Chapter 4 - the guest who never checked out)
The missing guest was Howard Vale.
Chief financial officer of Cross Meridian.
He had worked with Damian's father for twenty two years.
He had also been one of three people capable of creating the false termination record against Gabriel.
Howard's driver arrived at the estate at eight the next morning.
Howard never appeared.
Hotel security entered his room.
His suitcase remained unpacked.
His wallet sat beside the bed.
His phone was gone.
So was his laptop.
There was no obvious sign of violence.
But the balcony door had been left open.
Damian received the call while sitting beside Mia at breakfast.
The canceled wedding had transformed the mansion.
Decorators removed flowers.
Staff dismantled tables.
News vans gathered at the gate.
Damian had released only a brief statement citing a private family matter.
Mia sat on a cushion because bruising made the dining chair uncomfortable.
She ate strawberries while Elena watched her carefully.
Damian ended the call.
Elena saw his expression.
"What happened?"
"Howard Vale is missing."
"Who is he?"
"The CFO."
The meaning registered.
"One of the people who could have changed Gabriel's file."
Damian nodded.
Mia looked between them.
"Is Mr. Howard lost?"
Elena forced a smile.
"Something like that."
Mia lifted the dollar bill from beside her plate.
She had refused to let it out of her sight.
Damian noticed something.
"Can I see that again?"
Mia handed it over.
He turned it beneath the morning light.
The six digits, 731204, were written in blue ink.
But beneath them was something else.
Two letters.
SB.
They were so faint that nobody had noticed.
Damian photographed the markings.
"Safe box?" Elena asked.
"Maybe."
Damian called Marcus.
Within twenty minutes, Marcus discovered that Gabriel once maintained an account at Sterling National Bank.
Branch 73.
Damian looked again at the numbers.
73 12 04.
Branch seventy three.
Box twelve zero four.
Elena stared.
"You think it's a bank box?"
"Possibly."
"Then why write it on a dollar?"
"Because nobody would think a dollar was worth stealing."
Elena looked toward Mia.
Except Vanessa had.
They drove to the bank.
Damian brought two security vehicles.
Elena carried Gabriel's death certificate, marriage certificate and identification.
The manager confirmed something surprising.
Safe deposit box 1204 had belonged to Gabriel Reyes.
It had remained unpaid for nearly three years.
Yet it had never been drilled open because someone anonymously paid the annual fee in cash.
Every March.
Elena felt dizzy.
"Who?"
"We don't record identity for cash payments under that amount," the manager said.
"Can I access it?"
"As surviving spouse, yes, after verification."
The brass key fit.
Inside the box were three items.
A flash drive.
A sealed envelope marked Elena.
And a photograph.
Elena picked up the photograph first.
Gabriel stood outside a construction site.
Beside him was Daniel Cross.
Damian's father.
Between them stood Howard Vale.
And Malcolm Crosswell.
On the back Gabriel had written:
Four men know what happened at Riverside.
One tried to stop it.
Elena's hands shook.
Damian opened the envelope.
Inside was a letter.
Elena,
If you're reading this, something went wrong.
I need you to know that I did not steal from Meridian.
I found inspection reports being changed after engineers signed them.
Buildings passed that should never have passed.
I thought Daniel Cross was responsible.
I was wrong.
He was trying to stop it.
Someone inside his company is working with Crosswell Development.
Howard knows more than he says.
I copied everything.
But I couldn't keep the files at home.
If anything happens to me, do not trust the official story.
Protect our baby.
And Elena, there is one more thing.
Daniel told me the fraud is only part of it.
Money is being moved through a charitable foundation.
He thinks the person controlling it is someone inside his own family.
The final line was underlined.
Do not give the original drive to Damian Cross until you know whether he can be trusted.
Elena stopped reading.
Damian had seen it.
The words cut deeper than he expected.
"My father didn't trust me?"
"No," Elena whispered. "Gabriel didn't know whether he could."
They stared at the flash drive.
Damian stepped back.
"You should decide."
"Decide what?"
"Whether to open it with me."
Elena studied him.
Less than twenty four hours earlier, his fiancée had pushed her child down a staircase.
Now his family name appeared in a letter written by her dead husband.
Trust was suddenly the most dangerous currency either of them possessed.
Elena inserted the drive into an offline laptop provided by the bank.
There were hundreds of files.
Inspection reports.
Financial records.
Photographs.
Audio recordings.
One folder was labeled DC.
Inside were recordings between Gabriel and Daniel Cross.
Elena clicked the final file.
Gabriel's voice filled the room.
"If we send this to the board, they'll bury it."
Daniel replied.
"Then we don't send it to the board."
"What do we do?"
"We go federal."
Gabriel asked, "And your son?"
A long silence.
Then Daniel said something Damian would never forget.
"My son doesn't know what he's sitting on."
Damian looked as though someone had struck him.
The recording continued.
Daniel lowered his voice.
"If I die before this comes out, tell Damian the person closest to him is not who he thinks."
The audio suddenly ended.
Elena stared at Damian.
"Who was closest to you three years ago?"
Damian didn't answer.
Because there were several possibilities.
His father.
His uncle Richard.
Howard Vale.
And Vanessa.
His relationship with Vanessa had begun exactly three years earlier.
Two weeks after Gabriel died.
Before either could speak, someone knocked violently on the bank conference room door.
Security opened it.
A detective entered.
"Damian Cross?"
"Yes."
"I'm Detective Sloan."
She held up a photograph of Howard Vale's abandoned car.
"We found blood in the trunk."
Elena felt her stomach drop.
May you like
The detective continued.
"And hotel cameras show the last person entering Howard's room last night was your former fiancée."
