Chapter 8 - Thomas Vale)
Thomas Vale was not difficult to find.
The difficult part was understanding why Margaret Carter had spent almost one hundred thousand dollars on him.
Daniel began with public records.
He found a Thomas Vale, sixty-nine, living in Ohio.
Former insurance salesman.
Divorced twice.
One bankruptcy.
One arrest for writing fraudulent checks twenty-six years earlier.
Jessica stared at his photograph on Daniel's laptop.
"I've never seen him."
Claire had.
She just could not immediately remember where.
Something about the man's narrow face seemed familiar.
Then Ethan walked past the dining room.
He stopped.
"That's Grandpa Tom."
Everyone turned.
Jessica stared at him.
"What did you say?"
Ethan pointed at the screen.
"Grandma calls him Grandpa Tom."
Claire's skin prickled.
"When have you seen him?"
"Video calls."
Jessica stood.
"Mom video calls this man?"
"Sometimes."
"How often?"
Ethan shrugged.
"When I'm at her house."
Claire asked gently, "What do they talk about?"
"I don't know. She makes me go outside."
Jessica sat down slowly.
"I don't understand."
Daniel searched another database.
Then he stopped.
"What was your father's full name?"
Jessica answered.
"Charles Edward Carter."
Daniel typed.
A marriage record appeared.
Margaret Elaine Morris married Charles Carter forty-four years earlier.
Nothing unusual.
Then Daniel opened another record.
Margaret Elaine Morris had been legally married once before.
To Thomas Vale.
Jessica made a sound somewhere between disbelief and laughter.
"No."
Claire stared at the screen.
"They divorced?"
Daniel checked.
"Apparently not."
Jessica looked at him.
"What does that mean?"
"It means there is no divorce record in this county or the neighboring counties. That doesn't prove there wasn't one somewhere else."
He searched further.
Twenty minutes later, he found it.
A divorce.
Filed thirty-six years earlier.
Eight years after Margaret married Charles.
The room went silent.
Jessica whispered, "She was still married to another man when she married Dad?"
Daniel chose his words carefully.
"That is what these records appear to show."
Claire leaned back.
Ryan had been seven years old when that divorce occurred.
Jessica had been four.
"What happened afterward?"
Daniel found payment records associated with an old civil suit.
Thomas had threatened litigation.
Margaret paid him.
Over years.
Small amounts at first.
Then larger amounts.
Jessica whispered, "Blackmail."
Daniel did not answer.
Claire thought of Ryan's recording.
If I'm right, the money wasn't for debt.
It was for someone named Thomas Vale.
Jessica stood.
"I'm asking her."
Daniel immediately said, "Don't."
"Why?"
"Because we still don't know what Thomas had on her."
"I don't care."
"You should."
Claire agreed.
"Jessica, Ryan hid this for a reason."
Jessica paced toward the window.
"My entire childhood she lectured me about honesty."
Claire said quietly, "People sometimes attack hardest where they're most ashamed."
Jessica looked at her.
"Do you think Dad knew?"
Nobody answered.
That afternoon, Ethan and Lily sat at the kitchen island eating grilled cheese sandwiches.
Claire tried to make the house feel normal.
It was impossible.
Ethan kept glancing at his wrists.
Lily kept checking that her smartwatch was still there.
Claire sat beside them.
"How are you feeling?"
Ethan shrugged.
"The same."
"That's not an answer."
"I don't know."
Lily whispered, "I don't want to see Grandma."
Jessica, standing near the sink, turned away.
Claire reached across the island.
"You don't have to."
Ethan asked, "Ever?"
Claire hesitated.
"Not unless it's safe and you want to."
He thought about that.
Then nodded.
His relief broke her heart.
Children should not look relieved to learn they do not have to visit their grandmother.
The doorbell rang.
Everyone froze.
Claire checked the camera.
Margaret stood on the porch.
Jessica swore under her breath.
Claire walked to the door but did not open it.
"What do you want?"
Margaret's voice came through the wood.
"I want to speak to my family."
Jessica approached.
"No."
Margaret heard her.
"Jessica."
"You need to leave."
"Lily belongs with me on Saturdays."
Jessica laughed in disbelief.
"You think I'm sending her back to you?"
"She has been staying with me every Saturday for three years."
"That ended yesterday."
Silence.
Then Margaret's voice changed.
"I know you went to the hardware building."
Claire glanced at Daniel.
He had warned them Margaret might know.
Jessica answered.
"Then you know why we're done talking."
Margaret's voice became colder.
"You have no idea what Ryan left behind."
Claire spoke.
"We found enough."
"No, you didn't."
"What does that mean?"
Margaret was silent for a moment.
Then she said, "Ask your lawyer what happens when a dead man admits he falsified his own trust."
Daniel's head snapped up.
Claire's stomach dropped.
"What?"
Margaret continued.
"Ryan wasn't protecting Ethan. He was hiding fraud."
Claire looked at Daniel.
Margaret said one last thing.
"And Thomas Vale can prove it."
Then footsteps moved away from the porch.
Jessica rushed to the window.
Margaret entered her car.
Claire turned toward Daniel.
"What is she talking about?"
Daniel's face was tense.
"I don't know."
Claire stared at him.
"Don't give me the lawyer answer."
"I'm not."
"Could Ryan have falsified the trust?"
"Not the documents I prepared."
"Then what?"
Daniel looked toward the black case on the dining table.
"The USB drive."
Claire followed his gaze.
They had not opened it yet.
Daniel connected it to an isolated laptop.
One folder appeared.
RYAN.
Inside was a single video file.
Claire clicked.
Ryan appeared on screen.
He looked exhausted.
Older than Claire remembered him.
He stared directly into the camera.
May you like
Then he said words that changed everything again.
"I changed Ethan's trust because the original money was never mine."
