Chapter 4 - The Dead Detective’s File
Nora stopped breathing for a moment.
“My father investigated financial crimes.”
“He never mentioned the Vale family.”
Julian shook his head.
“He didn’t mention them because he wanted you alive.”
Adrian ordered Marcus to take Julian to the estate’s secure interview room.
Before the guards moved him, Julian spoke again.
“The flash drive contains your father’s final board recording.”
“It also contains the name of the person who ordered Michael Bennett’s death.”
Nora lunged toward him.
Adrian caught her before she reached his throat.
“Where is the drive?”
Julian smiled.
“Your bride has it.”
Security searched the service corridors.
They found Celeste’s veil beside a basement door.
The lock had been opened with an executive access code.
Only Adrian, Marcus, Julian, and three Vale board members possessed that code.
Marcus checked the access log.
The door had been opened using Adrian’s identity.
“That is impossible,” Adrian said.
His biometric card remained inside his jacket.
Marcus examined it.
A thin film covered the fingerprint sensor.
Someone had copied Adrian’s print during the wedding photographs.
Nora looked toward the basement.
“What is down there?”
“The estate archive,” Adrian replied.
“Corporate records.”
“Original contracts.”
“And a private tunnel leading to the old guesthouse.”
Celeste could escape through the guesthouse garage.
Adrian, Nora, and Marcus entered the basement together.
Rows of steel cabinets stretched beneath the estate.
At the far end, one cabinet stood open.
The label read RICHARD VALE - PERSONAL.
Every folder had been removed.
A trail of papers led toward the tunnel.
Nora picked up one page.
It was a copy of her father’s final police report.
The report named Richard Vale as a confidential witness.
Michael Bennett had been investigating a hidden voting trust inside Vale Global.
The trust transferred control of the company if the chief executive was declared medically incapacitated for more than seventy-two hours.
The temporary controller would be the emergency proxy holder.
Celeste had planned to become that person.
Nora read the final paragraph.
Her father believed Richard Vale had discovered fraudulent medical declarations involving multiple company leaders.
Before the investigation could proceed, both men died within six months of each other.
A sound came from the tunnel.
Adrian raised a flashlight.
Celeste stood twenty feet away.
The encrypted drive was in her hand.
She was no longer wearing the wedding gown.
Her white blouse was stained with blood.
“Stay back,” she said.
Adrian looked at the blood.
“Whose is that?”
Celeste’s eyes filled with fear.
“Julian’s plan changed.”
May you like
“He wasn’t trying to take your company.”
“He was trying to give it back to the man your father buried.”
