Chapter 7 - The Date of Betrayal
Arthur stood before the keypad while Samuel waited behind him.
“There is no date,” Arthur said.
“Everyone betrays someone eventually.”
“I never betrayed Evelyn.”
Samuel looked at him with something close to pity.
“Are you sure?”
Arthur entered their wedding anniversary.
ACCESS DENIED.
He tried the date he had purchased his first company.
Denied.
The birthdate of the child Evelyn had miscarried.
Denied.
After the third attempt, the screen displayed a warning.
TWO ATTEMPTS REMAIN.
Arthur stepped away.
“This was not installed by Evelyn.”
“Why?”
“Electronic security like this wasn’t common in private homes twenty-six years ago.”
Samuel examined the frame.
“The door may be old. The keypad is recent.”
“Someone has been maintaining the house.”
“Or someone expected you to return.”
Arthur stared at the sentence.
The date Arthur first betrayed her.
A memory surfaced.
Not of an affair.
Not of a lie.
Of a signature.
Twenty-nine years earlier, Arthur had been desperate to acquire Dorian Medical Systems, a failing research company with valuable patents. Evelyn had opposed the deal after discovering irregular payments in its clinical trials.
Arthur signed anyway.
The acquisition transformed Vance Meridian.
It also caused the worst argument of their marriage.
“You care more about winning than knowing what you won,” Evelyn had told him.
Arthur entered the date of the acquisition.
The keypad turned green.
The steel door opened.
Samuel released a slow breath.
Inside was a narrow room illuminated by emergency lights.
Shelves held boxes of records, photographs, audio tapes, and sealed evidence bags.
A desk stood at the far end.
On it rested a black leather ledger.
Arthur approached it.
His hands felt numb.
The first pages listed payments made by Dorian Medical Systems to physicians, regulators, and private clinics. Beside several payments were coded references to patients.
Most were children.
Arthur turned another page.
A name stopped him.
Vanessa Cross.
Age twelve.
Arthur read the entry twice.
Vanessa had been enrolled in an experimental neurological drug trial twenty-seven years earlier.
The trial had not been approved.
Her mother had received a cash payment.
Reported side effects included memory loss, aggression, seizures, and long-term cardiac complications.
Samuel looked over Arthur’s shoulder.
“My God.”
Arthur continued turning pages.
Julian Cross was also listed.
So was Malcolm Holloway, then a junior medical researcher.
At the bottom of the final page appeared three initials.
E.V.
S.R.
M.L.
Arthur looked at Samuel.
“Evelyn Vance. Samuel Reed.”
Then he pointed to the third set of initials.
“Who is M.L.?”
Samuel’s face changed.
“I don’t know.”
“Margaret Lane?”
“She never worked for Dorian.”
“She worked for me two years after Evelyn died.”
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
Arthur took out his phone.
There was no signal inside the room.
A speaker hidden above the door crackled.
A woman’s voice filled the chamber.
“You finally found it, Arthur.”
He turned toward the ceiling.
The voice was electronically distorted.
Samuel stepped toward the door.
It slammed shut.
The lights dimmed.
Arthur grabbed the handle.
Locked.
The woman continued.
“Evelyn always believed guilt would bring you back.”
“Who are you?” Arthur demanded.
“You may call me E.”
Samuel searched the walls.
“Open the door.”
“You have something that belongs to us.”
Arthur looked at the ledger.
“You poisoned me for this?”
A soft laugh came through the speaker.
“Vanessa poisoned you because she wanted your money. Do not confuse greed with purpose.”
“Did you order her to do it?”
“I gave her an opportunity.”
“You manipulated a woman who was experimented on as a child.”
“Vanessa has been manipulating people since long before she met you.”
Arthur felt anger rise.
“What do you want?”
“The ledger.”
“No.”
“Then Samuel dies first.”
Arthur looked at his friend.
A red light began blinking near the ventilation shaft.
Samuel smelled the air.
“Gas.”
Arthur wrapped the ledger beneath his coat.
The voice returned.
“You have sixty seconds to place it inside the drawer beneath the speaker.”
A small compartment opened in the wall.
Arthur looked at Samuel.
The attorney’s breathing had already become heavier.
“Give it to them,” Samuel said.
“No.”
“Arthur.”
“If they wanted only the ledger, they would have taken it years ago.”
“Then what do they want?”
Arthur looked at the camera above the keypad.
“They want to know whether I copied it.”
The countdown reached forty-two seconds.
Arthur opened the ledger, tore out three pages, and pushed the book into the compartment.
The drawer closed.
The ventilation stopped.
The steel door unlocked.
Arthur and Samuel stumbled into Evelyn’s study.
Outside, a car engine started.
Arthur rushed to the broken window.
A black sedan disappeared between the trees.
Samuel leaned against the desk, coughing.
“You tore out pages.”
Arthur removed them from beneath his shirt.
The first contained Vanessa’s medical record.
The second listed hidden payments.
May you like
The third showed the names of five people involved in the unauthorized trials.
One of those names was Margaret Lane.
