Chapter 9 - THE DRIVE THEY WANTED MORE THAN THE MONEY
The remaining five drives were delivered to a digital forensics laboratory.
The stolen drive bothered Evelyn more than everything else.
Someone knew where they were.
Someone knew what they had found.
And whoever entered Suite 072 chose one drive instead of taking all six.
That meant the drives were not identical.
Each contained something different.
Thomas had divided the evidence deliberately.
The handwritten ledger confirmed it.
Drive A - structures.
Drive B - clients.
Drive C - payments.
Drive D - recordings.
Drive E - Mercer.
Drive F - insurance.
Drive F was missing.
Insurance.
Miriam stared at the ledger.
"What kind of insurance?"
"Blackmail?" Samuel suggested.
"Backup?" Daniel said.
Evelyn looked at Thomas's handwriting.
"No."
They turned.
"Thomas hated the word leverage."
"What?"
"He used to say leverage was what dishonest people called threats."
Miriam thought.
"So insurance means something else."
Evelyn nodded.
"A safeguard."
The five recovered drives contained devastating information.
Drive A documented corporate structures used in dozens of suspicious estate transfers.
Drive B contained names.
Forty-three victims.
Some dead.
Some alive.
Drive C contained payments to professionals.
Lawyers.
Accountants.
Medical consultants.
Trust officers.
Drive D contained audio recordings.
Quentyn appeared in seven.
Livia appeared in one.
That recording shattered what remained of Evelyn's hope.
The audio was eleven years old.
Livia's voice.
"You promised nobody would ever know."
Quentyn responded.
"They won't."
"My father is dead."
"I know."
"And you're talking about paperwork?"
"We have a problem to solve."
"You said he was only going to scare us."
A pause.
Then Quentyn.
"Livia, stop."
Her voice broke.
"What did you do?"
The recording ended.
Evelyn sat motionless.
Samuel stood behind her.
No one spoke.
Miriam finally paused the audio.
"We need law enforcement immediately."
Evelyn nodded.
But inside, everything had changed.
Her daughter had known something about Thomas's death.
Maybe not before.
Maybe after.
But she knew.
For eleven years she had said nothing.
The investigators reopened Thomas Harper's death.
His medical records were retrieved.
The marina logs were reviewed.
The original fisherman who found him was located.
And Quentyn's movements that day were reconstructed.
Quentyn claimed he dropped Thomas at the marina at 5:45 a.m. and left.
A gas-station camera from a nearby road had preserved archival footage as part of an unrelated investigation.
At 6:12 a.m., Quentyn's truck drove back toward the lake.
At 7:03, it drove away again.
Thomas was found at 7:41.
No one publicly accused Quentyn of murder.
Not yet.
But his attorneys became more aggressive.
They challenged the seizure of company records.
Claimed Claire Bennett was unreliable.
Denied the authenticity of Thomas's recordings.
Insisted Livia's recorded conversation lacked context.
Then Axel appeared at Evelyn's hotel.
Security called upstairs.
"Your grandson is here."
Evelyn almost refused.
Then she changed her mind.
Axel entered the suite wearing a hooded jacket.
He looked different.
Less polished.
More seventeen.
He did not sit.
"Where's Mom?"
"I don't know."
"She's gone."
Evelyn frowned.
"What?"
"She left yesterday."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Did you call your father?"
"He won't answer me."
Evelyn watched him.
"Why are you here?"
Axel looked around.
"Because my cards stopped working."
There it was.
Even now.
Evelyn almost told security to remove him.
Then she saw his hands.
They were shaking.
"Sit down."
He did.
"What happened?"
"My dad came home two nights ago."
"From where?"
"I don't know."
"He argued with your mother?"
"Yeah."
"About what?"
"You."
Evelyn waited.
Axel looked at the floor.
"Dad said she ruined everything because she couldn't keep her mouth shut."
"What did your mother say?"
"She said he promised nobody would get hurt."
Evelyn's blood went cold.
"Those exact words?"
"I think."
"Think carefully."
Axel rubbed his face.
"She said, 'You promised me nobody else would get hurt.'"
Else.
Not nobody.
Nobody else.
Evelyn leaned forward.
"What did your father say?"
"He told her to pack."
"And?"
"She said she wasn't going anywhere."
"Then?"
Axel hesitated.
"He hit her."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"Have you ever seen him do that before?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
Axel nodded.
"Then he told me to go upstairs."
"Did you?"
"No."
For the first time, Evelyn saw something like shame in him.
"I recorded them."
Evelyn stared.
Axel removed his phone.
"I thought maybe if they divorced, Mom would need proof."
He played the recording.
Quentyn's voice.
"You knew the plan."
Livia.
"The plan was never Thomas."
Quentyn.
"Keep your voice down."
Livia.
"He confronted you, and two days later he's dead. Then Diane dies. Claire almost dies. How many accidents are supposed to happen before you admit what this is?"
Evelyn stopped breathing.
Quentyn answered.
"You enjoyed the money."
Livia began crying.
"I didn't know at first."
"But you knew later."
Silence.
"You signed Northbridge documents."
"You said they were protected."
"You moved the property."
"You said Mom would never notice."
"And now she noticed."
The recording continued with a crash.
Then Livia.
"I'm done."
Quentyn laughed.
"No, you're not."
"Watch me."
"If you walk out, I tell them everything."
"Tell them."
"Even about the boat?"
Silence.
Then Livia whispered, "You wouldn't."
Quentyn said, "Try me."
The recording ended.
Evelyn's hands were numb.
Axel looked at her.
"What's the boat?"
Evelyn could not answer.
May you like
But she knew.
Thomas died on a boat.
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