I looked at him.
“You walked away.”
“I tried.”
“Then Mom got involved.”
“Yes.”
“And Marlene?”
“She stayed.”
The story was finally beginning to make sense.
Marlene had been caught between two families.
Mom wanted restitution.
Dad wanted distance.
Daniel wanted control.
Victor wanted profit.
And somewhere beneath all of it was a trust account that had been moving money for eleven years.
But one question remained.
“Why did Daniel disappear?”
Dad looked at Adrian.
Adrian answered.
“Because Eleanor accused him of threatening her.”
I stared at him.
“Did he?”
“No one knows.”
Dad spoke.
“I know.”
We reached the house.
Dad unlocked the door.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
Then he noticed the recorder was gone.
I searched the desk.
The second cassette remained.
The first was missing.
Someone had taken only the recording containing Marlene's voice.
“Why that one?”
Dad looked at me.
“Because it proves she knew.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
He frowned.
“It proves she knew something.”
“Exactly.”
I played the remaining cassette.
Mom's voice filled the room.
“If I don't return, the person who knows the whole story is not Thomas.”
I looked at Dad.
Mom continued.
“It's Marlene.”
The recording stopped.
I sat down.
“Then we find her.”
Adrian nodded.
The hotel registration gave us a starting point.
We drove there.
Marlene had checked out.
The room had been cleaned.
But the manager remembered her.
“She left a package.”
“For whom?”
“For a woman named Mara.”
My heart pounded.
The manager handed me a small cardboard box.
Inside was a photograph.
Mom stood beside Marlene outside the old courthouse.
On the back was a date.
The day before Mom died.
There was also a key.
Not brass.
Steel.
Stamped 17.
And a handwritten note.
The courthouse basement.
We went there after midnight.
The old courthouse was closed, but Adrian found an unlocked service entrance.
The basement smelled of wet stone.
We followed the corridor to a records room.
There was one metal cabinet.
Number 17.
I inserted the key.
Inside was a folder.
Marlene's confession.
She had written twenty-three pages.
She admitted helping Grandfather establish the property companies.
She admitted knowing the Ellis transfer was improper.
She admitted hiding the original records.
But she also revealed something else.
Daniel Hale had never been Victor's son.
He was Victor's younger brother.
The man we had believed was Daniel's son was actually Daniel himself.
He had been using his father's identity after Victor died.
I stared at the page.
Dad read over my shoulder.
“Why?”
“To keep control of the trust.”
The final pages described the night Mom died.
Daniel had come to the hospital.
He had demanded the deed.
Mom refused.
Marlene intervened.
Dad arrived.
There had been an argument.
Then Daniel left.
Mom survived that night.
She died the next morning from complications unrelated to the confrontation.
But before she died, she told Marlene where the deed was.
I closed the folder.
“Then Victor didn't kill her.”
“No,” Dad said.
“But he threatened her.”
“Yes.”
“And Daniel continued the scheme.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did Marlene disappear?”
Dad looked at the final page.
She had written the answer.
I am going away because Daniel believes I still have the ledger.
I don't.
The ledger was given to Samuel.
I looked at Samuel.
He nodded.
“But you gave it to Victor.”
“I gave him a copy.”
My eyes widened.
“You kept the original?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Samuel looked ashamed.
“I gave it to your mother.”
I stared at him.
“Then Mom had the original ledger.”
“Yes.”
“And she hid it.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Samuel pointed toward the wall.
“The courthouse.”
I looked at the records room.
“It's here?”
“Somewhere.”
We searched until dawn.
Finally Adrian found a loose brick behind the cabinet.
Inside was a metal tube.
The ledger was wrapped in plastic.
I opened it.
The original entries were written in my grandfather's hand.
But the final page wasn't his.
It was Mom's.
She had added a note.
The money in Trust Account 17 was never meant for me.
It belongs to the families listed here.
Then, beneath it:
Mara must never be told to keep the house.
She must be allowed to give it back.
I felt tears gather.
Not because of the house.
Because Mom had trusted me to make a moral choice without telling me what that choice should be.
Then a noise came from the corridor.
A door slammed.
Adrian ran outside.
A car engine roared.
We followed.
A black sedan sped away.
But before it turned the corner, I saw the driver.
Daniel.
He looked directly at me.
Then he raised one hand.
He wasn't threatening me.
He was holding the missing cassette.
Click here to continue reading: PART 16: Daniel Offered the Missing Recording in Exchange for the Ledger, and His Demand Forced Me to Decide What Truth Was Worth Sacrificing
The Number on the Screen Was Almost Perfect, Yet One Lie About It Could Cost Me My Home
Part 15 of 20
