We spent the next six hours reviewing the files.
Evelyn took notes.
Bernard printed documents.
I sat at Harold's desk reading messages that had been written while I was making dinner, sitting beside him in hospital rooms, or believing that the worst thing happening to our family was his illness.
The first discovery was simple.
Cardinal had approached Todd because of his debt.
They approached Melissa because of her resentment.
The second discovery was harder.
Neither child had initially understood the full value of the property.
They believed Cardinal wanted the land for a pipeline.
Harold knew otherwise.
The third discovery was the most dangerous.
Melissa had signed a preliminary confidentiality agreement.
Not a sale.
Not an easement.
But an agreement acknowledging Cardinal's right to negotiate.
Evelyn read it twice.
“This could become a problem.”
“How serious?”
“Very.”
“Can they claim she represented the family?”
“Not legally, unless she had authority.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
I felt some relief.
Then Evelyn pointed to a paragraph.
“But this gives them an argument that your family had already been negotiating.”
I looked at the signature.
Melissa Vance.
My hand shook.
“What did she receive?”
“Fifty thousand.”
“For signing this?”
“Apparently.”
I stood.
“I need to talk to her.”
“She may not cooperate.”
“She will.”
I drove to her house.
She opened the door after several knocks.
Her face was swollen from crying.
“You know.”
“Yes.”
She stepped aside.
I entered.
For the first time, I noticed how much of Harold was still in her home.
His photographs.
His old hunting jacket.
A clock he had repaired himself.
She had kept things I hadn't known she possessed.
“I didn't sell anything,” she said.
“I know.”
“I never gave them the land.”
“I know.”
“They told me it was only a preliminary agreement.”
“You accepted fifty thousand.”
She looked down.
“I was scared.”
“Of what?”
“Losing everything.”
I stared at her.
“You already had the house.”
“That wasn't enough.”
The honesty hurt.
She wiped her eyes.
“Dad had been sick for months. Todd was drowning in debt. I thought if I helped Cardinal get the route approved, they would pay me enough to keep him from destroying himself.”
“Did Dad know?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“He asked me whether I understood what I was doing.”
“And?”
“I said yes.”
She looked at me.
“I didn't.”
I sat down.
“What happened after?”
“He showed me the geological reports.”
I leaned forward.
“What reports?”
“He showed me the value estimate.”
“Thirty to forty million?”
She nodded.
“He said Cardinal was trying to get the land for pennies compared with what it could become.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I was ashamed.”
“Your father could have told me.”
“He said you would be safer if you didn't know.”
I closed my eyes.
Even near the end, Harold had been trying to keep everyone from tearing each other apart.
Melissa reached into a drawer.
“I kept something.”
She handed me an envelope.
Inside was a copy of the agreement she had signed.
There was a handwritten note on the back.
Dad wrote this.
I read it.
You can still walk away.
Tell the truth before the truth chooses for you.
I looked at Melissa.
“Why didn't you?”
She began crying.
“Because Richard told me Todd had already agreed.”
I froze.
“What?”
“He said Todd had signed something.”
“What?”
“I don't know.”
“Did you see it?”
“No.”
“Then you believed him.”
“Yes.”
I understood.
Cardinal had used each sibling against the other.
They didn't need to control either one completely.
They only needed each to believe the other had already betrayed the family.
It was cruel.
And effective.
I took the agreement.
“Will you testify?”
She looked frightened.
“Against Cardinal?”
“Yes.”
“And Todd?”
“If necessary.”
She swallowed.
“Yes.”
When I returned home, Todd was waiting.
He had spoken to Melissa.
“I know,” he said.
I looked at him.
“You knew about her agreement?”
“No.”
“Did you sign anything?”
“No.”
“Richard told her you did.”
Todd's face hardened.
“He lied.”
“Why?”
“To keep us fighting.”
I nodded.
Todd sat at the table.
“I have something else.”
He removed a small envelope.
“Dad gave me this.”
I stared at it.
“Why didn't you show me before?”
“I was ashamed.”
I opened it.
Inside was a photocopy of a contract.
Todd had been offered a payment of one hundred thousand dollars in exchange for information and cooperation.
He had never signed it.
At the bottom was a handwritten note from Harold.
You don't have to become the man they expect you to be.
Todd looked away.
“I never signed.”
“I believe you.”
He nodded.
“I wanted to.”
“That matters.”
“I know.”
We sat quietly.
Then Todd said, “Dad told me something else.”
“What?”
“He said Cardinal wasn't the biggest danger.”
My eyes lifted.
“What did he mean?”
Todd looked toward the window.
“He said the geological report had been altered.”
“Altered?”
“Yes.”
“By whom?”
“I don't know.”
He handed me another paper.
It was a technical report.
One section had been blacked out.
The original showed a projected storage capacity.
The altered version reduced it by nearly half.
I stared at the numbers.
“Cardinal altered this?”
“We don't know.”
“Who prepared the original?”
“Hale Geological.”
Walter.
I called him.
He answered immediately.
“Doreen?”
“Did you alter the geological report?”
Silence.
“No.”
“Then someone did.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“You worked on it.”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me what happened.”
He sighed.
“Harold discovered the alteration.”
“When?”
“Last year.”
“Why didn't he correct it?”
“He did.”
“How?”
“He obtained the original data from the drilling equipment.”
I stared at the report.
“Where is it?”
Walter hesitated.
“Harold had it.”
“Where?”
“I thought it was in the box.”
“It isn't.”
“Then he hid it somewhere else.”
We searched the study.
Nothing.
The garage.
Nothing.
The basement.
Nothing.
Then I remembered Harold's habit of hiding important documents inside ordinary objects.
His old tackle box sat beneath the workbench.
I opened it.
Fishing hooks.
Line.
Old lures.
Then beneath a false bottom, a small memory card.
I handed it to Evelyn.
She copied the data.
The original geological readings appeared on the screen.
The storage formation was substantially larger than the report Cardinal had been using.
Evelyn stared.
“Oh.”
“What?”
She looked at me.
“This changes the valuation.”
“How much?”
She calculated.
“Potentially more than forty million.”
“How much more?”
“Depending on capacity, operating life, and regulatory approval, this could be worth well over fifty million.”
I sat down.
The twenty-five-million-dollar offer suddenly looked like a confession.
Cardinal wasn't negotiating generously.
They were trying to buy certainty at a discount.
Evelyn continued reading.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“The formation extends beneath land owned by three other families.”
I remembered Walter's map.
Three hundred acres.
“Then why did they focus on me?”
“Because your parcel is the gateway.”
The phone rang.
Richard.
I answered.
“Mrs. Vance.”
“What do you want?”
“To make one final proposal.”
“I don't think you have anything left to offer.”
“I can offer forty million.”
I looked at Evelyn.
She shook her head.
Richard continued.
“Forty million, paid immediately.”
I almost laughed.
“Why so urgent?”
“Because the project needs certainty.”
“No.”
“You should reconsider.”
“I already did.”
He lowered his voice.
“Your husband would have accepted.”
“No.”
“You don't know that.”
“I know my husband.”
Richard was silent.
Then he said something that made my blood run cold.
“You know, Mrs. Vance, Harold didn't tell you everything either.”
I stared at the phone.
“What does that mean?”
“He had another agreement.”
“With whom?”
“You'll find it.”
The call ended.
I turned to Bernard.
“Another agreement?”
He frowned.
“I know of none.”
But the look on his face told me he was already thinking of somewhere else.
“What?”
He stood.
“There was one document Harold asked me to keep separately.”
“Where?”
“I thought it was destroyed.”
“Why?”
“Because he told me it would never be needed.”
He opened a locked cabinet.
Inside was a sealed envelope.
My name was written on it.
Again.
I took it.
This time, the handwriting beneath my name was different.
Not Harold's.
It was mine.
I stared at it.
“I never wrote this.”
Bernard's face went pale.
“You didn't?”
“No.”
He opened the envelope.
Inside was a copy of a document bearing my signature.
A property authorization.
Dated eleven months earlier.
Authorizing preliminary negotiations concerning Parcel 44-118.
I looked at the signature.
It looked exactly like mine.
But I had never signed it.
Click here to continue reading: PART 8: My Signature Appeared on a Document I Never Signed, and the Search for the Forgery Led Straight Back to Harold’s Last Secret
They Left Me the Land Nobody Wanted, and I Began to Wonder Why Harold Had Insisted I Keep It
Part 7 of 20
