Chapter 5 - The Lawyer With Two Faces
Adrian insisted he did not have a brother.
He also insisted that no living relative resembled him closely enough to be mistaken for him.
Ethan did not believe him.
The storage facility’s exterior camera captured the black car leaving but failed to record its license plate. The person in the rear seat remained blurred behind tinted glass.
The footage from the hotel was equally useless. The intruder wore a cap and kept his face angled away from the cameras.
By afternoon, Adrian had arranged for a digital forensics company to examine the photograph of him outside Richard’s estate. Their preliminary conclusion offered no comfort.
The image had not been altered.
“The date could be false,” Adrian said.
Ethan stood in the temporary office Adrian had borrowed from another law firm.
“The estate security system confirms someone visited Richard at that time.”
“It does not confirm the visitor was me.”
“It shows your face.”
“I understand what it shows.”
“Then explain it.”
“I cannot.”
Margaret sat near the window with Celeste’s surviving notebooks. Two investigators had escorted them from the storage facility and remained outside the office.
She opened one notebook to a page written several days before the fire.
Celeste had recorded license plates, telephone numbers and names of people she believed were following her.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Victor Sloane.
Ethan searched the name.
Victor was the chairman of Carrington National Bank, the institution that financed Whitmore-Mercer Development during its first ten years. He was seventy-four and still controlled several investment companies.
“Jonathan wrote that the person behind Richard controlled the bank,” Ethan said.
Margaret read another entry.
“Celeste met Victor twice.”
“Why?”
“She believed he had proof Jonathan was alive.”
Adrian looked up.
“I represented Victor’s bank in a property dispute years ago.”
“When?” Ethan asked.
“After Celeste’s death.”
“Did Richard introduce you?”
“No.”
“Did Victor know about the Mercer accounts?”
“He controlled the bank. He would have known anything he wanted to know.”
Ethan returned to the image of Adrian at the estate.
“Could Victor have hired someone to impersonate you?”
“With enough preparation.”
“For what purpose?”
“To gain Richard’s trust or to make you distrust me.”
Margaret looked toward Adrian.
“Who knew about your missing key?”
“Richard, Jonathan and my former office manager.”
“Where is the office manager now?”
“She died fifteen years ago.”
Ethan sat across from him.
“Did you ever tell Victor?”
“No.”
“Are you certain?”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“You have every right to question me. You do not have the right to assume every answer you dislike is a lie.”
“That sounds like something Richard would say.”
Margaret closed the notebook.
“Enough.”
Ethan expected her to defend Adrian. Instead, she looked directly at him.
“Adrian, where were you three weeks ago?”
“At a legal conference in Boston.”
“Can anyone confirm it?”
“Yes.”
“Then obtain the records.”
“I already requested them.”
Margaret continued.
“Until we know who entered Richard’s estate, you will not be alone with Ethan or the remaining documents.”
Adrian accepted the decision without argument.
At four that afternoon, Whitmore Holdings convened an emergency board meeting.
Richard arrived with three attorneys and an expression of complete confidence. He had spent the morning calling board members, claiming Ethan and Margaret were attempting to seize control of the company through forged evidence.
Ethan entered with Margaret, Adrian and two forensic accountants.
Richard smiled when he saw them.
“You should be celebrating your graduation.”
“I am,” Ethan replied. “This is the first useful thing I have done with it.”
The boardroom occupied the top floor of Whitmore Tower. A long glass wall overlooked the city. Richard sat at the head of the table, though the interim chair had ordered him not to participate in decisions concerning the investigation.
Ethan presented the trust transfers first.
The forensic accountants showed that Vesper Ridge Consulting had no employees, no office and no legitimate business activity. Nearly all money transferred into it moved within forty-eight hours to accounts connected to Richard.
Richard’s attorney argued that Margaret had authorized the transactions.
Ethan displayed the signature analysis.
The forms were signed during periods when Margaret was documented as being in another country or receiving medical treatment.
One transfer bore a signature dated three days after Margaret’s temporary power of attorney had expired.
Richard leaned back.
“My wife frequently signed documents without remembering them.”
Margaret looked at him.
“I remember every document you forced me to sign.”
The room became silent.
Richard turned toward her.
“Be careful.”
“No,” she said. “You have spent twenty-two years telling me to be careful. I am finished being careful.”
She described the threats, the manipulated medical reports and the surveillance Richard used to control her access to Ethan.
A board member named Helen Shaw began to cry.
Richard noticed.
“Helen?”
She wiped her face.
Helen had served as a junior accountant during the early years of Whitmore-Mercer Development. She had remained with the company through every expansion and now managed its internal audit division.
She stood.
“I processed three of the original transfers.”
Richard’s attorney leaned forward.
“You should speak privately before making any statement.”
“I have been speaking privately for twenty-four years.”
Helen removed a flash drive from her bag.
“Richard told me the payments were part of a confidential security operation. When I questioned the invoices, he showed me photographs of my daughter leaving school.”
Richard’s expression did not change.
“That is an outrageous accusation.”
“I kept the instructions.”
“Why would you keep evidence of your own misconduct?”
“Because Jonathan Mercer told me to.”
Ethan stared at her.
“You saw him after the boating accident?”
“Once.”
Margaret stood.
“When?”
“Two months after the funeral.”
“Where?”
“In the basement parking level beneath this building.”
Richard struck the table.
“She is lying.”
Helen connected the flash drive to the presentation system.
An audio file appeared on the screen.
The recording was old and distorted, but Richard’s voice was recognizable.
Move the Mercer funds through Vesper Ridge.
A second voice answered.
The boy must never receive the voting shares.
Richard said, Jonathan is dead.
The second voice laughed.
Then why are you still frightened of him?
Several board members looked toward Richard.
The recording continued.
Richard asked, What happens if Celeste talks?
The second voice replied, Then the house will become her grave.
Margaret covered her mouth.
Ethan felt cold move through his body.
The audio ended.
Richard remained seated.
“Anyone can manufacture a recording.”
Helen looked at him.
“I heard that conversation through your office door six days before Celeste died.”
“Who was speaking with him?” Ethan asked.
Helen hesitated.
“I never saw the man’s face.”
“But you recognized the voice.”
“Yes.”
“Whose voice was it?”
Before she could answer, the boardroom doors opened.
Victor Sloane entered.
He walked slowly with a silver cane, accompanied by his personal attorney and two security officers. Age had narrowed his shoulders but not weakened the authority in his gaze.
Richard stood.
“What are you doing here?”
Victor ignored him.
He looked at Helen.
“You were about to identify a voice.”
Helen’s courage vanished.
She lowered her eyes.
Victor took an empty seat near the end of the table.
“Please continue.”
Ethan watched him.
Helen gripped the edge of the table.
“The recording device was damaged,” she said. “I may have been mistaken.”
Richard smiled.
Margaret moved toward her.
“Helen, you heard someone threaten Celeste.”
“I cannot identify him.”
Victor looked at Ethan.
“You have caused considerable disruption on your graduation day.”
Ethan did not sit.
“Do you know who my father was?”
“I knew Jonathan well.”
“Is he alive?”
Victor tapped one finger against the handle of his cane.
“Jonathan had a talent for disappearing when others paid the price.”
“That was not my question.”
“No. But it was the answer you needed.”
The interim chair asked Victor to explain his involvement in the meeting.
Victor’s bank owned eleven percent of Whitmore Holdings and held secured debt connected to several developments. He had the right to attend under the company’s emergency financing agreements.
Richard looked less pleased by his arrival than Ethan expected.
Ethan placed the photograph of Jonathan on the table.
“Did you send this?”
Victor examined it.
“No.”
“Did you enter Richard’s office using Adrian Cole’s face?”
A brief flicker moved through Victor’s expression.
“What an unusual accusation.”
“Do you know someone who looks like Adrian?”
Victor’s eyes moved toward the lawyer.
“I once knew Adrian’s older brother.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
Ethan turned.
“You said you did not have a brother.”
“I don’t,” Adrian replied.
Victor smiled faintly.
“Not anymore.”
Adrian approached him.
“My brother died when I was seventeen.”
“That is what your family was told.”
Margaret stared at Adrian.
“What was his name?”
“Daniel.”
Victor looked toward the city beyond the glass.
“Daniel Cole became very useful to men who required signatures, faces and identities that could not be traced.”
Adrian’s voice became quiet.
“Where is he?”
Victor tapped his cane once.
“Ask Richard.”
Every person at the table turned.
Richard’s face had become completely still.
Then Ethan’s phone received a message.
It contained a short audio file.
Celeste’s voice emerged through static.
Margaret, he is here. Richard brought him. It is not Jonathan. Please keep Ethan away from the windows.
A man spoke in the background.
The recording ended after three words.
Light the stairs.
Helen collapsed into her chair.
“That is the voice from Richard’s office,” she whispered.
Ethan replayed the final words.
Adrian moved closer to the phone.
His face changed.
“Do you recognize him?” Ethan asked.
Adrian looked toward Victor.
Then he looked at Richard.
“Yes.”
“Who is it?”
May you like
Adrian’s answer was barely audible.
“My brother Daniel.”
