Chapter 10 - THE ELEVENTH RECORDING
The man outside the chapel was not Samuel.
It was Benjamin Cole.
He wore a dark overcoat and carried no briefcase. A federal officer stood behind him, holding documents authorizing a supervised meeting.
Benjamin had been released temporarily after agreeing to lead investigators to Meridian’s remaining physical archives.
Detective Ortiz accompanied him inside.
Evelyn remained beside Allison’s portrait.
“You asked to see me before,” she said. “Now you have five minutes.”
Benjamin looked at the screen above the flowers.
“How many recordings have played?”
“Nine.”
“Then Allison found Samuel.”
“That is what she said.”
Benjamin lowered his voice.
“You cannot trust that recording.”
Evelyn almost laughed.
“You created my daughter’s false death, accepted money from Meridian and tried to erase the ledger.”
“I accepted the money to maintain my cover.”
“That is what Cross said.”
“Cross worked for himself.”
“And you worked for whom?”
Benjamin looked at Allison’s portrait.
“For Margaret.”
Evelyn said nothing.
Benjamin continued.
“My father helped create Meridian, but he did not control it. Samuel and Margaret built the first account system. When Samuel tried to shut it down, Meridian arranged the boating accident.”
“Samuel survived.”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“You always know enough to create hope and never enough to prove it.”
Benjamin took the accusation without protest.
“I helped Samuel disappear. Years later, Margaret recruited me to protect Allison.”
“You delivered Allison to an airfield where Meridian found her.”
“Because someone changed the flight plan.”
“Who?”
“Samuel.”
The chapel became silent.
Benjamin looked toward Detective Ortiz.
She allowed him to continue.
“The aircraft was supposed to fly to Canada. Thirty minutes before departure, the destination changed to a private island in the Atlantic. The authorization used Samuel’s original code.”
“Perhaps he was trying to help.”
“Perhaps.”
“You don’t believe that.”
“I believe the Samuel who survived the boating accident was not the same man Margaret once trusted.”
Evelyn glanced at the message still displayed on the screen.
Recording ten will unlock when Samuel Hart enters the chapel.
“How would the chapel recognize him?”
“Facial structure, voice pattern, fingerprints or a device connected to the Hartwell system.”
“So Allison expected him to come here.”
“She expected someone using his identity.”
Benjamin removed a small silver object from his pocket.
Ortiz stepped forward.
“It is not a weapon.”
He placed it on the front-row bench.
It was Samuel’s watch.
Evelyn recognized the narrow crack across the glass.
Samuel had worn it every day of their marriage. Police told her it was never recovered from the lake after the boating accident.
“Where did you get this?”
“Margaret gave it to me at the airfield.”
“When?”
“Before Allison arrived.”
The watch began ticking.
It had been silent for twenty years.
The chapel screen activated.
Recording ten unlocked.
Allison appeared in a dark room.
A man sat behind her, but his face remained outside the camera frame.
“Mom,” Allison said, “Samuel Hart has entered the system.”
Evelyn looked at the watch.
The device had triggered the recording.
Allison continued.
“The watch contains Dad’s original Meridian authorization key. Anyone carrying it can access the oldest Hartwell accounts.”
Benjamin stared at the screen.
“I didn’t know.”
“Perhaps not,” Evelyn said.
In the recording, Allison turned toward the unseen man.
“Tell her.”
A familiar voice answered.
“Evelyn, I am sorry.”
Evelyn stopped breathing.
She knew that voice.
Older and rougher, but unmistakable.
Samuel.
The camera shifted slightly.
Only his hand appeared on the table.
He wore a wedding ring.
“I survived the accident,” Samuel said. “Margaret helped me disappear because Meridian threatened you and Allison. I believed leaving was the only way to keep you alive.”
Evelyn’s grief hardened into anger.
“You let us bury you.”
The recording continued.
“I spent years collecting evidence, but Meridian changed. It grew beyond the four founders. Government officials, banks and private companies began using it for their own purposes.”
Allison looked at him.
“Tell her what happened at the airfield.”
Samuel’s hand tightened.
“I sent men to stop Margaret’s plane.”
Benjamin whispered, “He changed the flight.”
“I believed Margaret was taking Allison into Meridian custody,” Samuel said. “I was wrong.”
The video shook as though someone had struck the door outside the room.
Allison leaned closer to the camera.
“Dad says he wants to destroy Meridian. Margaret says he became its leader. I don’t know which one is telling the truth.”
Evelyn looked at Samuel’s watch.
A small compartment had opened beneath the cracked glass.
Inside was a folded strip of paper.
Detective Ortiz used gloves to remove it.
The paper contained coordinates.
Benjamin recognized them.
“The island.”
The recording continued.
“I am going there to find the fourth archive. It contains the names of every person who took control after the founders disappeared.”
“Where is the island?” Evelyn asked.
Benjamin pointed at the coordinates.
“North Atlantic. Private territory owned through a Meridian company.”
On the screen, Allison looked frightened for the first time.
“Mom, if I do not return, do not follow me.”
Evelyn almost smiled through her tears.
Allison should have known her better.
Samuel’s voice spoke from outside the camera frame.
“We have to leave.”
Allison reached forward to stop the recording.
Before the image ended, a woman entered the room behind her.
Margaret.
Her clothes were wet from rain, and she was holding a folder marked ARCHIVE FOUR.
“Don’t go with him,” Margaret said.
Samuel stood.
His face entered the frame for less than a second.
It was Samuel.
Older, thinner and marked by years Evelyn had never witnessed.
But it was him.
The screen turned black.
Recording ten ended.
Ortiz examined the coordinates.
“We can give these to federal investigators.”
Benjamin shook his head.
“Meridian will abandon the island as soon as anyone accesses the location.”
Evelyn picked up Samuel’s watch.
The ticking grew louder.
A new file appeared on the chapel screen.
RECORDING ELEVEN.
Claire Rowan entered through the rear doors.
“I didn’t activate it,” she said.
No one had.
The final recording began automatically.
There was no video.
Only Allison’s voice.
“Mom, recording eleven was never supposed to play.”
Static interrupted her.
“If you are hearing it, someone altered my system after I disappeared.”
Evelyn looked at Benjamin.
He stepped away from the projector.
Allison continued.
“The person who changed it has access to every message, every camera and every location I trusted.”
A photograph appeared.
It showed the chapel from outside.
The image had been taken minutes earlier.
Evelyn, Ortiz, Benjamin and Claire could be seen through the tall windows.
Someone was watching them now.
The chapel doors locked.
The screen changed again.
A live aerial image showed a small island surrounded by dark water.
A light flashed from a building near the shore.
Three short signals.
Three long signals.
Three short signals.
A distress call.
Then a woman ran onto the island’s dock.
Even from above, Evelyn recognized Allison’s red coat.
Evelyn moved toward the screen.
“Allison.”
A second figure emerged behind her.
A man raised one hand toward the aircraft camera.
Samuel Hart looked directly into the lens.
The live feed cut out.
A message appeared.
ONE HART MAY ENTER.
Evelyn looked down at the coordinates hidden inside Samuel’s watch.
Detective Ortiz tried the chapel doors.
They would not open.
Benjamin stared toward the security camera.
“We are not the only ones who received that message.”
Evelyn’s black phone began to ring.
The caller was listed as Allison.
She answered immediately.
No one spoke.
In the background, she heard waves, an alarm and hurried footsteps.
Then Allison whispered, “Mom, whatever you do, don’t bring the watch to the island.”
A man’s voice called her name.
The connection broke.
At the same moment, Samuel’s watch displayed a countdown.
Twenty-four hours.
Claire looked at the chapel screen.
“What happens when it reaches zero?”
Evelyn closed her hand around the watch.
She stared at the live image of the island until it vanished completely.
“I’m going to find out.”
Outside the locked chapel, a black vehicle stopped beneath the front steps.
The rear door opened.
May you like
Margaret Hart stepped out carrying a second watch.
And behind her sat a woman who looked exactly like Allison.
