Chapter 3 - THE HOUSE WITH TWO SECRETS
Marcus killed the lights.
“Stay here.”
He disappeared into the hallway with two security men.
Natalie heard footsteps below.
Then a crash.
Elliot moved in front of her instinctively.
“You don't have to protect me.”
“Humor me.”
A security alarm screamed.
Thirty seconds later Marcus returned.
“Gone.”
“Who?”
“Couldn't see his face.”
“Did he take anything?”
Marcus looked toward the hidden compartment.
“That depends on whether he knew what he came for.”
Elliot opened his father's envelope.
Inside was a handwritten letter and a brass key.
He read silently.
Natalie watched his expression change.
“What does it say?”
Elliot handed her the letter.
Elliot,
If you're reading this, then I failed to finish something I should have finished decades ago.
Rebecca Reeves saved this family once.
Then I failed hers.
Do not punish Natalie for what I did.
And do not trust anyone who tells you Rebecca was my mistress.
Natalie's eyes stopped.
Mistress.
She read further.
The truth is stored where Vale began.
Ask Natalie to look at the first room.
She will see what you cannot.
A.V.
Natalie lowered the letter.
“What did he mean?”
“Vale began in a warehouse on Fulton Street.”
They went the following morning.
The original Vale warehouse was scheduled for demolition in six weeks.
Dust covered everything.
Old offices.
Broken windows.
Rusting freight equipment.
Natalie entered the founder's office.
“First room,” Elliot said.
She studied it.
Desk.
Cabinets.
Photographs.
Everything looked ordinary.
Then she noticed the floor.
The room had twelve-inch square tiles.
Except beneath a filing cabinet, where one line measured ten.
“Move that.”
They did.
Underneath was a floor safe.
The brass key fit.
Inside were ledgers, photographs, cassette tapes and architectural plans bearing Rebecca Reeves's signature.
Natalie picked up one.
“My mother designed this building renovation.”
“She worked for my father.”
“For years, apparently.”
Marcus opened a ledger.
His expression changed.
“Elliot.”
Payments had been made from Vale Holdings to shell companies beginning thirty-one years earlier.
Millions.
One recipient appeared repeatedly.
Crescent Harbor Trust.
Then Natalie found a photograph.
Arthur.
Rebecca.
And another man.
Younger then, but recognizable.
Daniel Mercer.
Her boss.
Natalie felt sick.
“Daniel knew my mother.”
Marcus flipped the photograph.
A handwritten date showed it had been taken twenty-nine years earlier.
Elliot looked at her.
“How long have you worked for Mercer?”
“Seven years.”
“Who recruited you?”
Natalie didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
Daniel had.
Fresh from graduate school, Natalie had received a personal call from the founder of Mercer & Rowe.
He'd claimed her portfolio impressed him.
Now that coincidence looked different.
Natalie called him.
“Daniel?”
“Natalie. Where are you?”
“At the original Vale warehouse.”
Silence.
Tiny.
But there.
“Why?”
“Did you know my mother?”
Another silence.
Then:
“Get out of that building.”
Natalie's blood chilled.
“What?”
“Natalie, listen carefully. Do not open anything. Do not touch anything. Leave.”
“Why?”
“Because Arthur Vale wasn't the only person who died protecting what is inside.”
The line disconnected.
At that exact moment, Marcus smelled smoke.
“Everybody out.”
Flames appeared at the rear entrance.
Someone had poured accelerant through the corridor.
Elliot grabbed the ledgers.
Natalie grabbed the tapes.
Smoke swallowed the room.
They ran.
A burning beam crashed behind them.
Natalie stumbled.
Elliot pulled her upright.
They escaped through a loading door seconds before flames reached the founder's office.
Outside, Natalie coughed against Elliot's chest.
Fire engines screamed in the distance.
Marcus stared at the burning warehouse.
“This wasn't intimidation.”
“No,” Elliot said.
“They wanted us dead.”
Natalie looked at the tapes she'd saved.
One had her mother's handwriting.
A.V. — If anything happens to me.
That night, they found an old cassette player.
Rebecca's voice filled Elliot's apartment.
Natalie hadn't heard her mother's voice in sixteen years.
Her composure broke instantly.
Elliot quietly sat beside her.
Rebecca spoke.
“Arthur, if you're listening, then I wasn't able to stop them.”
Static.
“I found the transfers. Crescent Harbor isn't a company. It's a laundering mechanism. Someone inside Vale has been using construction acquisitions to hide money for years.”
Natalie looked at Elliot.
Rebecca continued.
“I made copies. Daniel helped me.”
Daniel.
Natalie closed her eyes.
So he hadn't been the enemy.
At least not then.
Then Rebecca said something stranger.
“Arthur, you need to tell Elliot the truth about Eleanor.”
Elliot froze.
Eleanor Vale.
His mother.
She had died when Elliot was fourteen.
The recording continued.
“The accident wasn't an accident.”
Elliot stood abruptly.
Natalie looked up.
“What accident?”
“My mother died in a car crash.”
Rebecca's voice trembled through the speaker.
“Someone tampered with Eleanor's brakes because she discovered Crescent Harbor. Arthur thinks they were trying to frighten her. I don't.”
The tape clicked.
Then Rebecca whispered:
“If they discover I helped her, Natalie could be next.”
The recording ended.
Elliot stood motionless.
His entire life had just changed in less than three minutes.
Natalie rose.
“Elliot.”
He turned.
His eyes were wet, though no tears fell.
“My father told me my mother was driving too fast.”
“He may have been trying to protect you.”
“He lied to me for twenty-three years.”
Natalie understood that kind of anger.
She also understood grief.
She touched his hand.
This time he didn't look surprised.
He turned his palm upward and held hers.
For one quiet second, neither said anything.
Then Marcus entered.
His face told them the night wasn't finished.
“What?”
“The fire department found a body inside the warehouse.”
Natalie's stomach dropped.
“Who?”
May you like
Marcus looked directly at her.
“Daniel Mercer.”
