Chapter 8 - MARGARET VALE IS ALIVE
Julia asked everyone except Claire and Investigator Singh to leave the room.
Dr. Cole objected because Claire’s vital signs remained unstable, so he stayed near the monitor. Elena remained as well.
Daniel was escorted to another room.
The red key rested inside an evidence pouch on the table.
“You knew Margaret Vale,” Claire said.
Julia stood near the window.
“Yes.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know now.”
“That isn’t good enough.”
“No,” Julia said. “It isn’t.”
She pulled a chair beside Claire’s bed.
“Margaret contacted me two years ago. She was living under another identity in Vermont. She knew about Northstar, Robert Bennett, and your grandfather’s archive.”
“Why didn’t she contact me?”
“She believed your communications were monitored.”
“They were.”
“She also believed someone close to you would report any unusual contact.”
“My mother.”
“Possibly Mark. Possibly Daniel. Possibly all three.”
Claire looked at the ledger page.
“What did Margaret want from you?”
“She wanted an independent audit of Northstar.”
“And what did you find?”
“That the trust had been looted for decades, but not completely. Arthur designed it so no single trustee could reach every asset. Some accounts required physical keys. Others required biometric confirmation from the beneficiary.”
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“Have they used my biometrics?”
“Your fingerprints appeared on two authorization records.”
“I never authorized anything.”
“Did Mark ever ask you to unlock a device while you were asleep?”
Claire remembered mornings when her phone appeared on the opposite nightstand.
“He knew my passcode.”
“That would not provide a fingerprint.”
“He could have used my hand.”
Julia nodded.
Claire felt violated in a way that had nothing to do with the injuries visible on her body.
“Why did Margaret disappear?” she asked.
“She sent me a message six months ago saying she had been compromised.”
“The same time Leah disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“They knew each other?”
Julia hesitated.
“Leah was working for Margaret.”
Claire stared at her.
“My best friend was investigating me?”
“Protecting you.”
“She never told me.”
“Margaret asked her not to.”
“How long?”
“Three years.”
Three years.
Every lunch.
Every late-night phone call.
Every conversation about Mark.
Leah had known there was danger and had never told her.
Claire felt anger rise alongside relief that Leah was alive.
“Was our friendship real?” she asked.
“I can’t answer that.”
“You knew her.”
“I knew her work.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Julia looked down.
“She refused to leave when Margaret told her the investigation was too dangerous. She said you had already lost enough people.”
Claire turned her face toward the ceiling.
The betrayal was complicated.
That made it harder.
Julia continued.
“Margaret believed Arthur’s archive contained evidence connected to at least seven deaths. She wanted to retrieve it before Robert could destroy it.”
“Why didn’t she go to the police?”
“She did, thirty-two years ago.”
“What happened?”
“The detective assigned to the case was Grant Holloway’s father.”
Claire closed her eyes.
The corruption stretched across generations.
“What is inside the deposit box?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You said the key opens one.”
“The red key matches an old secure vault system used by First Continental Bank. The bank merged twice and closed the original branch. Its private boxes were moved to an underground records facility.”
“Where?”
“Beneath the Easton property.”
Claire looked at her sharply.
“The abandoned construction site.”
“It used to be the bank’s central archive. Robert’s company purchased the land after the bank collapse.”
“So they built over the vault.”
“Or tried to.”
Claire remembered the worker who died when the foundation collapsed.
“Was the construction accident related?”
“Margaret believed workers broke through a sealed tunnel.”
“And Robert shut down the project.”
“After one worker took photographs.”
“What happened to him?”
“He died before reaching the hospital.”
Claire’s hand tightened around the blanket.
“The deposit box is still beneath Easton.”
“Probably.”
“That’s why they moved me there.”
Julia nodded.
“They may have planned to use your fingerprint or facial recognition to open another level of the vault.”
Investigator Singh examined the red key through the evidence pouch.
“Then they may try again.”
A message appeared on Claire’s phone.
This one came from Mark.
We need to talk privately before they arrest me.
Claire showed it to Singh.
“Do not answer yet,” Singh said.
Another message arrived.
I can prove your mother planned everything.
Then a photograph.
Helen stood inside a dim concrete room, holding a syringe.
The timestamp was 8:58 p.m.
Claire lay unconscious on the floor behind her.
Robert Bennett stood near the wall.
He was not in Switzerland.
He was looking directly at the camera.
A final message arrived from Mark.
Help me leave the hospital, and I’ll tell you where Robert took Leah.
Claire stared at the photograph.
“Mark believes Leah is Robert’s prisoner,” she said.
“Leah said she wasn’t where they thought,” Julia replied.
“Someone is lying.”
“Everyone is lying.”
Claire typed a response.
Prove she’s alive.
Mark answered with a video file.
The footage showed Leah tied to a metal chair beneath a hanging light. Her face was bruised. A newspaper lay across her lap.
The visible date was that morning.
Leah looked toward the camera and said, “Claire, don’t open the box.”
May you like
A gunshot sounded offscreen.
The video ended.
