Chapter 10 - The First Investigator
Daniel denied sending the text.
For once, I believed he might be telling the truth.
The burner phone was too convenient.
Renee agreed.
"Someone wants you focused on Daniel while Marcus cleans everything else."
Back at Whitmore House, I read my mother's letter again.
Dad finally told me about the first investigator.
His name was Thomas Bell.
In 2010, Whitmore's insurers hired him to examine the Joliet fire.
He found altered maintenance logs.
Two weeks later, he disappeared.
His car was recovered near Lake Michigan.
He was never found.
"You thought Marcus killed him?"
Dad stared at the floor.
"I thought Marcus frightened him into leaving. That is what Marcus told me."
"And you accepted that?"
"I wanted to."
I laughed once, without humor.
"That's the family motto, isn't it? We believe whatever lets us sleep."
Dad flinched.
Tessa entered carrying a small evidence bag.
Inside was a flash drive recovered from the fake Adrian at our gate. He had dropped it near the wall when he fled.
"We finally got through the encryption."
The drive contained surveillance photographs.
Me leaving therapy.
Dad meeting Renee.
Adrian entering a coffee shop.
Daniel at a private club with Marcus Reed.
Then one photograph stopped me.
Adrian was sitting across from Daniel.
Date: three days before Adrian disappeared.
They were not arguing.
They were exchanging a folder.
I called Daniel.
"Why were you meeting Adrian?"
Long pause.
"Because he contacted me first."
"Why?"
"He thought your father was going to have him killed."
I looked at Dad.
Daniel continued.
"And before you ask, no, I didn't believe him. Not then."
"What was in the folder?"
"Proof that Marcus had been taking orders from someone inside Whitmore for years."
My throat tightened.
May you like
"Who?"
Daniel whispered, "Your mother."
