Chapter 8 - THE NAME INSIDE THE JOURNAL
We left the hotel through a secure underground entrance.
The police wanted statements.
Reporters surrounded the lobby.
Vale Meridian’s stock had been temporarily suspended.
Lenora had locked herself inside a private suite and refused to surrender the jewelry Helena identified as corporate property.
None of it mattered as much as Samuel’s silence.
We gathered at Martin Keene’s office three blocks from the hotel.
The conference room had no windows.
Helena placed all phones inside a signal-blocking case.
Mom sat across from Samuel.
I remained beside her with Noah sleeping in a portable crib.
“Tell us everything,” I said.
Samuel removed his coat.
His hands trembled slightly as he folded it over the back of the chair.
“In 2014, Victor contacted me.”
Mom stared at him.
“You spoke to him?”
“He was dying.”
“And you went to see him?”
“He claimed he wanted to confess.”
“You should have told me.”
“I thought he had finally decided to return the company.”
Samuel opened his wallet and removed an old brass key.
“He gave me access to a safe-deposit box. Inside were corporate records, photographs, and a handwritten journal.”
“Why hide it?” I asked.
“Because the journal implicated people who were still alive.”
“Who?”
Samuel looked at Mom.
“Lenora.”
The name settled over the room.
Mom did not react at first.
Then she leaned back.
“Lenora was twenty-two when Thomas died.”
“She was already working for Victor.”
“Doing what?”
“Handling documents he did not want connected to him.”
Martin spoke from the end of the table.
“Lenora was never listed as an employee.”
“She used her mother’s maiden name,” Samuel said.
Mom’s face tightened.
“What did Victor write?”
Samuel looked down at the key.
“He wrote that Lenora discovered Thomas was preparing to remove Victor from the company. Thomas had found evidence that Victor was diverting funds.”
I had known my father only through photographs and stories.
He had always seemed gentle.
Quiet.
A man who packed my lunches and sang badly while repairing the porch.
Now I tried to imagine him confronting Victor Vale.
“Thomas planned to report him,” Samuel continued. “He also planned to transfer his ownership rights to you and place the patents beyond Victor’s reach.”
“He did that,” Mom said.
“Partially.”
“What did Lenora do?”
“She arranged for someone to frighten him.”
Mom’s voice became very soft.
“Frighten him.”
“Run his car off the road. Make it look like he had been drinking. Delay the transfer.”
“And he died.”
“Yes.”
“Who was driving the other car?”
Samuel closed his eyes.
“I was.”
Mom made no sound.
She simply stared at him.
I felt my chair scrape backward as I stood.
“You killed my father?”
“No.”
“You just said you drove the car.”
“I was supposed to follow him. Flash my lights. Force him to stop.”
“Why?”
“Lenora told me Thomas had stolen money from the company. She said Victor wanted the records back.”
“You believed her?”
“I was twenty-six and stupid.”
“You were my father’s friend.”
Samuel’s voice broke.
“I know.”
Mom remained motionless.
“What happened on the road?” she asked.
“It was raining. Thomas would not stop. A second car appeared behind me.”
“A second car?”
“Black sedan. No plates.”
“Who was inside?”
“I never saw.”
Samuel placed both hands on the table.
“The sedan struck Thomas’s vehicle. He lost control and went through the barrier.”
Mom looked at him.
“And you left him there.”
“I climbed down the embankment. The car was already burning.”
“You left him.”
“I tried to open the door.”
“You left him.”
Samuel could not answer.
Mom stood.
For a moment, I thought she would strike him.
Instead, she walked to the far wall and pressed both palms against it.
Her shoulders trembled.
Noah stirred in the crib.
I went to him.
Martin broke the silence.
“What did Victor say about the second vehicle?”
“He claimed he did not authorize it.”
“Did he identify the driver?”
“No. He believed Lenora hired someone independently.”
Helena folded her arms.
“Why would Lenora take that risk?”
“Because Thomas had discovered something about her.”
“What?”
“The journal never says.”
I looked at Samuel.
“Where is it now?”
“In the trust archive.”
Mom turned from the wall.
“You placed the journal inside my archive without telling me?”
“I was afraid Lenora would find it.”
“She found enough to know it exists.”
“Victor made a copy.”
“Where?”
“According to the final entry, he gave it to someone he trusted.”
Martin’s face changed.
“Who did Victor trust?”
Samuel gave a bitter laugh.
“No one.”
My phone vibrated inside the signal-blocking case.
Helena opened it carefully.
A message had arrived before the device lost connection.
It came from an unknown number.
The message contained a photograph of the missing baby bag.
It sat on a wooden desk beside the white box from the christening.
Adrian had both keys.
Below the photograph was an address.
The Vale family estate outside the city.
And one sentence.
BRING MARGARET ALONE.
Mom read the message.
“I’ll go.”
“No,” I said.
“He wants me.”
“He wants the archive.”
“He may already have access.”
“Then why ask you to come?”
Her eyes moved to Samuel.
“Because the archive does not contain only company records.”
Samuel looked confused.
“What else is inside?”
Mom hesitated.
Then she answered.
“Thomas’s final recording.”
I stared at her.
“You told me there was no recording.”
“I told everyone that.”
“Why?”
“Because the man speaking with your father in that recording was not Victor.”
The room became very still.
“Who was it?”
May you like
Mom looked toward the photograph of the Vale estate.
“Adrian’s father.”
