Chapter 6 - The Man Without a Body
Daniel reached the aircraft first.
He drove directly across the service lane, stopped beneath the left wing, and climbed out holding credentials from the state attorney’s office.
The men from the black vehicles slowed.
“Step away from the aircraft,” Daniel called.
One of them raised his hands.
“We’re private security.”
“For whom?”
“Vale Consolidated.”
Daniel looked at Tom.
“Did you request them?”
Tom shook his head.
Daniel turned back to the men.
“Then you are trespassing.”
The security team did not leave, but they did not advance.
Claire descended from the aircraft.
Daniel gave her a furious look.
“You were supposed to leave the estate, not climb into a private plane with a man who tried to abduct you.”
“I wasn’t abducted,” Claire said.
Tom stepped down behind her.
“She was about to be.”
Daniel looked at him.
“That distinction will be fascinating to a jury.”
“There isn’t time,” Claire said. “Tom copied the Silver Swan records.”
“Do you have them?”
“They’re in his office safe.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“Then we return to the estate with law enforcement.”
Tom shook his head.
“My mother will destroy everything before you obtain a warrant.”
“We have evidence of financial fraud.”
“You have photographs of documents and the statement of a husband who will appear to be angry at his mother. Everett will delay the warrant for hours.”
“Everett helped me,” Claire said.
Tom stared at her.
“Everett helped you enter the basement?”
“He helped me leave.”
Tom looked genuinely confused.
“He has worked for my family for thirty years.”
“People can regret thirty years of silence.”
One of the security men received a call. He turned away, listened, then spoke to the others.
They returned to their vehicles and left without explanation.
Tom watched them disappear.
“She called them back.”
“Why?” Daniel asked.
“Because she wants us to return home.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Then that is the last place we should go.”
Claire looked at the time.
Seven hours remained.
“The originals are there. So is the evidence tying the merger to Halcyon Private.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know Vivienne. She keeps leverage close.”
Tom nodded reluctantly.
“She has a private archive in the dining-room wall.”
Claire turned toward him.
“The dining room?”
“My grandfather designed the room. There is a safe behind the eastern paneling. My mother keeps current agreements there during major transactions.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Because I was still deciding which side would keep me alive.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“And now?”
Tom looked at Claire.
“Now I think there is only one side that might.”
They returned to Vale House in Daniel’s car.
Halfway there, Daniel received a call from a researcher.
He switched to speaker.
“We identified Northstar’s hidden beneficiary,” the researcher said. “Ownership passes through three trusts, but the final controlling party is not Vivienne Vale.”
“Who is it?” Claire asked.
“A man named Adrian Marlowe.”
Claire looked at Daniel.
“Any connection to Marlowe Capital?”
“Unknown. There are almost no public records. Passport issued in Switzerland. No confirmed address.”
Tom leaned forward.
“My mother has mentioned an Adrian.”
“When?”
“Only once. I heard her arguing with my grandfather years ago. She said Adrian would return if the company was moved.”
“Moved where?”
“I don’t know.”
The researcher continued.
“There’s more. Adrian Marlowe’s passport contains biometric data matching an older missing-person record.”
Claire felt her pulse quicken.
“Whose record?”
“Elias Vale.”
Silence filled the car.
Tom sat back slowly.
“My uncle is alive?”
“The match isn’t perfect,” the researcher replied. “The source image is eighteen years old. But probability is above ninety percent.”
Daniel tightened his hands on the steering wheel.
“If Elias is alive and controlling Northstar, the merger may not be Vivienne’s plan.”
Claire remembered the original agreement.
Elias’s forty-nine percent transferred to Margaret only in the event of his death.
If Elias had survived, he still owned those shares.
“Someone falsified his death,” she said.
“And allowed Margaret to inherit his stake,” Daniel replied.
“Unless the transfer was needed for another reason.”
Tom looked between them.
“What reason?”
Claire thought of the option naming her successor.
Margaret had created it shortly before Elias disappeared. Perhaps she knew he planned to vanish.
Perhaps they had acted together.
“Elias and my grandmother may have designed Silver Swan as a trap,” Claire said.
“For Charles?” Daniel asked.
“Or for Vivienne.”
They arrived at the estate shortly before six in the evening.
The gates stood open.
No guards were visible.
Inside the mansion, wedding flowers still filled the entrance hall, but the building was unnaturally quiet.
Tom called for his mother.
No answer came.
They moved toward his office.
The safe behind his desk was open.
The copies were gone.
On the desk sat the silver swan necklace.
Claire approached it.
Beneath the necklace was another handwritten note.
The same blue ink had been used.
Margaret chose you because she believed you would know when to stop.
You do not know.
Daniel examined the room.
“No sign of forced entry.”
Tom picked up the necklace.
“My mother has the safe combination.”
“Then why leave this?” Claire asked.
“To distract us.”
A floorboard creaked in the hallway.
Daniel moved toward the door.
Everett Sloan entered, his shirt stained with blood near the shoulder.
He pressed one hand against the wound but remained standing.
Tom rushed toward him.
“What happened?”
“Your mother has lost control,” Everett said.
“Who did this?”
“Not Vivienne.”
Claire guided him into a chair.
“Where are the original records?”
Everett looked at her.
“Gone.”
“Who took them?”
“The man who has been waiting eighteen years to claim them.”
“Elias?”
Everett nodded.
“He entered through the service tunnel. He knew every code, every passage, every hidden room.”
Tom stared at him.
“My uncle is alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Everett’s face twisted with pain.
“To destroy Charles Vale.”
“My grandfather has been dead for five years.”
“Elias was never trying to destroy the man.”
Everett looked toward the portrait above Tom’s desk.
“He was trying to destroy the system Charles created.”
Claire thought of the Northstar merger.
“By taking the entire company beyond the reach of American courts.”
“And beyond Vivienne’s control,” Everett said.
“Why does he need my records?”
“He needs your signature.”
“I will never give it.”
May you like
Everett’s eyes held hers.
“He believes you already have.”
