Chapter 13 - Adrian Vale
The police wanted to wait for a warrant team.
Tessa wanted to go immediately.
For once, I listened to the police.
At 8:17 p.m., officers entered the Gary warehouse.
At 8:24, Tessa's phone rang.
She listened without speaking.
Then she looked at me.
"They found him."
Adrian Vale was alive.
He was dehydrated, bruised, and furious.
At the hospital, he refused pain medication until he had spoken to me.
"Marcus knew I found the family office payments," he said.
"Was Stephen paying him?"
Adrian nodded.
"After Rose died, Stephen took over the account. At first, he said he was continuing her investigation. Then he realized Marcus could make him rich."
"Daniel?"
"Daniel started stealing from project accounts eighteen months ago. Stephen discovered it and recruited him instead of exposing him."
My stomach turned.
"And the guardianship petition?"
"Stephen's idea. Daniel's execution. Marcus's leverage."
Daniel had locked me in a cage because he needed a public breakdown.
He needed witnesses who would remember an unstable woman screaming behind bars.
The cruelty had been functional.
That somehow made it worse.
"Why did Daniel help you?" I asked.
Adrian gave a tired laugh.
"He didn't. He tried to buy my silence. When that failed, he tried to warn me. He wanted out, but he wanted out without going to prison."
"Convenient."
"Very."
Adrian reached beneath his hospital blanket and handed me a folded piece of paper.
A nurse had found it taped inside his shoe.
"I kept this because Marcus never searched there."
It was a list of eleven transfers.
The final one was scheduled for tomorrow morning.
Forty million dollars from Whitmore Family Office to a Cayman account.
Authorized by Stephen Whitmore.
But the transfer required one additional approval.
Mine.
May you like
Except the signature line was already filled in.
With my name.
