Chapter 8 - ashes in the parking garage
The fire destroyed Dr. Holloway’s car before the hotel crew could extinguish it.
Fortunately, the original file was no longer inside.
Dr. Holloway had removed it minutes earlier and placed it in the ballroom’s secure office.
Whoever started the fire did not know that.
“They’re destroying evidence,” Claire said.
Ethan watched firefighters move through the smoke.
“They believe Bianca will talk.”
“Will she?”
“She will if she thinks Celeste intends to sacrifice her.”
Claire looked through the glass doors toward the hotel.
Bianca had spent her life protected by money, reputation and powerful people. She would not accept becoming the only person blamed.
The police found traces of an accelerant beneath the car, but no clear image of the person responsible. The parking cameras had been redirected toward an empty stairwell for nine minutes.
Every attack relied on access.
Every piece of missing evidence involved the Vale system.
Ethan called the company’s head of security.
“Disable every active credential connected to my father’s office,” he ordered.
The man hesitated.
“Some of those credentials are embedded in older properties.”
“Disable them.”
“It may interrupt operations.”
“Do it.”
Ten minutes later, power failed in three Vale-owned buildings across the city.
One of them was the abandoned headquarters containing Box 117.
Ethan understood the message immediately.
“Someone is inside the old building.”
The police advised him to remain at the hotel.
He ignored them.
Claire refused to let him go alone.
“You are not bringing Noah into a dangerous building,” Ethan said.
“I’m not. Lena is taking him to a secure apartment with Dr. Holloway.”
“Then you should go with them.”
“The box concerns me.”
“It may also be a trap.”
“That is why you shouldn’t go alone.”
For a moment, they looked at each other as they once had during difficult negotiations, each waiting for the other to surrender.
Ethan surrendered first.
“Stay beside me.”
Claire’s expression hardened.
“I decide where I stand.”
A police team accompanied them to Vale’s former headquarters.
The building rose above the financial district like a dark monument. Most of the windows were covered from inside, and the silver company sign had been removed after Malcolm’s death.
The main entrance opened with Ethan’s executive code.
Inside, dust covered the marble floor.
Claire noticed fresh footprints leading toward the elevators.
Someone had arrived before them.
The elevators had no power, so they used the stairs.
The private vault was located beneath the building, three levels below the lobby.
As they descended, Ethan told Claire what had happened there.
“The dead man was Samuel Reed, my father’s financial auditor.”
“What killed him?”
“The official report said he suffered a medical event.”
“And the unofficial report?”
“My father believed Samuel discovered money being moved through the foundation.”
“Who controlled the accounts?”
“Celeste, my uncle Robert and my father.”
“Did anyone investigate?”
“The records disappeared after Samuel’s death.”
“And your father’s plane vanished the next day.”
“Yes.”
They reached the lowest level.
A steel door stood open.
One of the officers raised his weapon and ordered everyone to remain behind him.
The vault beyond the door contained rows of metal boxes.
A light moved at the far end.
“Police!” the officer shouted.
A figure ran between the rows.
Officers pursued.
Claire and Ethan entered after the area was cleared.
Box 117 was near the back wall.
The key turned easily.
Inside was a single red folder, a flash drive and an old photograph.
Ethan removed the photograph first.
It showed Malcolm Vale standing beside Celeste Moretti and a younger woman Claire recognized as Audrey Lane.
All three were outside St. Catherine’s Hospital.
Audrey was holding a newborn baby.
On the back was a date from thirty-two years earlier.
Ethan’s birth date.
Claire looked at him.
“Is that you?”
“No.”
“How can you be sure?”
“My mother is not in the photograph.”
Claire looked again.
The baby wore a hospital bracelet.
The name was too small to read.
Ethan opened the red folder.
The first document was a birth record.
His name appeared at the top.
Ethan Alexander Vale.
But the woman listed as his biological mother was not the woman who had raised him.
It was Audrey Lane.
Claire heard an officer shouting from the corridor.
They had caught the person who ran.
It was a hotel employee who claimed he had been paid to remove the folder and destroy it.
“Paid by whom?” Ethan asked.
The employee looked frightened.
“I never met him.”
“You spoke to him.”
“Only by phone.”
“What did he say?”
The employee swallowed.
“He said if Claire Bennett opened Box 117, she would learn why her baby was never supposed to be born.”
Claire instinctively stepped back.
Ethan closed the folder.
A second document slipped onto the floor.
It was another candidate assessment.
May you like
This one had been created thirty-two years ago.
The name at the top was Claire’s mother.
