Chapter 26 - What Arthur Hid
Rachel returned to the attic.
Seven stars.
She had spent days looking beneath them.
Around them.
Behind them.
Nobody had examined the seventh star itself.
It was painted near the highest beam.
Nathan brought a ladder.
Rachel climbed.
The star was not paint.
It was a thin metal plate.
She pressed it.
Nothing.
Then she remembered Arthur’s words.
Seven stars tell you where.
Three knocks tell you when.
Rachel knocked three times directly beneath the seventh star.
Click.
A narrow compartment opened.
Inside was a black memory card.
Nothing else.
Daniel laughed softly.
“All of this for something the size of a postage stamp.”
Eleanor did not smile.
“Arthur enjoyed theater.”
Marlow’s digital team made three forensic copies before opening it.
The contents were encrypted.
The brass key from Arthur’s envelope did not fit any physical lock in the house.
Nathan turned it over.
“It may not be a key.”
A technician examined it.
Inside the brass housing was a tiny electronic chip.
Hardware encryption.
Arthur had hidden half the key in the envelope and half beneath the seventh star.
Once combined, the archive opened.
Folders appeared.
Charles Holloway.
Marianne Mercer.
Garrison Equity.
T.M.H.
Peter Vale.
Samuel Prescott.
The last folder was the largest.
Samuel had signed hundreds of documents.
Not as Arthur’s attorney.
As beneficial controller of the shell companies.
Transfers.
Authorization letters.
Offshore accounts.
Fake vendors.
Payments to Crane Strategic Services.
Payments made days before the gunfire at Eleanor’s house.
A transfer connected to Peter’s kidnapping.
Everything.
Then another folder appeared.
CAMERAS.
Eleanor stared.
Arthur had placed independent cameras at four locations in the house after discovering someone had entered the attic years earlier.
One captured Samuel removing files.
Another captured Trent planting surveillance devices.
A third captured Trent striking Eleanor.
A fourth had recorded something none of them expected.
The night Arthur died.
Samuel entered the house at 11:48 p.m.
Arthur was still alive.
Samuel left at 12:31.
Arthur died the following morning.
Eleanor felt the room tilt.
Marlow immediately stopped playback.
“Eleanor.”
She could barely speak.
“Was Arthur’s death natural?”
May you like
Marlow did not answer quickly.
“That is something we now have to verify.”
