Chapter 7 - The Man Who Refused to Stay Dead
Simon Redd was not waiting outside the police station.
He was sitting inside it.
When Emily arrived, still escorted by two officers, Simon watched her through the glass wall of an interview room.
He was older than the photographs in the company files. His hair had gone gray at the temples. A thin scar crossed his left eyebrow. He wore a dark coat and held a leather document case across his knees.
He did not look like a ghost.
He looked like a man who had spent eighteen months expecting every door to open for the wrong person.
An attorney named Daniel Cho met Emily in the corridor.
“Lena Park retained me on your behalf.”
“Where is Charles?”
“Unavailable.”
“Brooke?”
“Also unavailable.”
“Nathan?”
“Giving a statement.”
Emily glanced toward Simon.
“Why is he here?”
“He surrendered to federal investigators thirty minutes ago. He brought evidence that appears to clear you of the unauthorized transfers.”
“Then why am I still here?”
“Because someone used your biometric authorization.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Your fingerprint and retinal data both approved the transfers.”
Emily thought of the hidden cameras.
The false badge.
The years of surveillance.
“They collected my biometric data.”
Daniel nodded.
“That is our position.”
Simon raised his hand toward the glass.
Daniel opened the interview-room door.
“You have ten minutes before federal agents take him to another location.”
Emily entered.
Simon stood.
“You look like Clara.”
“You let me believe you were dead.”
“You didn’t know me.”
“My mother did.”
“Yes.”
“You sent Exhibit A.”
“I sent the photograph.”
“You arranged the dinner invitation.”
“Yes.”
“You used my humiliation to expose Charles.”
“I gave you a weapon he could not classify as accounting error.”
Emily sat across from him.
“Where is Brooke?”
“I don’t know.”
“She has the Lighthouse certificate.”
Simon’s expression tightened.
“Then Charles will find her.”
“Is my mother’s name on it?”
“Yes.”
“Was she involved in stealing pension funds?”
“No.”
“Brooke said she owned Lighthouse.”
“She did.”
Emily waited for him to explain.
Simon opened his leather case and removed a faded partnership agreement.
Twenty-three years earlier, Clara Mercer, Simon Redd and Charles Halston had created an investment fund called Lighthouse Community Trust.
Its purpose was to buy failing residential properties, restore them and offer affordable ownership plans to employees.
Clara provided the financial structure.
Simon handled compliance.
Charles attracted investors.
For five years, Lighthouse succeeded.
Then Charles began replacing legitimate assets with debt owned by shell companies he controlled.
“He used Lighthouse as a private bank,” Simon said. “Your mother discovered it.”
“Why didn’t she report him?”
“She tried.”
“What happened?”
“Charles convinced the original investors that Clara had stolen from them. He altered records and used her access credentials.”
“Exactly what he did to me.”
“Yes.”
Emily looked down at the partnership agreement.
“My mother died before clearing her name.”
Simon’s expression changed.
“Clara did not die in that accident.”
Emily felt the room become silent around her.
“What?”
“The car was found below the mountain road. Her identification was inside it. No body was recovered.”
“I attended her funeral.”
“You buried an empty casket.”
Emily stood so quickly that the chair struck the wall.
“You are lying.”
“I was the person who helped her disappear.”
Emily stared at him.
Simon continued.
“Charles had arranged for her arrest. She believed he would use you to force her cooperation. She left to protect you.”
“She abandoned me.”
“She intended to return.”
“When?”
“When Charles was in prison.”
“He never went to prison.”
“No.”
“So she stayed gone for sixteen years?”
Simon’s voice softened.
“Something happened after she disappeared. She stopped contacting me.”
“Did Charles find her?”
“I don’t know.”
Emily walked toward the door.
Simon spoke behind her.
“Your mother left the Lighthouse certificate with Brooke.”
Emily turned.
“Brooke did not know Clara.”
“She did.”
“When?”
“Before Brooke met Charles.”
The interview-room door opened.
Nathan stood in the corridor beside Daniel.
His tie was gone. His white shirt was wrinkled. He looked older than he had at dinner.
“Emily, we need to leave.”
She ignored him and looked back at Simon.
“Why would my mother trust Brooke?”
“Because Brooke is Clara’s daughter.”
Nathan stopped moving.
Emily looked from Simon to him.
“That’s impossible.”
Simon’s eyes filled with regret.
“Brooke was twenty when Clara disappeared. You were sixteen. You had different fathers, different names and no knowledge of each other.”
Emily remembered Brooke’s reaction to the photograph of Clara.
The warning in the dressing room.
Her terror when the certificate revealed two names.
Brooke had not been surprised by Clara’s name.
She had been terrified Emily would learn why it was there.
“You knew?” Emily asked Nathan.
He shook his head.
“No.”
Simon looked at him coldly.
“Your father knew.”
Emily pressed her hands against the table.
Charles had married Clara’s daughter.
Then he had ordered his son to marry Clara’s other daughter.
The Halston family had not simply watched Emily.
They had surrounded both heirs to Lighthouse.
Nathan entered the room.
“The federal agents froze the company’s major accounts.”
“That’s good.”
“It also triggered an emergency ownership transfer.”
“To whom?”
“We don’t know.”
Simon closed his leather case.
“If Charles no longer controls Halston Crown, Lighthouse will activate its succession clause.”
Emily looked at the partnership agreement.
“Who inherits Clara’s ownership?”
“Her surviving children.”
“Brooke and me.”
“Yes.”
Nathan placed his phone on the table.
A company notice filled the screen.
Due to an immediate change in controlling ownership, all voting authority connected to the Lighthouse Community Trust had been transferred.
The listed recipient was not Emily.
It was not Brooke.
It was an anonymous legal entity called CROWN ELEVEN.
Simon read the name and went pale.
“That entity was never supposed to exist.”
“What is it?” Emily asked.
“The final stage.”
“Of what?”
Simon looked toward the security camera in the interview room.
May you like
Then he leaned closer.
“Of the plan your mother created after she learned Charles had betrayed us.”
