Chapter 6 - THE MAN ABOVE RICHARD
They were moved to a secure police facility before midnight.
No hospital records showed where Claire had gone.
No official transport request was entered into the regular system.
Even the officers assigned to guard the building received only partial information.
Mara insisted on it.
Richard had already demonstrated that he had people inside institutions they were supposed to trust.
Claire sat in a small interview room with Ethan asleep beside her.
He had refused a bed.
He had refused another room.
Finally, exhaustion had defeated him in a chair with his head against Claire’s shoulder.
Laura sat across the table.
Her wound had been cleaned and bandaged.
Mara placed three photographs between them.
“These were pulled from traffic cameras outside the hospital.”
The first image showed the black sedan.
The second showed its license plate.
The third showed a man sitting in the rear seat.
Claire stared at him.
“I know him.”
Laura nodded.
“So do I.”
Mara waited.
Claire spoke first.
“Senator Jonathan Vale.”
Mara’s expression remained neutral.
“Chairman of the Senate Infrastructure Oversight Committee.”
“Yes.”
“He has connections to Richard?”
Claire gave a humorless laugh.
“He practically created Richard.”
Laura leaned forward.
“Vale helped Hale Strategic Development win its first state contract fifteen years ago.”
“For what?”
“Bridge renovation.”
“Legitimate?”
“On paper.”
Mara opened another file.
“Vale has never been formally linked to Richard’s company.”
“That’s intentional.”
“How deep does it go?”
Laura rubbed her injured shoulder.
“I don’t know.”
“You said Richard works for him.”
“I said I think he does.”
“What changed your mind?”
“The payment index.”
Mara frowned.
“You created it.”
“I copied the information.”
“And?”
“There is one code that appears next to every major transfer.”
“What code?”
“JV.”
Mara looked at the senator’s photograph.
“Jonathan Vale.”
“That’s my theory.”
“Initials are not proof.”
“No.”
Laura reached into her coat.
Mara immediately reacted.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Laura slowly withdrew a folded piece of paper.
“This might be.”
She placed it on the table.
Mara unfolded it.
It was a photocopy of a handwritten memo.
Three lines had been circled.
Mara read silently.
Then looked at Laura.
“Where did you get this?”
“Richard’s office.”
Claire leaned closer.
The note read:
C.P. must be resolved before trust review.
Boy secures control.
J.V. expects completion before vote.
Claire’s skin went cold.
Mara placed the paper into an evidence sleeve.
“What vote?”
Laura shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“Any upcoming infrastructure legislation?”
“Several.”
“Which would benefit Richard?”
“All of them.”
Claire looked down at Ethan.
“The boy secures control.”
Her voice was hollow.
“They were discussing my son like a bank account.”
Laura’s expression softened.
“I’m sorry.”
Claire looked at her.
“No more apologies.”
“What?”
“No more partial truths either.”
Laura stiffened.
Claire lowered her voice so she would not wake Ethan.
“You knew Richard was planning something.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Ethan was part of it.”
“Not until two weeks ago.”
“You knew enough.”
“I was trying to get proof.”
“You let me stay in that house.”
“If I had told you everything, you would have taken Ethan and run.”
“Yes.”
“And Richard would have followed.”
“He followed anyway.”
“I needed him to think you knew less than you did.”
Claire stared at her sister.
“I woke up in a coffin.”
Laura looked down.
“I know.”
“You don’t get to tell me your strategy worked.”
“I didn’t say it worked.”
“Then tell me what you haven’t told me.”
Mara watched them both.
Laura remained silent.
Claire’s voice hardened.
“What is the second key?”
Laura’s eyes flicked toward Ethan.
Claire noticed.
“So it does involve him.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Laura exhaled.
“When Nathan created Ethan’s trust, he built an unusual safeguard.”
Claire frowned.
“I know about the dual trustee clause.”
“Not that.”
“What else?”
“He created a physical encryption system.”
Claire stared.
“For company records?”
“For everything.”
“What does Ethan have to do with it?”
“Nathan divided the access method into two components.”
“Where?”
“One went to the trustee.”
“And the other?”
Laura looked directly at Ethan.
“Claire, did Nathan ever give Ethan a music box?”
Claire froze.
A memory surfaced.
A wooden box with a painted moon on the lid.
Nathan had given it to Ethan on his fourth birthday.
Ethan had kept tiny toys inside it for years.
“It’s at the house.”
Laura shook her head.
“Not anymore.”
Claire stared.
“How do you know?”
“Because Richard searched Ethan’s room the night he drugged you.”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
“Did he find it?”
“No.”
“How?”
“Ethan gave it away.”
Claire looked down at her sleeping son.
“What?”
“According to Richard’s surveillance logs, Ethan took the music box out of the house three months ago.”
“To whom?”
“I don’t know.”
Claire gently shook Ethan’s shoulder.
“Ethan.”
He woke instantly.
Fear appeared before recognition.
Then he saw her.
“Mom?”
“I’m here.”
He relaxed slightly.
“I need to ask you something.”
“What?”
“Do you remember the wooden music box Dad gave you?”
Ethan blinked.
“The moon box?”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
He looked confused.
“Why?”
“Please.”
Ethan thought.
“I gave it to Sophie.”
Claire frowned.
“Sophie Bennett?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She liked it.”
“When?”
“Before her family moved.”
Laura leaned forward.
“Where did they move?”
Ethan shrugged.
“Oregon, I think.”
Mara already had her phone out.
“What are Sophie’s parents’ names?”
“Anna and Mark Bennett.”
Mara sent the information to an officer.
Claire looked at Laura.
“What’s inside the box?”
“I don’t know.”
“You just said it holds an encryption component.”
“Nathan told me years ago that the box mattered.”
“When did Nathan tell you?”
Laura’s face changed.
Claire stared.
“Laura.”
“Three days before he died.”
The room became silent.
Claire slowly stood.
“You knew Nathan?”
Laura looked at her.
“Yes.”
“How well?”
Laura said nothing.
Claire’s voice broke.
“How well?”
Laura finally answered.
“He came to me because he suspected Richard and Vale were stealing from Parker Meridian.”
Claire looked as though she had been struck.
“Nathan knew Richard?”
“Before you ever met him.”
Claire sat back down.
Her entire marriage rearranged itself in her mind.
Richard had told her they met by chance at a museum fundraiser three years after Nathan’s death.
He had acted as though he barely knew Parker Meridian.
He had listened patiently when Claire talked about Nathan.
He had comforted Ethan.
He had entered their lives slowly.
Carefully.
Deliberately.
“He didn’t marry me because he loved me.”
Laura looked away.
Claire whispered the truth.
“He married me because of Nathan.”
Mara’s phone buzzed.
She read the message.
Then looked at them.
“We found the Bennetts.”
Claire held her breath.
“They moved to Portland seven weeks ago.”
“And the box?”
Mara’s expression darkened.
“Their house was burglarized yesterday.”
Laura stood.
“What was taken?”
“Very little.”
“Jewelry?”
“No.”
“Cash?”
“No.”
“Electronics?”
“No.”
Claire knew before Mara finished.
“The music box.”
Mara nodded.
“It’s gone.”
Ethan sat upright.
“I know where another piece is.”
Three adults turned toward him.
Claire frowned.
“What piece?”
Ethan looked uncertain.
“The thing inside the box.”
Laura leaned forward.
“You opened it?”
“No.”
“But Dad showed me once.”
Claire stared.
“You were four.”
“I remember.”
“What did he show you?”
“A silver key.”
Laura’s breath caught.
“Where is it now?”
Ethan shook his head.
“It wasn’t in the box when I gave it to Sophie.”
Claire stared.
“Why not?”
Ethan looked at her.
“Because Dad told me never to leave the key inside the box.”
Laura moved closer.
“Ethan, where did you put it?”
He hesitated.
Then he whispered.
“In Mom’s coffin.”
Nobody spoke.
Claire’s eyes widened.
“When?”
“At the funeral.”
“What?”
Ethan looked frightened by their reaction.
“I thought you were dead.”
His voice began trembling.
“I wanted you to have something from Dad.”
Claire pulled him against her.
“Oh, Ethan.”
Mara was already calling the funeral home.
No answer.
She tried another number.
Still nothing.
Then her phone rang.
She answered.
Her face hardened almost immediately.
“When?”
She listened.
“Secure the scene.”
Claire stared at her.
“What happened?”
Mara lowered the phone.
“The funeral home was broken into twenty minutes ago.”
Laura whispered.
“Richard.”
Mara shook her head.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“The coffin is gone.”
Claire stared.
“Who takes an entire coffin?”
Mara looked at the photograph of Senator Vale.
May you like
“Someone who doesn’t know exactly where the key was hidden.”
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