Chapter 13 - Simon Vale Tells the Truth
Simon agreed to speak only if Clara attended.
Agent Bell objected.
Clara insisted.
They met behind reinforced glass.
Simon looked nothing like the polished attorney from the airport.
His tie was gone.
Hair disordered.
A bruise marked his cheek from the arrest.
He studied Clara.
"You opened the box."
Clara said nothing.
"You found Rebecca’s tapes."
Still nothing.
Simon smiled faintly.
"Then you know more than Richard ever did."
Clara leaned toward the microphone.
"Where is Peter?"
Simon’s smile vanished.
"My father is dead."
"I saw him on video with Chloe."
"No."
"Nine months ago."
Simon stared.
"That wasn’t Peter."
"It was his face."
"Yes."
Clara felt unease.
"Explain."
Simon looked toward Bell.
"I want immunity."
Bell almost laughed.
"You are in no position."
"Then enjoy never finding him."
Clara interrupted.
"Finding who?"
Simon looked at her.
"The man who replaced my father."
Silence.
"Replaced?"
Simon nodded.
"My father died twelve years ago from pancreatic cancer. Quietly. Gerald didn’t want the network to destabilize."
"So they pretended he remained alive?"
"At first through communications. Emails. Voice calls. Intermediaries."
"And the man in the video?"
Simon lowered his voice.
"Plastic surgery. Dental reconstruction. Voice training."
Clara stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because Peter Vale was more valuable as a symbol than as a corpse."
Bell looked skeptical.
"You expect us to believe someone reconstructed another man’s face?"
Simon shrugged.
"You just uncovered an organization that manufactured identities for decades."
Clara thought of Blackwater.
New passports.
New names.
Living people declared dead.
Perhaps replacing a dead man was not outside their methods.
"Who is he really?"
"I don’t know."
"You're lying."
"My father called him Custodian."
Richard, listening from another room, suddenly entered after Bell allowed it.
Simon laughed when he saw him.
"Look who finally discovered morality."
Richard ignored him.
"Who ordered Clara moved through the airport?"
Simon looked at him.
"You did."
Richard slammed his palm against the table.
"I agreed to relocation, not murder."
Simon leaned forward.
"You signed Phase Three authorization."
"I was told Phase Three protected my family."
"You were told what you wanted to believe."
The words landed.
Richard had no response.
Simon turned to Clara.
"That is your husband’s special talent. He lets other people provide lies he finds convenient."
Clara hated Simon.
She also knew that sentence was true.
"Why create my medical file?"
Simon answered without hesitation.
"Because unstable women are easy to discredit."
Richard closed his eyes.
"Why Chloe?"
"Because Gerald’s trust architecture made her useful."
"The red room."
Simon’s face changed.
"I never approved that."
Clara laughed sharply.
"So everyone has one crime they want distance from."
Simon stared at her.
"Do you think I’m defending myself?"
"Yes."
"No."
His voice became flat.
"I am telling you the organization stopped belonging to the Vances and Vales years ago."
Bell leaned closer.
"Who controls it?"
Simon looked directly into the camera.
"The Custodian."
"Name."
"I don’t know."
"Location."
"I don’t know."
"Then what do you know?"
Simon smiled.
"I know why Rebecca said Clara carries proof."
Clara’s heartbeat changed.
"What proof?"
"Your blood."
Maya’s revelation returned instantly.
Gerald was Maya’s father.
But Clara?
Jonathan was supposedly hers.
Simon continued.
"Rebecca discovered one of Blackwater’s earliest programs involved falsifying medical identities for wealthy clients."
Bell frowned.
"Medical identities?"
"Organ transplants. Genetic records. Paternity. Insurance."
Simon looked at Clara.
"Your blood proves one of the most powerful families in the country is not who they claim to be."
Clara stared.
"Which family?"
Simon shook his head.
"I don’t know."
"Then how do you know my blood matters?"
"Because my father spent thirty years searching for you."
"Why not just take blood after Richard married me?"
Simon’s face became strange.
"They did."
Clara went cold.
"The Harrington Institute."
"Yes."
"Then why am I still alive?"
"Because your sample didn’t match what they expected."
"Meaning?"
Simon looked toward the mirrored glass.
"They believed Rebecca lied about your father."
Clara thought of Tape Three.
Jonathan is not Maya’s biological father.
Perhaps Rebecca had hidden Clara’s paternity too.
"Who did they think my father was?"
Simon leaned back.
Before he could answer, the lights flickered.
Bell stood.
The building alarm sounded.
Not fire.
Security.
A voice came over the intercom.
"All personnel shelter in place."
Bell moved toward the door.
Simon suddenly stood.
"They found me."
"Sit down."
"They found me."
The fear in his face was real.
A gunshot sounded somewhere outside.
Then another.
Bell ordered Clara and Richard behind the concrete partition.
Agents rushed into the corridor.
Simon pounded on the glass.
"Get me out!"
The lights went dark.
Emergency red lights activated.
Clara heard Chloe’s voice in her memory.
The red room.
Questions.
Bluebird.
Another gunshot.
Glass shattered.
When backup power restored fifteen seconds later, Simon was on the floor.
Blood spread beneath him.
The reinforced window had not been broken.
The shot had come from inside the secured interview room.
Bell entered.
No weapon.
No second person.
Simon was conscious for only seconds.
Clara knelt near the doorway while paramedics rushed in.
Simon looked at her.
His lips moved.
Clara leaned closer.
"Your father..."
"What?"
Simon coughed blood.
"Your father is..."
He whispered a name.
Clara heard it.
So did Richard.
Richard’s face went completely white.
Simon stopped breathing.
Clara stared at her husband.
"You know that name."
Richard shook his head.
Clara repeated it.
"Gabriel Vance."
Elena arrived behind them.
She heard the name.
Her face changed.
"Gabriel?"
Clara looked at her.
"Who is Gabriel Vance?"
May you like
Elena whispered:
"Our grandfather."
