Chapter 17 - WHY ARTHUR TRUSTED CLARA
Clara left the room.
She needed air.
For twenty-two years, she had believed her father died because a drilling platform failed during a storm.
Sterling Oil paid her mother a settlement.
The company sent flowers.
Richard Sterling attended the funeral for eleven minutes.
Clara remembered him.
She had been fourteen.
She remembered his black coat.
His driver.
The expensive watch.
She remembered thinking powerful people could not possibly understand what losing a father felt like.
Now Leo had spent six years learning the same lesson.
Richard found her outside.
“I knew Samuel.”
Clara turned.
“You knew my father?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know what he discovered?”
“No.”
“Do not lie to me.”
“I’m not.”
His face looked devastated.
“Samuel was one of our best safety engineers.”
“He reported directly to Charles.”
Clara’s voice broke.
“And then he died.”
“Yes.”
Richard lowered his head.
“I never connected it.”
“That seems to be what you're best at.”
He accepted the blow.
Clara continued.
“Not looking.”
“Not connecting.”
“Not asking.”
“I deserve that.”
“No.”
Clara shook her head.
“Leo deserved better.”
“My father deserved better.”
“Arthur deserved better.”
Richard said nothing.
Detective Reeves found another connection.
After Samuel Hayes died, his internal safety report vanished.
Sixteen years later, Arthur Sterling recovered a copy while auditing old corporate files.
That was how Arthur learned Clara’s name.
He investigated Samuel’s family.
He discovered his daughter worked at Sterling Manor.
Then he began watching Clara with Leo.
Not suspiciously.
Carefully.
He saw the daughter of a man who had once tried exposing the same corruption Arthur had discovered.
That was why he trusted her.
That evening, Clara told Leo.
He listened silently.
“So our dads both tried stopping them?”
“Yes.”
“And both died?”
“Yes.”
Leo looked at her.
“Then maybe Dad knew you'd understand me.”
Clara’s eyes filled.
“Maybe.”
Charles Sterling returned from London voluntarily.
He denied everything.
He expressed horror at Eleanor’s arrest.
He called Margaret confused.
He called Crowe corrupt.
He called Arthur paranoid.
Then investigators searched his Newport guesthouse.
Nothing.
Until Leo remembered something.
During the foundation dinner, Charles had visited him upstairs.
“He asked about Dad’s picture.”
Clara stiffened.
“What exactly?”
“He asked whether I still had anything Dad gave me.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
“Did he touch anything?”
Leo thought.
“My music box.”
Police retrieved it from the surviving east wing.
Inside the velvet lining, they found a tracking device.
Charles had been monitoring Leo before the fire.
And embedded inside the device was a microphone that had recorded one conversation.
Eleanor’s voice.
Crowe’s voice.
May you like
And Charles saying six words.
“Make sure the boy does not turn twelve.”
