Thomas did not speak for nearly a minute.
Then he said, "Play it again."
David looked at him.
"The message?"
"The recording."
Anna's voice played again.
Young.
Ordinary.
Alive in a way photographs were not.
Victor? It's Anna Reddick. I found something in Dad's office I think you're supposed to take to Gregory.
A pause.
I don't know what it is, but Dad's name is on some of the papers. Call me back.
Thomas stared at the speaker until the file ended.
"She thought she was helping."
Samuel stood beside him.
Thomas nodded.
"She saw company papers and assumed they belonged to Gregory."
"Did she know you suspected financial misconduct?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I didn't suspect it yet."
That changed something.
The audit materials had been in Thomas's office.
But perhaps he had not understood what they meant.
David asked, "Who prepared them?"
Thomas thought.
"A junior accountant."
"Name?"
"Michael Trent."
Mark frowned.
"I know that name."
"How?"
"Old CFO."
Thomas nodded slowly.
"He eventually became CFO."
"Still alive?"
"Retired."
David immediately noted it.
"If Trent prepared the materials, he may know what Anna took."
Thomas sat.
"I need to call him."
Alvarez raised a hand.
"Through us."
Thomas looked frustrated but nodded.
Victor's accusation remained on the screen.
Gregory told me to stop her before she reached the police.
Samuel read it again.
"Why would she go to police if she thought she was giving documents to Victor?"
David answered.
"Maybe something happened after the voicemail."
"Victor called her back."
"Likely."
Thomas looked at Victor's messages.
"He may be editing the story."
Alvarez nodded.
"He's giving pieces strategically."
"To what end?"
"Leverage."
The same answer.
Always leverage.
She continued.
"Victor now knows we are reconstructing his role in the crash. He may be trying to frame himself as an unwilling participant."
Thomas's expression hardened.
"By accusing Gregory."
"Possibly truthfully."
Samuel said, "Both can be guilty."
"Exactly."
Michael Trent agreed to speak remotely that afternoon.
He was seventy-eight and living in Oregon.
When his face appeared on screen, Thomas visibly aged another year.
"Tom."
"Michael."
Trent looked toward the others.
"I assume this is about 1997."
No one expected that.
Thomas stared.
"You knew?"
Trent gave a tired smile.
"I've been waiting twenty-nine years for someone to ask properly."
David took over.
"What were the documents Anna Reddick removed from Thomas's office?"
Trent's face tightened.
"Preliminary pension audit schedules."
"What did they show?"
"Unauthorized transfers."
"By whom?"
"Accounts controlled by Gregory Vale."
Mark closed his eyes.
No surprise anymore.
Only confirmation.
"Did Thomas know?"
"No."
Thomas looked toward Trent sharply.
"You never told me."
"I intended to."
"When?"
"The Monday after Anna died."
Thomas went still.
Trent continued.
"I left the schedules in your office Friday afternoon because I trusted you more than internal management."
"Anna died Friday night."
"Yes."
"Did she see them by accident?"
"I assume."
Thomas rubbed his mouth.
"Why would she take them?"
"I don't know."
Samuel said, "She called Victor."
Trent's expression changed.
"Victor Harris?"
"Yes."
"Then she probably recognized his name."
"From where?"
Trent leaned back.
"He appeared in the ledgers."
Thomas stared.
"What?"
"Red Mesa Consulting."
My stomach tightened.
"Victor's company."
"Yes."
"Anna may have seen the name in the audit schedules."
"Likely."
"And she had met him."
Thomas whispered, "At the office."
Trent nodded.
"She may have assumed he was involved in fixing the problem."
Samuel laughed bitterly.
"She thought the thief was security."
"Possibly."
David asked, "Did Gregory know about the audit before Anna died?"
Trent hesitated.
"I don't know."
"Did anyone else?"
"Two people."
"Who?"
"Me and Claire Benton."
Everyone froze.
Impossible.
Claire would have been too young.
Trent saw our confusion.
"Not the same Claire Benton."
Helen spoke from the secure line.
"Her mother."
The room went silent.
Claire had said Kellerman treated her mother.
But nobody had asked what her mother did.
"Claire's mother worked at Vale Holdings?" I asked.
Helen nodded slowly.
"Accounting."
"What was her name?"
"Claire Benton Senior. Her daughter was named after her."
Sarah stared.
"That's why Claire knew the old files."
Thomas whispered, "Jesus."
Trent continued.
"Claire's mother assisted me with the pension schedules."
"What happened to her?" David asked.
Trent looked uncomfortable.
"She resigned after Anna died."
"Why?"
"She said she didn't want to be involved."
"Did Gregory pressure her?"
"I don't know."
Helen said quietly, "Claire's mother died twelve years ago."
I thought about Claire finding Red Mesa payments in old archives.
Maybe she had not discovered the trail accidentally.
Maybe she had been looking for something her mother left behind.
David asked Trent, "Did Benton make copies?"
"Yes."
Helen inhaled.
"Claire inherited them."
That explained her early knowledge.
Her obsession with succession might have begun with old family papers, not Daniel.
Love and money had simply fused later.
Trent continued.
"The weekend after Anna died, Gregory told me the pension discrepancies were accounting errors."
"Did you believe him?"
"No."
"What did you do?"
"I resigned six months later."
"Why wait?"
"To reconstruct the missing funds."
"Did you?"
"Partly."
"How much was missing?"
"Approximately eleven million dollars at the time."
Mark stared.
"What happened to it?"
"Most returned through a series of shell entities."
"Most?"
"About eight million."
"What happened to the rest?"
Trent looked toward Thomas.
"I believed it funded an acquisition Gregory couldn't legally finance through the pension plan."
Thomas whispered the company name before Trent could.
"Northstar Freight."
Trent nodded.
Samuel frowned.
"What was Northstar?"
"A logistics company Vale Holdings bought in 1998."
David leaned forward.
"Why does that matter?"
Thomas looked ill.
"Because Northstar later became the basis of the distribution division."
Mark stared.
"A third of the company."
"Approximately."
The implications were enormous.
Gregory may have built a major part of Vale Holdings using money improperly moved from employee pensions.
If true, Matthew's trust dispute had uncovered not merely family fraud.
Potential corporate fraud affecting thousands of workers.
I felt suddenly small in the room.
Not unimportant.
Just aware that the circle of harmed people had expanded far beyond us.
David asked, "Did Anna plan to go to the police?"
Trent frowned.
"I don't know."
"Victor claims Gregory ordered him to stop her before she reached police."
Trent stared.
"I can't verify that."
"Did Anna call anyone else?"
Thomas whispered, "Her roommate."
Alvarez looked at him.
"Still alive?"
"Last I knew."
"Name?"
"Rachel Moore."
Within hours, Alvarez located her.
Rachel remembered the night.
Her voice shook over the phone.
"Anna came back to the dorm around six."
"What was she carrying?"
"A big envelope."
"Did she tell you what it was?"
"She said she'd found something weird in her father's office."
"What kind of thing?"
"Money transfers."
Thomas closed his eyes.
Rachel continued.
"She thought someone named Victor might explain it."
"Did she call him?"
"Yes."
"What happened after?"
"She got angry."
Everyone leaned closer.
"Why?"
"I don't know exactly. She said, 'If they're stealing from retirees, somebody has to know.'"
Thomas covered his mouth.
"Did she mention police?"
"Yes."
The room went still.
"She said she was going to ask campus security where to report corporate theft because she didn't trust company people."
Victor had told the truth about that part.
"What happened next?"
"She left."
"Alone?"
"Yes."
"Where was she going?"
"She said she needed to meet someone first."
"Who?"
Rachel hesitated.
"Victor."
Thomas made a strangled sound.
So Anna had arranged to meet the man later accused of causing her fatal crash.
David asked, "Did she seem afraid of him?"
"No."
That mattered.
She trusted him enough to meet.
At least before whatever happened.
Rachel continued.
"About twenty minutes after she left, she called me."
Thomas looked up sharply.
"What did she say?"
"She said Victor was acting strange."
"How?"
"He kept asking who else she'd told."
My skin chilled.
"What did she say?"
"She told him only me."
Samuel muttered, "Damn."
"What happened then?"
"She said she was leaving."
"Did she?"
"I think so."
"Anything else?"
Rachel began crying.
"She said if she wasn't back by ten, I should call her father."
Thomas turned away.
"Did you?"
"Yes."
"I wasn't home."
"I know."
"You left a message."
Rachel whispered, "Yes."
Thomas nodded.
"I remember."
The grief in his voice changed the room.
For twenty-nine years, that message had probably seemed like nothing.
Now it belonged to a chain.
David asked, "Did she say anything about Gregory?"
"No."
That contradicted Victor's version slightly.
If Gregory ordered him directly before Anna reached police, when?
After Victor learned she had the documents.
Alvarez's phone buzzed.
"Forensics just recovered archived call records from a corporate telecom backup."
Thomas stared.
"From 1997?"
"Some metadata."
"Victor?"
"Yes."
She read.
"At 7:12 p.m., Victor Harris called Gregory Vale's office for four minutes."
Rachel had said Anna left around seven.
"Then?"
"7:19, Gregory called Victor back."
Samuel leaned forward.
"How long?"
"Twelve minutes."
"Then?"
"7:36, Victor's mobile placed a call to Anna."
Thomas went pale.
"What time was the crash?"
"Approximately 8:14."
Everything tightened.
David said, "That supports Victor receiving instructions before meeting her."
Alvarez nodded.
"But not what the instructions were."
Victor messaged again almost immediately, as though he knew we were reconstructing the timeline.
I have the call.
Thomas stood.
"What call?"
Another message.
Gregory to me. 7:19 p.m.
Samuel stared.
"He's kept it all these years."
David replied through law enforcement this time.
Provide it.
Victor answered.
For the original codicil.
No.
He sent another line.
Then Anna stays a drunk girl who crashed.
Thomas nearly lunged at the phone.
Samuel caught him again.
"That's what he wants."
Thomas shook with rage.
"My daughter—"
"I know."
"No, you don't."
Samuel held his gaze.
"No. I don't."
That stopped him.
Alvarez said, "We need Victor to believe he still has bargaining power."
Thomas whispered, "He does."
"No."
She looked at him.
"He has evidence. That's not the same as power."
Thomas laughed bitterly.
"Feels similar."
David asked, "Can we authenticate a digital copy if he sends it?"
"Potentially."
"Then we give him something else."
"What?"
Thomas stared at the real codicil case.
"No."
Samuel understood.
"Tom."
"No."
"We don't hand it over."
"No."
"We let him see it."
Thomas looked at him.
Samuel continued.
"He wants proof we have the original."
David frowned.
"Why would that matter?"
"Because if he's bargaining with Gregory too, he needs to prove the document still exists."
That silenced the room.
Of course.
Victor had been playing multiple sides for decades.
Maybe he was still doing it.
Mark said, "My father would pay anything to know whether the codicil is authentic."
Helen spoke.
"Yes."
"And Victor could be selling him information."
"Possibly."
David looked toward Thomas.
"We show Victor the original remotely under controlled conditions. Nothing leaves custody."
Thomas hated it.
But after several minutes, he nodded.
Alvarez arranged the exchange.
Victor received a live video showing Thomas opening the archival case, displaying the seal, signatures and identifying marks.
No copies.
No access.
Proof only.
Victor stayed silent for six minutes.
Then an audio file arrived.
David authenticated the metadata provisionally.
Thomas sat before it played.
Samuel sat beside him.
Not touching.
Just there.
Gregory's younger voice filled the room.
Victor, listen carefully. She has documents she does not understand.
Victor:
She says she's going to the police.
Gregory:
Then stop her.
Victor:
How?
Gregory:
Get the papers. Keep her there until I arrive.
Victor:
She's already leaving.
Gregory:
Then follow her. Do not let those documents reach anyone.
Victor:
What if she calls her father?
Gregory:
Thomas cannot know yet.
Victor:
And the girl?
A pause.
Then Gregory said the sentence that changed everything.
Do not hurt her. I mean that.
The recording continued.
Get the papers. Keep her from reaching police. I will handle Thomas.
Victor:
Fine.
Gregory:
And Victor?
Yeah?
Gregory:
If you have been drinking, do not drive.
The call ended.
Nobody spoke.
Thomas stared at the speaker.
Samuel whispered, "Gregory ordered him to stop her."
"Yes."
"But not kill her."
"No."
Victor had told a partial truth.
Gregory had instructed him to intercept Anna and recover the documents.
That was illegal.
Coercive.
Possibly kidnapping if carried out.
But he had explicitly warned Victor not to drive after drinking and not to hurt Anna.
Thomas closed his eyes.
The distinction did not absolve Gregory.
But it changed the crash.
Victor had chosen to drive.
Victor had chosen to follow her.
Victor had crossed the center line.
My phone buzzed again.
Victor sent one sentence.
He still started it.
Thomas looked at the screen.
Then typed nothing.
For once, he refused the bait.
Alvarez's phone rang.
She listened.
Her expression sharpened.
"What?"
She muted the call.
"Victor has been spotted."
Every person stood.
"Where?"
"Near the old Vale estate."
Thomas stared.
"Why there?"
Alvarez looked toward the codicil.
"I think he's done bargaining with us."
Samuel said, "Then he's going to Gregory."
Click here to continue reading: PART 24: Victor Reached the Vale Estate Before Police, and Gregory’s Final Attempt to Control the Archive Forced Mark to Choose Between His Father and the Truth
The Message I Sent His Wife Was Supposed to End the Silence, but Her Reply Made Me Afraid to Open My Door
Part 23 of 28
