Chapter 6 - THE BASEMENT SCREEN
The Carter house basement held a private security room Daniel rarely entered.
Vanessa handled the household systems.
That now sounded insane.
Police searched it.
Most drives had been wiped.
One hidden server remained behind a false panel.
On it were twelve video files.
The earliest was dated the night Claire supposedly died.
Daniel pressed play.
Claire lay unconscious in a hospital bed.
Not dead.
Older.
Gray hair.
A familiar left-handed way of adjusting his cuff.
Henry Carter.
His father.
Alive two years after his own funeral.
On the video, Henry leaned over Claire.
"She knows too much."
Marcus said, "She's not stable enough to move."
"Then keep her quiet."
Daniel gripped the desk.
Barely.
Alive.
The next file was three days later.
She whispered, "Daniel."
"You don't get to call him."
"You're supposed to be dead."
"So are you."
The death certificate had not recorded Claire's death.
It had created it.
A legal disappearance.
The next videos showed Claire sedated, transferred, questioned.
Henry wanted passwords.
Claire refused.
Vanessa appeared twice, acting as a messenger rather than the mastermind.
That did not make her innocent.
Then came the final file.
Thirteen months ago, same date as the certificate.
She told the camera:
"If Daniel sees this, the Black Ledger is under the old river plant. Dad killed the audit. Marcus helped him. Vanessa is working for them."
The video ended.
No body.
No death.
"The certificate could be fake."
"Yes."
"Claire might still be alive."
Ortiz cautioned him.
"Or she died later."
Daniel did not care.
Hope was dangerous, but he had already lived thirteen months with a lie.
He would take danger.
The metadata showed the videos had been uploaded from a property owned by Northstar Rehabilitation.
Private neurological facility.
Closed six months earlier.
Owner: a shell company connected to Marcus.
Ortiz prepared a search.
Audio only.
Vanessa crying.
"I did what you asked. Leave the children out of this."
"You don't get to make conditions."
Vanessa said, "Daniel will kill me if he finds out."
May you like
"No. Daniel will blame himself."
"He always does."
