Chapter 10 - the man in two places)
The explanation arrived thirty minutes later.
Malcolm had been released on bail six hours earlier.
His attorneys argued that financial evidence remained unverified and that he posed no immediate flight risk.
By the time authorities issued a new request to detain him, he had disappeared.
Damian was furious.
Detective Sloan sounded worse.
"We believe the Montreal footage may actually be from late yesterday. The camera timestamp was wrong."
"So Malcolm was already in Canada before bail?"
"Possible."
"Then who was sitting in the courtroom?"
Sloan paused.
"Malcolm."
Damian rubbed his forehead.
Nothing made sense.
Elena took the phone.
"Could the woman not be Evelyn?"
"That's increasingly possible," Sloan said.
The forensic analyst reviewed more images.
The woman resembled Evelyn but moved differently.
Her height was also approximately two inches shorter.
Someone might be using an impersonator.
But why?
To make Damian search in the wrong place.
Or to make Richard search there.
The second possibility mattered.
Damian began thinking of the photograph not as a clue, but bait.
"Someone wanted me to believe my mother was in Montreal."
Elena nodded.
"Maybe they wanted Richard to believe it too."
That night, Marcus called with another discovery.
The wedding cake hard drive contained a hidden partition.
Inside were emails between Howard and Malcolm.
One message was dated two days before the wedding.
H will move the package during ceremony chaos.
R believes E is in Montreal.
D still knows nothing.
Elena read it twice.
D was probably Damian.
E could be Evelyn.
R could be Richard.
The package remained unknown.
Another email said:
Child's bill may contain location sequence. Vanessa saw it once when Gabriel was alive.
Damian looked at Elena.
"Vanessa said she never met Gabriel."
"She lied."
They called Vanessa through her attorney.
She refused at first.
Then Elena spoke.
"Tell her this is about Gabriel."
Vanessa came to the phone.
Elena wasted no time.
"You knew my husband."
Silence.
"Vanessa."
"I met him once."
"When?"
"Three weeks before he died."
"Why?"
"My father took me to a Cross Meridian charity event. Gabriel approached me."
"What did he say?"
Vanessa hesitated.
"He asked whether I knew what my father was doing."
"And?"
"I told him to stay away from us."
"Did you tell Malcolm?"
"Yes."
Elena closed her eyes.
"Then your father knew Gabriel was investigating him."
"Yes."
"Why did you lie?"
"Because every time I tell you the truth, it makes me look worse."
Elena's voice became cold.
"Maybe because the truth is worse."
Vanessa breathed shakily.
"Gabriel gave me a message."
"What message?"
"He said if anything happened to him, I should remember the number on the dollar."
"Why you?"
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"No."
Vanessa's voice cracked.
"He thought I was different from my father."
Elena said nothing.
Vanessa continued.
"I was twenty seven. I hated Malcolm. Gabriel somehow knew. He said people like my father depended on everyone around them being too afraid to choose a side."
"What did you do?"
"I told my father."
Elena felt sick.
"So Gabriel trusted you and you betrayed him."
"I didn't know he was going to die."
"Would it have mattered?"
Vanessa began crying.
Elena almost hung up.
Then Vanessa whispered, "The six digits aren't only a bank box."
Elena stopped.
"What else?"
"Coordinates."
Damian grabbed paper.
731204.
Vanessa explained Gabriel had once said the numbers had to be "read backward after the first door."
The safe deposit box had been the first door.
Inside, the microfilm ledger contained repeated page numbers.
Damian combined the sequence.
04 21 37.
Then reversed.
73 12 40.
Marcus searched property maps.
A rural parcel owned by an old Cross Meridian subsidiary carried survey designation 73-12-40.
It was located less than fifteen miles from the lake house.
Damian felt the hairs on his arms rise.
Gabriel had hidden something near this property.
Maybe that was why Daniel once purchased the lake house.
They drove to the parcel at sunrise with security.
The land contained an abandoned research facility.
One concrete building remained.
Inside were empty offices, rusting cabinets and a basement door.
The brass key from Gabriel's box fit again.
Elena looked at Damian.
"So the key opened two things."
"Maybe Gabriel planned redundancy."
They descended.
The basement contained rows of old archival shelves.
Most were empty.
At the back stood a locked cabinet.
Inside were blueprints.
Inspection photographs.
And dozens of cassette tapes.
One was labeled Gabriel Reyes.
Elena's hands shook as she placed it into an old recorder.
Gabriel's voice emerged.
"My name is Gabriel Reyes. Today is September fourteenth. If you're hearing this, I have probably failed to deliver the evidence personally."
Elena sat down.
That date was the day Gabriel died.
His recording continued.
"Richard Cross is involved. Malcolm Crosswell is involved. Howard Vale is involved."
Damian waited.
Then Gabriel added something unexpected.
"But none of them are giving the orders."
Elena looked at Damian.
Gabriel continued.
"The person controlling the R17 network is a woman."
Damian's stomach dropped.
"The name I've been given is Evelyn."
The recorder clicked off.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Elena finally whispered.
"Your mother."
Damian stared at the machine.
Either Gabriel had been wrong.
May you like
Or his father had.
Or Evelyn Cross had never been the victim in this story.
