Chapter 5 - The Second Body
No one spoke for several seconds.
Mason stared at the message as if he could force it to change.
Nora was the first to move.
“What second body?”
Mason's expression hardened.
“It's a lie.”
Adrian watched him carefully.
“Then explain it.”
“Seven years ago, the fire killed two men. Everyone knows that.”
“Everyone knows the official report,” Caleb said. “That isn't the same thing.”
Mason turned on him.
“You weren't there.”
“No,” Caleb replied. “But I read the report.”
“You read what the police were allowed to read.”
“And who decided what they were allowed to read?”
Mason looked at Adrian.
His silence was an answer.
Adrian took the brass key from the table and slipped it into his pocket.
“We're going to open the safety deposit box.”
“The box was already opened,” Mason said.
“Then we're going to find out who opened it.”
The bank was located in Midtown, inside a building that had once served as a private financial club for wealthy families. Adrian's father had used the institution for decades. The manager, a silver-haired woman named Evelyn Shaw, recognized Adrian immediately and led them into a private consultation room.
She examined the brass key and frowned.
“This key is obsolete. The box was converted to a digital authorization system several years ago.”
“Who accessed it yesterday?” Adrian asked.
“I'm afraid I can't disclose that information without the appropriate legal authorization.”
Adrian placed a folder on the table.
Inside were corporate documents establishing his authority over the account, along with a letter from the bank's legal department acknowledging an active fraud investigation.
Evelyn studied the papers.
Then she made a call.
Ten minutes later, she returned with a sealed envelope.
“The account was accessed at 4:42 p.m. yesterday,” she said. “The person presented valid identification and a secondary authorization code.”
“Name?”
“Daniel Bennett.”
Nora covered her mouth.
“Did he leave anything?”
Evelyn opened the envelope.
Inside lay a photograph, a handwritten letter, and a small digital storage device.
The photograph showed two men standing outside Warehouse 19.
One was Adrian's father.
The other was a younger Victor Hale.
Between them stood a third man whose face had been scratched out.
On the back was a date: October 14, seven years earlier.
The night of the fire.
Adrian unfolded the letter.
The handwriting belonged to his father.
If you're reading this, then I failed to protect the people I was supposed to protect.
Adrian read the sentence twice.
His father had never apologized for anything.
The letter continued.
The shipment was not what the manifest said. I was told it contained stolen medical equipment. By the time I understood the truth, the cargo had already been transferred to a second warehouse.
I ordered the records sealed because the people involved had threatened my family. I believed I could negotiate a way out.
I was wrong.
Adrian's hands tightened around the paper.
The next paragraph had been written more hurriedly.
If Mason is with you, do not trust his silence. If Victor is missing, do not trust his return. And if Daniel Bennett survived, find out who paid him to keep quiet.
Nora stared at the letter.
“Paid him?”
Adrian continued reading.
There is another ledger. The original. It records every payment made to the men who handled the shipment. I hid it where no one would think to look.
The letter ended abruptly.
No signature.
No explanation of what had happened to the cargo.
No indication of where the ledger might be.
Nora picked up the photograph.
“Who's the man with his face scratched out?”
“Someone my father wanted forgotten,” Adrian said.
Mason had not spoken.
Adrian turned toward him.
“You knew about this letter?”
“No.”
“You knew about the second body?”
“No.”
“Then why does someone believe you do?”
Mason looked down at the table.
“Because I was the one who identified the bodies.”
The room went still.
Nora's eyes widened.
“You identified them?”
“Both bodies were badly burned. One belonged to a security contractor. The other was believed to be a warehouse employee.”
“Believed?”
Mason rubbed his forehead.
“The second body was never positively identified. The records were damaged, and the medical examiner relied on a ring and a set of keys recovered near the remains.”
“Whose ring?” Adrian asked.
Mason looked at Nora.
“Daniel Bennett's.”
She recoiled as though he had struck her.
“My brother was never confirmed dead?”
“No.”
“You let my family believe he was dead.”
“I never told anyone he was dead. I told them the authorities had identified his belongings.”
“That is the most cowardly distinction I've ever heard.”
Mason's voice cracked.
“I was twenty-nine years old. My father was dead. Your father was dead. Men were threatening to burn down every property carrying the Vale name. I thought Daniel had escaped. I thought if I kept quiet, he would have a chance to stay alive.”
“You thought wrong,” Nora said.
“Yes.”
For the first time, Mason did not try to defend himself.
Adrian studied his cousin.
There was guilt in Mason's face, but guilt could be performed. So could regret.
Only time and evidence would tell whether either was real.
Caleb's phone rang.
He answered, listened, and immediately turned toward Adrian.
“We have a problem. Someone entered Nora's apartment.”
Nora stood.
“What?”
“Building security found the door open. The place has been searched.”
“Was anything taken?”
“Her landlord says the laptop is missing.”
Nora went pale.
“The laptop with my audit?”
Adrian nodded.
“Did you leave any copies?”
She looked at him.
“One.”
“Where?”
“At my mother's house.”
“Is it safe?”
Nora hesitated.
“My mother died two years ago. The house is still in probate, but nobody has lived there since.”
Adrian's phone vibrated again.
This time, the message contained a photograph of Nora's mother's front door.
A red mark had been painted across the wood.
Underneath it was a single line:
THE ORIGINAL LEDGER IS ALREADY HOME.
Nora grabbed her bag.
“I need to go there.”
Adrian rose.
“We're going together.”
“No.” She faced him. “This is my family. My brother, my mother, my life. Every time I get close to the truth, someone tells me to stay behind while you decide what I can handle.”
“I'm trying to keep you alive.”
“And I'm trying to find out why my brother disappeared!”
Her voice echoed through the room.
Adrian had spent years surrounded by people who obeyed him because they feared the consequences of refusal. Nora was the first person in a long time who seemed willing to lose everything rather than let him make her choices for her.
He respected that.
He also feared what it might cost her.
“Fine,” he said. “You lead. Caleb handles security. I follow your instructions unless there's an immediate threat.”
Nora blinked.
“You're serious?”
“Yes.”
“That's unexpectedly reasonable.”
“Don't make me regret it.”
For the first time that morning, she almost smiled.
They left the bank through a private entrance.
As their SUV pulled into traffic, Mason remained behind, staring at the letter.
His phone buzzed.
An unknown number.
YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BURN THE ORIGINAL.
A second message arrived.
NOW HE KNOWS ABOUT THE SECOND BODY.
Mason's hands began to shake.
He typed one response.
I never had the ledger.
The reply came instantly.
THEN WHY IS YOUR FATHER'S HANDWRITING ON THE BACK OF THE PHOTOGRAPH IN YOUR DESK?
Mason stopped breathing.
Because there was a photograph in his desk.
May you like
And on its back was a name he had spent seven years trying to forget.
Daniel Bennett.
