Chapter 4 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Roman Vale had died at sea.
At least that was what everyone believed.
Adrian remembered the funeral.
He had been twenty-four.
Roman's yacht had been found drifting forty miles south of Nantucket after a storm. Blood was discovered on the deck. One life jacket was missing.
Roman's body was never recovered.
After six weeks, the Coast Guard suspended the search.
A year later, Roman Vale was declared legally dead.
Thomas never spoke about his brother again.
Adrian stared at the security thumbnail until his eyes hurt.
The ring could have been stolen.
Copied.
Imitated.
But Thomas had designed the three rings himself when Adrian turned twenty-one.
Each contained a tiny defect in the crest.
A broken line beneath the eagle's left wing.
Adrian enlarged the image.
The line was there.
He called Mara.
"Did my father keep Roman's ring?"
The housekeeper looked startled.
"Why?"
"Did he?"
"I believe it was buried with an empty coffin."
"So someone could have removed it."
"I suppose."
"Who organized the funeral?"
"Your father."
Adrian closed the laptop.
"Where is Roman buried?"
"Saint Matthew's Cemetery."
One hour later, Adrian was driving toward the family cemetery.
He did not tell Evelyn.
He certainly did not tell Celeste.
Saint Matthew's sat on a wooded hillside overlooking the river.
The Vale mausoleum stood at the far end beneath ancient oak trees.
Thomas was buried there now.
So was the empty coffin supposedly containing Roman's possessions.
Adrian found the caretaker.
"I need access to my uncle's burial records."
The old man recognized the Vale name instantly.
Inside the office, he pulled a folder from a cabinet.
"Roman Vale."
Adrian examined the documents.
Funeral date.
Casket number.
Mausoleum placement.
Then he saw something strange.
The coffin had been moved three years after burial.
"Why?"
The caretaker adjusted his glasses.
"Structural repairs."
"Who authorized the transfer?"
The man checked another page.
"Thomas Vale."
Adrian's father.
"Was the coffin opened?"
"Not normally."
"Normally?"
"Your father requested an inventory."
Adrian looked up.
"Why?"
"No reason listed."
"Who witnessed it?"
The caretaker turned the page.
His finger stopped.
"Lucas Grant."
Adrian knew Lucas well.
His father's closest friend.
The Vale family attorney for nearly thirty years.
Adrian left the cemetery and called him.
Lucas answered immediately.
"Adrian. When did you get back?"
"Yesterday."
"How's Evelyn?"
"Why did you open Roman's coffin?"
Silence.
The kind of silence that answered a question before words could.
"Where are you?"
"Saint Matthew's."
"Come to my office."
"Tell me now."
"Not over the phone."
Twenty minutes later, Adrian walked into Lucas Grant's office.
Lucas was seventy-two, thin, impeccably dressed, and usually impossible to unsettle.
Today he looked old.
Adrian placed the security thumbnail on his desk.
Lucas stared at it.
Then removed his glasses.
"Where did you get this?"
"Answer my question."
Lucas leaned back.
"Three years after Roman's death, Thomas received a package."
"What package?"
"No return address."
"Inside?"
"A photograph."
Lucas opened a locked drawer.
From it he removed a yellow envelope.
"Thomas ordered me to keep this until he died."
Adrian opened it.
The photograph showed Thomas leaving Vale Meridian headquarters.
Across the street stood a man in a baseball cap.
His face was turned away.
On his hand was the silver Vale ring.
Written on the back were six words.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LET ME DROWN.
Adrian read it twice.
"Roman?"
"Thomas believed so."
"Why didn't he go to the police?"
"He did."
"And?"
"They investigated."
"Nothing?"
"No body. No confirmed sightings. No financial activity under Roman's name."
Adrian sat down.
"Why open the coffin?"
"To check whether the ring was inside."
"Was it?"
Lucas shook his head.
"It was gone."
Adrian's mouth became dry.
"Did Dad think Roman survived?"
"He became convinced."
"Then why didn't he tell me?"
"Because Roman hated you."
Adrian frowned.
"Why?"
"You inherited the position he believed should have been his."
"Vale Meridian?"
"Everything."
Adrian laughed without humor.
"I was twenty-four when Roman disappeared."
"He didn't care."
Lucas stood and walked toward the window.
"Your father and Roman had been fighting for years."
"About the company?"
"About what the company was doing."
Adrian looked at him.
"What does that mean?"
Lucas turned.
"Thomas built Vale Meridian into a legitimate corporation. Roman wanted something else."
"What?"
"Political influence. Offshore money. Private security contracts in countries where we had no business operating."
Adrian felt suddenly cold.
"Criminal activity?"
"Thomas thought so."
"Did he prove it?"
"Not completely."
"What happened before Roman disappeared?"
"They had a confrontation."
Lucas paused.
"On the yacht."
Adrian stared.
"Dad was there?"
Lucas nodded.
"Thomas was the last person known to see Roman alive."
Adrian stood.
"Why was that never public?"
"Because Thomas lied."
"About what?"
"He told investigators Roman sailed alone."
Adrian felt anger rising.
"My father covered up his brother's death?"
"He believed Roman had fallen overboard during their fight."
"Believed?"
"There was blood."
"Whose?"
"Roman's."
"And Dad left him?"
"Thomas panicked."
Adrian walked away from the desk.
Every memory of his father was changing shape.
"Did Celeste know?"
Lucas became still.
Adrian noticed.
"You know something."
"Thomas asked me to investigate Celeste eight months before he died."
"Why?"
"Because her financial records were unusual."
"In what way?"
"Her father supposedly died bankrupt."
"He did."
"No."
Lucas opened another file.
"Her father transferred four million dollars into an account in Zurich six weeks before his death."
"Where did the money come from?"
"An offshore company."
"Name?"
Lucas slid the document across the desk.
Adrian read it.
RVA Holdings.
R.
V.
A.
Roman Victor Adrian.
Roman's initials.
Adrian looked up.
"Celeste was connected to Roman."
"Possibly."
"Did Dad confront her?"
"I warned him not to."
"But he did."
Lucas nodded.
"Twelve days before he died."
The photograph Evelyn had shown Adrian.
Thomas and Celeste outside the restaurant.
The dark sedan.
The hidden man.
"What happened?"
"I don't know."
Adrian picked up the photograph of the ring.
"Lucas, someone wearing Roman's ring entered my father's study four minutes after Celeste left him dying on the floor."
Lucas went pale.
"That's impossible."
"No."
Adrian headed for the door.
"Impossible died twelve years ago."
His phone rang.
Mara.
He answered.
Her voice was frantic.
"Mr. Adrian, come home."
"What happened?"
"Your mother collapsed."
Adrian stopped.
"What?"
"Celeste gave her the afternoon medication."
A cold weight settled inside him.
"Call an ambulance."
"I already did."
Adrian was running before the call ended.
Then Mara shouted his name.
"Mr. Adrian."
He stopped.
"What?"
"I found something in the medicine."
May you like
Her voice dropped.
"The tablets aren't what the bottle says."
