Chapter 12 - The Four Minutes After Celeste Left
"Where were you?"
David walked toward the kitchen.
"Get out."
"Answer me."
"I said leave."
"Someone entered my father's study at 10:23."
David stopped.
"They wore Roman's ring."
Still nothing.
Adrian stepped closer.
"Helena says it was you."
"Helena says whatever keeps people fighting."
"Were you at Vale House?"
David turned.
"Yes."
Adrian felt the room go cold.
"Why?"
"Thomas asked me to come."
"When?"
"That afternoon."
"Did you see Celeste?"
"She ran past me near the side entrance."
"Was Dad alive?"
David looked away.
"Yes."
Adrian grabbed his arm.
"What happened?"
David shoved him back.
"Don't touch me."
"My father died four minutes after you entered that room."
"Your father died forty years before that."
"What does that mean?"
"The man you worshipped was gone long before his heart stopped."
Adrian's anger flared.
"I didn't worship him."
"You still call him Dad."
"So do you when you're angry."
David froze.
Adrian saw the pain.
"Tell me what happened."
David sat down.
For several seconds he said nothing.
Then he began.
"Thomas contacted me two years ago. I told him never to call again."
"But he did."
"Every month."
"Why?"
"He wanted my help accessing old medical records."
"Whose?"
"Roman's."
Adrian frowned.
"Why?"
"Thomas believed Roman was sick."
"What kind of sick?"
"Degenerative neurological condition."
"Did you confirm it?"
"No."
"Then why did he care?"
"Because Roman had started making mistakes."
"What mistakes?"
"Killing people he once considered valuable."
Adrian thought of Celeste's sister.
"Thomas believed the illness made Roman more dangerous."
David nodded.
"Then the night Thomas died?"
"He called me at 8:12."
"What did he say?"
"That he was finally ready to give Orchard to the authorities."
Adrian's heart pounded.
"The ledger."
"Not enough."
"What else?"
"Encryption keys. Accounts. Identities."
"The safe."
David nodded.
"He told me if anything happened, I should take everything and disappear."
"Why you?"
"Because he didn't trust you."
Adrian felt the words hit.
David immediately corrected himself.
"Not because of you."
"Then why?"
"Because you were visible. Wealthy. Watched."
"And you were hidden."
"Yes."
"What happened when you arrived?"
"I entered through the garden."
"You had the ring."
David reached beneath his shirt.
A chain hung around his neck.
On it was the silver Vale ring.
Adrian stared.
"Where did you get that?"
"My mother."
"Roman's ring?"
"She took it the night he disappeared."
Adrian frowned.
"How?"
"She was on the boat waiting near shore."
The boat Roman used to leave the yacht.
"Margaret helped Roman escape?"
David shook his head.
"She was trying to escape him."
Adrian felt lost.
David continued.
"Roman forced her to help. When he climbed onto the boat, they fought. She took the ring."
"Then how did Roman leave?"
"Another vessel collected him."
"And your mother?"
"She disappeared with me that same night."
Adrian looked at the ring.
"So it wasn't Roman in the security image."
"It was me."
"What happened in the study?"
David's eyes darkened.
"Thomas was on the floor."
"Conscious?"
"Barely."
"Did he tell you Celeste poisoned him?"
"Yes."
"Then?"
"He asked me to open the safe."
"You knew the code?"
"No."
"Then what?"
"He gave me something."
"What?"
"A data card."
"Where is it?"
"Hidden."
"What's on it?"
"I don't know."
"You never opened it?"
"It's encrypted."
Adrian leaned forward.
"My biometric access."
David nodded.
"What happened to Dad?"
"I called emergency services."
"There was no call in the official record."
"I used a burner."
"Then why didn't help arrive?"
David's expression hardened.
"Because someone intercepted it."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"What happened next?"
"I heard someone coming."
"Who?"
"I hid in the passage beside the study."
Adrian frowned.
"What passage?"
"Thomas had hidden corridors everywhere."
"Who entered?"
"Dr. Mercer."
Adrian stood.
"Mercer?"
David nodded.
"He checked Thomas's pulse."
"Did he help him?"
"No."
"What did he do?"
David's jaw tightened.
"He injected something into Thomas's neck."
Adrian felt nausea rise.
"What?"
"I don't know."
"Why didn't you stop him?"
"I was unarmed."
"You let him kill our father?"
David stood.
"I didn't know what he was doing."
"You're a doctor."
"I was twenty feet away in darkness."
"What happened after?"
"Mercer left."
"And Thomas?"
"Stopped breathing."
Adrian stared.
The physician who claimed Roman had threatened him.
The man who gave Adrian the blood tests.
Mercer had manipulated all of them.
"Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"I told Helena."
Adrian laughed bitterly.
"Of course."
"She was the only person I trusted."
"And now?"
David looked down.
"Now I trust no one."
Adrian called Mercer.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
He called the hospital.
The receptionist checked.
"Dr. Mercer hasn't been in today."
"Where is he?"
"He called in sick."
Adrian contacted one of his security teams.
"Go to Mercer's house."
Twenty minutes later they called back.
The front door was open.
Mercer was gone.
The house had been emptied.
But on the dining table was a photograph addressed to Adrian.
His team sent him an image.
Adrian opened it.
The photograph showed Thomas Vale lying on the study floor.
The timestamp was 10:26 p.m.
Mercer knelt beside him.
Behind Mercer stood another person.
A woman.
Adrian enlarged the image.
May you like
Helena Cross.
And she was holding the missing voice recorder from Thomas's safe.
