Chapter 3 - THE SECRET IN THE SAFE
Hayes stared at Charles.
“Explain.”
Charles rubbed both hands over his face.
Nathan stood beside the open safe.
“What do you mean Emma wasn’t the target?”
Charles looked toward the hallway.
“Close the door.”
Hayes did not move.
“Explain first.”
Charles’s jaw tightened.
“This concerns my family.”
Hayes almost smiled.
“Your pregnant daughter-in-law was pushed down a staircase.”
He pointed toward the driveway.
“Your daughter fled from police.”
Then toward the empty safe.
“And your wife apparently removed evidence during an active investigation.”
He stepped closer.
“This stopped being a private family matter a long time ago.”
Charles looked at Nathan.
Nathan’s face was hard.
“Tell us.”
Charles exhaled.
“Twenty-three years ago, Whitmore Holdings was almost bankrupt.”
Nathan frowned.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
“You always said—”
“I lied.”
Nathan went silent.
Charles continued.
“We had expanded too quickly.”
“Three hotels failed.”
“Two commercial developments stalled.”
“Banks refused to extend our credit.”
“We were weeks from collapse.”
Hayes listened.
“Then what happened?”
Charles looked at the safe.
“An investor appeared.”
“Who?”
“Samuel Bennett.”
Nathan frowned.
“I’ve never heard that name.”
Charles looked at him.
“You weren’t supposed to.”
Hayes took out his notebook.
“How much did Bennett invest?”
“Thirty-two million.”
Nathan stared at his father.
“Twenty-three years ago?”
“Yes.”
“That would have saved everything.”
“It did.”
“Then why hide it?”
Charles said nothing.
Nathan understood.
“Because it wasn’t an investment.”
Charles closed his eyes.
Hayes spoke.
“What was it?”
“A partnership.”
“In what?”
Charles looked at him.
“Land.”
Hayes waited.
Charles continued.
“Samuel owned property across three counties.”
“Most of it looked worthless.”
“Industrial parcels.”
“Old warehouses.”
“Abandoned farmland.”
“But Samuel knew where a new interstate expansion was going to be approved.”
Nathan’s face changed.
“Inside information?”
Charles nodded.
“He had contacts.”
Hayes asked the obvious question.
“Government contacts?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to Bennett?”
Charles’s answer came quietly.
“He died.”
“When?”
“Six months after the partnership.”
Nathan stared.
“How?”
“Car accident.”
Hayes’s eyes narrowed.
“And his ownership?”
Charles looked away.
“Transferred.”
“To you?”
“To Whitmore Holdings.”
Nathan took a step backward.
“No.”
Charles said nothing.
Nathan shook his head.
“You stole it.”
“It was more complicated.”
“You stole a dead man’s company.”
“He had no family.”
Hayes interrupted.
“Are you sure?”
Charles froze.
Hayes noticed.
“So there was family.”
Charles remained silent.
Nathan stared at his father.
“Who?”
Charles looked at him.
“A daughter.”
Nathan’s expression darkened.
“What happened to her?”
“She disappeared.”
Hayes asked.
“How old?”
“Twenty.”
“What was her name?”
Charles did not answer.
Hayes repeated the question.
“Her name.”
Charles whispered.
“Rebecca.”
Nathan leaned against the desk.
“Did she know?”
“Yes.”
“Did she challenge the transfer?”
“She tried.”
“What happened?”
Charles looked sick.
“She accused us of forging her father’s documents.”
Hayes’s eyes narrowed.
“Did you?”
Charles remained silent.
Nathan slammed his palm against the desk.
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
The word barely left Charles’s mouth.
Nathan stared at him.
“You forged them?”
Charles looked down.
“I signed one document.”
“One?”
“Your mother handled the rest.”
Nathan went still.
Hayes asked.
“Margaret?”
Charles nodded.
“She was smarter than all of us.”
“Who is us?”
Charles looked at him.
“Me.”
“Margaret.”
“Our attorney.”
“And my brother.”
Nathan frowned.
“Uncle Richard?”
“Yes.”
Nathan stared at his father.
Richard Whitmore had died twelve years earlier.
Nathan remembered him as loud, charming, generous.
The uncle who brought expensive Christmas gifts.
The uncle who taught him to drive.
Now every childhood memory suddenly felt contaminated.
Hayes continued.
“What happened to Rebecca?”
Charles shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Try again.”
“I truly don’t know.”
“She vanished?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three weeks after she filed suit.”
“Was a missing-person report filed?”
“Yes.”
“Was she found?”
“No.”
Nathan looked toward the open window.
“Why does this have anything to do with Emma?”
Charles looked at him.
“Because six months ago, your mother received a letter.”
“What letter?”
“From Rebecca Bennett.”
Nathan stared.
“She’s alive?”
“That’s what the letter claimed.”
“What did she want?”
Charles looked at Nathan.
“She wanted her father’s company back.”
Nathan shook his head.
“That company doesn’t exist anymore.”
“No.”
Charles looked around the mansion.
“It became ours.”
Nathan’s expression slowly changed.
The hotels.
The real estate.
The investment fund.
The mansion.
The Whitmore fortune.
Everything.
“How much?”
Charles looked at him.
“What?”
“How much of what we have came from Bennett?”
Charles did not answer.
Nathan’s voice rose.
“How much?”
“Most of it.”
Nathan stepped backward.
Hayes remained focused.
“What did Rebecca threaten?”
“She said she had proof.”
“What kind?”
“Original partnership records.”
“Correspondence.”
“Bank records.”
“And?”
Charles hesitated.
“A recording.”
Hayes leaned forward.
“Of what?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I never heard it.”
“But Margaret did.”
Charles’s silence answered.
Hayes looked toward the empty safe.
“That’s what was kept here.”
“Yes.”
Nathan looked at his father.
“Why didn’t you go to police?”
Charles laughed bitterly.
“And confess?”
“Yes!”
Nathan’s voice cracked.
“For once in your life, yes!”
Charles stared at his son.
“You think morality is simple because you have never had to build anything.”
Nathan looked disgusted.
“You built it with stolen money.”
“I kept thousands of people employed.”
“You stole it.”
“I saved this family!”
“From what?”
“Being ordinary?”
Charles stood.
“You have no idea what poverty does to people.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“And Rebecca Bennett did?”
Charles stopped.
Nathan shook his head.
“You took everything from her.”
Charles’s shoulders fell.
“Yes.”
Hayes closed his notebook.
“One thing still doesn’t make sense.”
Charles looked at him.
“What?”
“Why Emma?”
Charles looked toward the doorway.
“Your mother became convinced Rebecca had contacted her.”
Nathan frowned.
“Emma?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Emma started asking questions.”
Hayes looked interested.
“What questions?”
Charles pointed toward Nathan.
“Ask him.”
Nathan froze.
Hayes turned.
“What did Emma ask?”
Nathan looked uncomfortable.
“She noticed discrepancies in the foundation accounts.”
“When?”
“About eight months ago.”
“What kind?”
Nathan hesitated.
“Transfers.”
“Amounts?”
“Small at first.”
“Twenty thousand.”
“Forty.”
“Sixty.”
“Then larger.”
Hayes nodded.
“The $480,000?”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Charles looked at his son.
“You knew?”
Nathan ignored him.
Hayes stepped closer.
“You authorized it.”
Nathan nodded.
“Why?”
“My mother told me it was a settlement.”
“For what?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
“And you transferred nearly half a million dollars without asking?”
Nathan looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Hayes stared at him.
Nathan’s voice hardened.
“I know how it sounds.”
“It sounds criminal.”
“I didn’t know.”
“That will be for someone else to determine.”
Nathan looked away.
Hayes continued.
“Where did the money go?”
“An account in the Cayman Islands.”
Charles swore under his breath.
Hayes looked at him.
“You recognize it?”
“No.”
“You reacted.”
“Because Margaret promised me offshore accounts were closed years ago.”
Nathan turned.
“What offshore accounts?”
Charles didn’t answer.
Hayes’s phone rang.
He checked the screen.
“Hayes.”
He listened.
His expression changed.
“When?”
Nathan watched him.
“What happened?”
Hayes raised a hand.
“Did they find the vehicle?”
A pause.
“Anyone inside?”
Another pause.
Hayes looked toward the open window.
“I’m coming.”
He ended the call.
Nathan stepped toward him.
“What?”
Hayes put away his phone.
“They found your mother’s SUV.”
“Where?”
“About six miles east.”
“Was Evelyn driving?”
Hayes hesitated.
“The vehicle was abandoned.”
Nathan frowned.
“Abandoned?”
“Driver’s door open.”
“Keys inside.”
“Blood on the steering wheel.”
Charles went pale.
“Blood?”
Nathan grabbed his coat.
“I’m going.”
Hayes blocked him.
“No.”
“That’s my mother.”
“We don’t know whose blood it is.”
“Then I’m definitely going.”
Hayes stared at him.
“You stay here.”
“Why?”
“Because until I understand your role in the financial transfers, you’re not going anywhere.”
Nathan’s face hardened.
“Am I under arrest?”
“Not yet.”
Nathan stared at him.
Hayes stepped toward the door.
Then stopped.
“One more thing.”
He looked at Charles.
“The officers searched the SUV.”
Charles waited.
Hayes continued.
“The documents from your safe weren’t inside.”
Charles looked stunned.
Nathan asked.
“Then where are they?”
Hayes answered.
“That’s what worries me.”
He left.
Nathan stood in silence.
Then Rosa appeared at the office door.
She was crying.
“Mr. Nathan?”
Nathan turned.
“Rosa?”
She held something in her hand.
A small envelope.
“What is that?”
Rosa looked down the hallway before entering.
“Mrs. Emma gave this to me yesterday.”
Nathan’s heart started pounding.
“What?”
“She told me not to give it to anyone.”
“Then why are you giving it to me?”
Rosa’s hands shook.
“Because she said there was one exception.”
Nathan stared.
“What exception?”
Rosa looked directly into his eyes.
“She said if anything happened to her tonight, I should decide whether you were still the man she married.”
Nathan said nothing.
Rosa held out the envelope.
“And if I believed you were…”
Her voice trembled.
“…I was supposed to give you this.”
Nathan slowly took it.
His name was written on the front.
Not printed.
Written.
In Emma’s handwriting.
He tore it open.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
Only one sentence had been written across it.
Nathan read it twice.
Then a third time.
His face went pale.
Charles stepped closer.
“What does it say?”
Nathan looked at his father.
May you like
Emma’s message contained only eight words.
“Ask your mother what happened to my mother.”
