Chapter 12 - THE NIGHT OF THE STORM
Alexander did not react outwardly.
Only the tightening of his hand revealed the shock.
“My father was in the city that night.”
Charles shook his head.
“That was the official record.”
Claire leaned toward him.
“What happened on the boat?”
Charles pressed a cloth to the cut above his eye.
“I wasn’t there.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Thomas called me thirty minutes before the vessel disappeared.”
Daniel closed the study door, shutting out the police activity.
Charles continued.
“He said Richard had asked for a meeting offshore. Thomas believed Richard intended to provide the Vale key.”
“Why offshore?” Adrian asked.
“They knew the Circle watched the ports, offices, and homes. Open water seemed safer.”
“It wasn’t,” Claire said.
“No.”
Charles looked toward the open safe.
“Thomas called again later. The line was poor. I heard shouting.”
“What did he say?” Claire asked.
“He said Richard had been betrayed.”
Alexander’s face hardened.
“By Marcus?”
“I heard only one name.”
“Whose?”
Charles’s gaze moved to Claire.
“Margaret.”
Claire stepped backward.
“No.”
“He said, ‘Margaret gave them the route.’ Then the connection ended.”
Daniel looked toward the door.
“Claire’s mother admitted moving the money.”
“She also admitted helping Thomas,” Claire said.
Charles nodded.
“Both can be true.”
Alexander paced once across the study.
“Why keep this secret?”
“Because two hours after the boat vanished, Marcus arrived at my home with photographs of Daniel.”
Daniel went still.
“You were fourteen,” Charles said. “He knew your school, your driver, your schedule. He told me my son would disappear if I spoke.”
Daniel’s anger gave way to disbelief.
“So you joined them.”
“I pretended to.”
Charles opened a hidden panel beneath his desk and removed a small device.
“I spent twelve years tracing the Circle’s accounts from inside.”
Alexander looked at the device.
“The Whitmore key?”
“No. The ring was only a container.”
Charles pressed the emerald stone.
It opened.
The compartment was empty.
“The actual key was a microchip.”
“Vanessa has it,” Claire said.
“Yes.”
“And the ledger?”
“Names, dates, and coded transactions recorded by Thomas. Without it, we cannot verify the lighthouse account.”
Claire looked toward the windows.
“Why did Vanessa leave a white rose in Richard’s grave?”
Charles frowned.
“She did what?”
Alexander showed him the message.
Charles read it.
“That was not Vanessa.”
“How do you know?”
“She didn’t have the Vale key when she came here. She demanded to know where it was.”
Adrian checked his tablet.
“Then Marcus may have the Vale key.”
Alexander looked at Charles.
“You used Marcus’s passport.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To enter Switzerland under his identity and access Blackthorn Consulting.”
“You made it appear he fled.”
“I wanted you to investigate him.”
Alexander’s expression grew colder.
“You could have contacted me.”
“I did not know whether you were part of the Circle.”
“And now?”
Charles looked toward Claire.
“Now I know Marcus wants the three of you at the lighthouse. That means none of you controls the account.”
Claire considered the pieces.
Marcus possessed the Vale key.
Vanessa possessed the Whitmore key and her father’s ledger.
Claire possessed the Bennett key.
The meeting required all three.
Daniel moved toward his father.
“Where did Vanessa go?”
Charles hesitated.
“An old airfield east of the city.”
Adrian immediately contacted his team.
Charles caught Claire’s attention.
“There is something else.”
“What?”
“The woman with Vanessa was not one of Marcus’s people.”
“What woman?”
Charles opened a security recording.
Vanessa entered the study with two masked men.
Several seconds later, another figure appeared in the hall.
Margaret Bennett.
Claire stared at the screen.
Her mother followed Vanessa into the estate despite supposedly remaining under guard at the Vale mansion.
“How did she leave?” Alexander asked.
Adrian checked his messages.
His expression darkened.
“The woman at the mansion isn’t Margaret.”
Claire’s pulse quickened.
“What do you mean?”
“The security team found her unconscious. She was wearing a realistic facial mask.”
A substitute had taken Margaret’s place.
Margaret had been working with Vanessa.
Or following her.
Claire called her mother.
No answer.
A message arrived instead.
DO NOT COME TO THE AIRFIELD.
Claire showed Alexander.
He took his jacket from the chair.
“That confirms where we’re going.”
Charles tried to stand.
“You don’t understand. The airfield belonged to Richard Vale.”
Alexander looked at him.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t. Officially, the property was used for cargo storage.”
“What was it actually used for?”
Charles glanced at Daniel, then Claire.
“A private detention site.”
Claire felt cold.
“For whom?”
“Anyone the Circle needed to disappear.”
Claire thought of her father.
“Was Thomas held there?”
Charles nodded.
“For three days after the boat accident.”
Her breath stopped.
“He survived?”
Charles lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
The room became silent.
Claire could barely speak.
“Then how did he die?”
May you like
Charles looked toward the open window.
“He may not have.”
