Chapter 8 - AUDREY’S CONFESSION
At noon the next day, every major news station in the city received the same anonymous video.
Audrey Vale appeared on the screen.
She was seated in her private office, unaware that she was being recorded. Conrad stood near the window.
The conversation began in the middle of an argument.
“You said Rowan would never enter,” Audrey said.
“You were supposed to discourage her,” Conrad replied.
“I tried.”
“You copied too precisely.”
“You told me to.”
“I told you to use the coordinates, not reproduce every line.”
“I needed the council to approve it.”
“You needed to appear original.”
Audrey paced across the room.
“She has timestamps.”
“Then destroy them.”
“She backed everything up.”
“Then destroy the person.”
Audrey stopped.
“No.”
Conrad turned from the window.
“Have you forgotten what her sister did to you?”
“Elara saved me.”
“Elara kidnapped you.”
“You lied about that.”
Conrad’s face changed.
The camera captured it clearly.
Audrey lowered her voice.
“I remember the tunnel now. I remember her pushing me through the opening. I remember her staying behind because your men were coming.”
“You were confused.”
“I saw the photograph.”
“What photograph?”
“The one in Miriam Hale’s room.”
Conrad crossed the office quickly and seized Audrey’s arm.
“Who showed it to you?”
Audrey winced.
“No one.”
“You went into that house.”
“I needed the letter.”
“Did you find it?”
“No.”
Conrad released her.
The video ended as someone entered the office.
For three hours, the confession dominated every channel.
The Memorial Council suspended Audrey’s entry pending investigation.
The mayor demanded answers.
Conrad issued a statement claiming the video was manipulated.
Audrey disappeared from public view.
Rowan should have felt victorious.
Instead, she recognized the angle of the hidden camera.
It had been placed inside a decorative brass clock on Audrey’s office shelf.
During Rowan’s time at the firm, only one person had access to the room without an appointment.
Audrey’s executive assistant, Celia Marrow.
Rowan called Milo.
“We need to find Celia.”
“I already tried. Her phone is disconnected.”
“Home address?”
“Empty apartment.”
“Family?”
“None listed.”
Milo paused.
“There is something else. The metadata on the video is strange.”
“Manipulated?”
“No. Too clean. Whoever released it removed almost everything, except one embedded reference code.”
“What does it point to?”
“The Memorial Council archive.”
Elias.
Rowan went directly to his office.
This time, his assistant did not stop her.
Elias was packing documents into a metal case.
“You released the video,” Rowan said.
“I ensured it reached people Conrad could not silence.”
“How did you get it?”
“Celia.”
“Where is she?”
“Gone.”
“Dead?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was she working for you?”
“She was working for Elara.”
The name filled the room.
Rowan shut the door.
“You know where my sister is.”
“I knew where she was three years ago.”
“Serena said my father discovered where she was being held.”
“He discovered a private medical facility owned through a Vale subsidiary. Before he could reach it, the patients were moved.”
“Was Elara a patient?”
“Her name was not recorded.”
“What was?”
Elias opened a file and removed a photograph.
It showed a woman in a hospital corridor.
Her face was turned away, but her red hair reached the middle of her back.
On her wrist was a silver bracelet identical to the one used to identify Elara after the fire.
The photograph had been taken four years earlier.
“She was alive,” Rowan whispered.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because every person who approached you openly became a target.”
“My father became a target anyway.”
Elias looked down.
“That was my failure.”
Rowan placed the old photograph of Elias and Conrad on his desk.
“You helped him before the fire.”
“I approved a transfer based on falsified reports. When I discovered the truth, I tried to stop the final sale. Conrad had already paid everyone around me.”
“So you became director of the memorial project.”
“To control the excavation.”
“You let Audrey enter.”
“To force Conrad to reveal which coordinates he needed.”
“And you let her steal my work.”
“I did not know she had your files until the article appeared.”
“You praised her.”
“I praised the concept because I recognized Elara’s design.”
Rowan felt anger rising again.
“You used me.”
“Yes.”
The admission was so direct that she briefly lost her response.
Elias locked the metal case.
“Conrad will move now. The video exposed him, but it did not convict him. He needs the ledger before investigators search the memorial foundation.”
“Where is the first section?”
Elias pointed to Elara’s original plan.
“The seventh pillar.”
“The foundation hasn’t been built.”
“The location existed before the design. Bellweather’s old emergency water tank stood beneath it.”
“And the city is excavating tomorrow.”
“At dawn.”
Rowan understood why the memory card contained tomorrow’s date.
The confession was not the final strike.
It was bait.
Someone wanted Conrad to panic and lead them to the ledger.
But there was one problem.
“Who placed the symbol on my sketch?” Rowan asked.
Elias looked at the door.
May you like
Then he spoke so quietly she almost missed it.
“Elara did.”
