Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW THE TRUTH
Rebecca woke just before midnight.
Laura was sitting beside the window when she heard her whisper:
“Where’s Caleb?”
“He’s safe.”
Rebecca looked toward the corner.
Caleb was asleep in a chair beside the bed.
The relief on her face lasted only a second.
Then fear returned.
“Did they take the drive?”
Laura hesitated.
“The original is safe.”
Rebecca stared at her.
“You don’t understand.”
“What?”
“My father didn’t trust the drive.”
Laura frowned.
“Why not?”
“Because he knew someone would steal it.”
Rebecca slowly reached beneath the mattress.
Then pulled out a small envelope.
Laura stared.
“You had that the whole time?”
Rebecca nodded.
“My father gave it to me the night before he died.”
Inside was a photograph.
A young Samuel Bennett stood beside Richard Vincent.
But there was something strange.
The photograph had been taken twenty years earlier.
On the back, Samuel had written:
Richard Vincent is not his real name.
Laura felt the room become colder.
Rebecca continued.
“Richard was born under another name.”
“What name?”
Rebecca looked toward the sleeping child.
“Daniel Cross.”
Laura knew that name.
Everyone in Maple Ridge knew it.
Daniel Cross had been a financial fraudster who disappeared twenty-five years earlier after stealing millions from investors.
He was presumed dead.
Richard Vincent had appeared in the city shortly afterward.
Same height.
Same scar above the left eyebrow.
Same unusual medical history.
Laura looked at the photograph.
“Your father discovered his identity.”
Rebecca nodded.
“And used it against him?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Rebecca swallowed.
“My father helped him.”
Laura stared.
“Why?”
“Because Richard promised to expose a group of criminals who were stealing from the bank.”
Rebecca’s voice trembled.
“But Richard betrayed him.”
He had taken the money.
The accounts.
The companies.
The names of the people who had trusted Samuel.
And then he had built an empire.
But Samuel had kept evidence.
A hidden archive.
Project Harbor.
The files on the flash drive were only a fraction of the truth.
“The full archive is somewhere else,” Rebecca said.
“Where?”
She looked at Laura.
“In a place Richard would never search.”
Laura waited.
Rebecca whispered:
“Inside the bank.”
Laura’s eyes widened.
“The old bank?”
“The original branch.”
It had been closed fifteen years earlier.
The building now stood empty on the edge of town.
Samuel had owned it.
And according to Rebecca, he had hidden something beneath the original vault.
Before Laura could ask more, the lights in the hospital flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then went out.
Caleb woke instantly.
“Mommy?”
The emergency lights turned on.
The hallway outside was dark.
Then a sound came from the corridor.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Measured.
Rebecca gripped Laura’s hand.
“They found us.”
Mike entered the room seconds later.
“Move.”
They gathered Caleb.
The hospital’s emergency exit was at the end of the corridor.
But the footsteps were getting closer.
A shadow appeared beneath the door.
Then someone tried the handle.
Mike raised his weapon.
The door opened.
A nurse stood outside.
“Room inspection.”
Mike did not lower his weapon.
“Show me your identification.”
The nurse froze.
Then ran.
Mike chased her.
Laura took Caleb through the emergency stairwell.
They reached the parking garage.
A black vehicle was waiting.
Rebecca stopped.
“That’s Richard’s car.”
The vehicle accelerated toward them.
Mike shouted.
“Move!”
Laura grabbed Caleb and pulled him behind a concrete pillar.
The car slammed into the barrier.
The driver escaped through the opposite exit.
Inside the abandoned vehicle, police found a folder.
One page was covered in handwriting.
SAMUEL BENNETT DID NOT DIE OF NATURAL CAUSES.
The second page contained a map.
A red circle marked the old bank.
And beneath it was a message:
The vault opens with the boy’s first coin.
Laura looked at Caleb.
He was holding the quarter she had given him.
The quarter from the pickle jar.
She suddenly understood.
The coin was not just a coin.
May you like
It was a key.
And Richard Vincent had just realized they were one step away from finding everything he had spent twenty years burying.
