Chapter 4 - Her Mother's Lie
Genevieve answered without speaking.
“Genevieve?”
Her mother's voice sounded normal.
That somehow made it worse.
“Where are you?”
“Union Station.”
Eleanor inhaled sharply.
“You went to the locker.”
“You knew about it.”
Silence.
“Mom?”
“I knew Thomas had a locker.”
Genevieve looked at the photograph.
“What did you lie about?”
Another silence.
Longer.
“Come back.”
“No.”
“Please.”
“Tell me now.”
“This isn't something I can explain over the phone.”
Genevieve almost screamed.
Instead she looked at the words written by her father.
Ask Eleanor why she lied.
“Did you know someone tampered with Dad's car?”
“Yes.”
The station seemed to disappear around her.
Adrian watched her face.
“You knew?”
“Thomas told me two days before he died.”
“And you told me it was an accident.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
“From the truth.”
Genevieve closed her eyes.
“That sentence doesn't mean anything anymore.”
Eleanor began crying.
“Come back to the club.”
Genevieve ended the call.
They returned forty minutes later.
Eleanor waited in the library.
Genevieve placed the photograph on the table.
Her mother stared at it.
“Where did you get this?”
“Locker 314.”
Eleanor sat.
“Your father took that photograph himself.”
“How?”
“Timer.”
“Why?”
“Because he wanted proof of where the car had been.”
Genevieve remained standing.
“Start at the beginning.”
Eleanor folded her hands.
“Your father discovered irregularities in Hayes Logistics almost two years ago. Contracts were being altered after he approved them. Shipping rights were moving through companies he didn't recognize.”
“Witmore companies?”
“Some.”
“And the rest?”
“We didn't know.”
“You said we.”
Eleanor nodded.
“I helped him.”
Genevieve stared.
Her mother had always appeared detached from Hayes Logistics.
Charity boards.
Museums.
Family foundations.
She had never attended operational meetings.
“At first your father thought someone was stealing money,” Eleanor continued. “Then he realized money wasn't the goal. Someone wanted control.”
“Why didn't he go to the police?”
“He tried.”
“What happened?”
“Information from his complaint reached Harrison Witmore before investigators even contacted him.”
Adrian leaned against the desk.
“So Thomas knew Harrison had influence.”
“Yes.”
“And that's when he came to me.”
Eleanor nodded reluctantly.
Genevieve pointed at the photograph.
“What was the lie?”
Her mother looked at her.
“The night Thomas died, I told police he left home alone.”
“He didn't?”
“No.”
“Who was with him?”
Eleanor's lips trembled.
“I was.”
Genevieve sat down.
“I don't understand.”
“We drove separately to an old warehouse owned by Hayes Logistics. Your father believed someone inside the company was meeting Harrison's representative.”
“Who?”
“We never saw.”
“What happened?”
“Thomas received a call. He told me to leave immediately.”
“And you did?”
“Yes.”
“You left him there?”
“He made me promise.”
Genevieve's voice hardened.
“Then what?”
“I drove home.”
“And Dad?”
“He called me forty minutes later. He said he was coming home.”
“He never did.”
“No.”
“Why lie to police?”
“Because someone called me before the officers arrived.”
Adrian straightened.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“What did they say?”
Eleanor looked at Genevieve.
“They knew you were staying at Natalie's apartment that night.”
Genevieve felt cold.
“They gave me the address.”
Her stomach tightened.
“They said if I mentioned the warehouse, you would be next.”
Nobody spoke.
Genevieve finally understood.
Her mother's lie had not been betrayal.
It had been fear.
“Why didn't you tell me later?”
“Because Thomas was dead and you were alive.”
Genevieve sat beside her.
Eleanor reached for her hand.
“I chose you.”
Genevieve let her mother hold it.
For several seconds they were simply mother and daughter again.
Then Adrian placed Preston's flash drive beside the laptop.
“We still have this.”
Genevieve nodded.
“Open it.”
The encryption took nearly an hour to bypass.
Inside were bank transfers.
Payments moving through four shell corporations.
Most ended in overseas accounts.
One did not.
It belonged to a consulting company in Illinois.
MERRICK STRATEGIC SERVICES.
Genevieve knew the name.
“Caleb Merrick.”
Eleanor looked up.
“Your father's chief operating officer.”
Adrian searched the corporate registration.
The company had been created eighteen months earlier.
The registered agent was another corporation.
But the address was unmistakable.
A condominium owned by Caleb Merrick's wife.
Genevieve leaned back.
“Caleb has worked for us for twenty-three years.”
“Which gives him access,” Adrian said.
“He carried my father's coffin.”
“That doesn't make him innocent.”
Genevieve remembered Thomas's recording.
Trust evidence before people.
Especially people you love.
She opened the BOARD folder from the ring.
Caleb's name appeared dozens of times.
Meeting schedules.
Internal authorizations.
Deleted messages recovered from corporate servers.
Then one document stopped her.
TRANSFER AUTHORIZATION.
The document would move Hayes Logistics's terminal voting rights to a holding company if Genevieve married Preston Witmore.
At the bottom was Genevieve's electronic signature.
She had never seen it.
“That's forged.”
Adrian examined it.
“Looks like Preston's marriage wasn't even necessary.”
“Then why the wedding?”
“Legitimacy,” Eleanor said quietly. “A spouse controlling the company attracts fewer questions than an outside corporation.”
Genevieve stared at the screen.
A notification appeared.
Someone had attempted remote access to the isolated laptop.
Adrian immediately disconnected the adapter.
“How?”
His technician frowned.
“It shouldn't be possible.”
Then he noticed the flash drive Preston had supplied.
A tiny light was blinking.
“Tracker.”
Adrian ripped it out.
Genevieve stood.
“Preston led them here.”
“Maybe intentionally,” Adrian said. “Maybe not.”
A loud sound came from the main lounge.
Everyone froze.
Not gunfire.
The front door.
Someone was pounding.
Adrian checked the security feed.
This time only one man stood outside.
Caleb Merrick.
Genevieve stared at the screen.
Her father's oldest friend was soaked from the rain.
He looked directly into the camera.
Then he raised both hands.
In one hand was the stolen leather pouch from Union Station.
In the other was Thomas Hayes's Rolex.
Caleb spoke toward the camera.
“I know Genevieve is inside.”
Adrian turned up the microphone.
Caleb looked terrified.
“Tell her I know who killed her father.”
Genevieve moved toward the door.
Then Caleb added:
“And tell Eleanor the man she saw at the warehouse wasn't Harrison Witmore.”
Eleanor went white.
Genevieve turned toward her mother.
“Then who did you see?”
May you like
Eleanor stared at the monitor.
The front door began to open.
