Chapter 5 - Lily’s Last Night
Mason had spent twelve years believing his sister’s death was an accident.
Lily Reed had been twenty-one.
Brilliant.
Stubborn.
Deaf since infancy.
She had been studying computer science at Ohio State and working part-time for a small technology contractor.
On a rainy November evening, she had driven home from work.
Her car crossed the center line.
The police report blamed wet pavement.
She died before Mason reached the hospital.
“I was twenty-six,” he told Claire.
They sat at his kitchen table after the children had gone upstairs.
“My wife had just left. Owen was a baby. I had no money. Lily’s medical bills and funeral costs were more than I made in a year.”
“And Victor paid them?”
“A foundation did.”
“His foundation?”
“I didn’t know that then.”
Mason turned over the photograph.
Written on the back were four words in Lily’s handwriting.
He wants the language.
Claire read them twice.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Mason pulled another box from the garage.
They searched until nearly midnight.
College notebooks.
Birthday cards.
Old hard drives.
A broken laptop.
Then Claire found a small spiral notebook.
Most pages contained coding notes.
One page stopped her.
Project Beacon.
Claire’s pulse jumped.
“Mason.”
He came beside her.
Claire turned the notebook toward him.
Beacon had not officially existed when Lily died.
Whitmore Systems claimed to have begun developing it nine years earlier.
But Lily’s notes were twelve years old.
“She worked on Beacon,” Claire whispered.
Mason stared at the page.
“That’s impossible.”
“No. It means someone lied.”
The next morning Claire brought the notebook to Daniel Park.
His reaction frightened her.
“Where did you get this?”
“Mason’s sister.”
Daniel looked at the handwriting.
“I’ve seen this code.”
“Where?”
“In Beacon’s original architecture.”
Claire sat down.
“Who created it?”
“Our records list Everett Shaw.”
Claire knew the name.
Everett had been Whitmore’s chief technology officer before Claire became CEO.
He had retired to Arizona seven years earlier.
“Call him.”
Everett answered on the third attempt.
When Claire mentioned Lily Reed, silence followed.
Then he said:
“You finally found her family.”
Claire gripped the phone.
“You knew Lily?”
“She built the foundation of Beacon.”
“Why isn’t her name anywhere?”
“Because your father ordered it removed.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“My father?”
“Claire, there are things about Whitmore Systems you were never supposed to know.”
Mason stood across from her.
His jaw tightened.
“What things?”
Everett sighed.
“Twelve years ago, Landry Ventures approached your father with technology developed by a young Deaf programmer. Victor wanted to buy it for almost nothing. Your father discovered the programmer hadn’t knowingly sold the intellectual property. He refused the deal.”
“What happened?”
“Three weeks later, she died.”
Mason closed his eyes.
Claire felt sick.
“Are you saying Victor killed her?”
“I’m saying your father became suspicious enough to investigate.”
“Where is that investigation?”
“Hidden.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. Your father stopped trusting electronic records. He told me he had built what he called an insurance file.”
Claire remembered something.
Her father had died five years earlier after a stroke.
In his final months, he had repeatedly asked Claire whether she still kept “the old stars.”
She had assumed medication was confusing him.
Old stars.
Claire suddenly looked toward Sadie.
Her daughter loved astronomy because Claire’s father had loved it.
He had given Sadie an antique brass telescope shortly before his death.
Claire stood.
“Mason.”
“What?”
“I think I know where he hid it.”
They drove to Claire’s house.
Sadie was at school.
Claire led Mason upstairs into her daughter’s astronomy room.
The telescope stood beside the window.
Mason inspected it.
Nothing.
Then he noticed three tiny screws beneath the brass base.
He removed them.
A compartment opened.
Inside was a USB drive.
Claire stared at it.
Her father had hidden evidence in his granddaughter’s telescope.
Daniel arrived thirty minutes later with an isolated laptop.
The drive contained hundreds of documents.
Contracts.
Emails.
Patent drafts.
And one video.
Claire opened it.
Her father appeared on screen.
Older.
Tired.
Terrified.
“If Claire is watching this,” he began, “then Victor Landry has returned.”
Claire’s hand covered her mouth.
Her father continued.
“Victor stole something from a young woman named Lily Reed. I tried to protect her too late.”
Mason’s breathing changed.
“After Lily died, I purchased her code through her estate because I believed it was the only way to keep Victor from burying it. I intended to find her family. I failed.”
Mason turned away.
Then Claire’s father said something none of them expected.
“Lily Reed did not die because of a car accident.”
Mason spun back.
The video continued.
“Her vehicle had been serviced forty-eight hours earlier at a company owned through a Landry subsidiary. The brake line had been deliberately weakened.”
Mason’s chair scraped backward.
Claire reached for him.
He pulled away.
Not from her.
From the entire world.
“My sister was murdered.”
“We don’t know that Victor ordered it.”
Mason looked at her.
“But your father thought he did.”
Claire could not answer.
The video ended with one final warning.
“Claire, if Landry comes for Beacon, do not trust the board.”
The screen went black.
At that exact moment, Claire’s phone rang.
It was Sadie’s school.
She answered.
“Ms. Whitmore?”
A frightened voice came through.
“We can’t find Sadie.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“What?”
“She was here ten minutes ago.”
Mason was already on his feet.
The administrator continued.
“Someone signed her out.”
“Who?”
There was a pause.
“According to our system…”
May you like
Claire’s blood turned cold.
“…you did.”
