Chapter 8
My father's death had been an accident.
That sentence had lived inside me for five years.
Dad had been seventy-two.
Healthy, but not young.
He had fallen down the main staircase during the night.
The medical examiner found no evidence of foul play.
Daniel had been the person who found him.
I remembered arriving at Dad's house and seeing Daniel sitting on the front steps.
He had wrapped his arms around me while I screamed.
He had told me over and over that there was nothing anyone could have done.
Now Detective Reyes was telling me Daniel had threatened Dad three days earlier.
"Show me the video."
"Not tonight."
"Monica."
"It's evidence in a potential reopened death investigation."
"He's my father."
"I understand."
"No, you don't."
My voice broke.
"You don't understand what you're asking me to do. I buried him. I spent five years believing he slipped."
Reyes was silent.
Then she said quietly, "I'll arrange for you to view the relevant portion with investigators tomorrow."
I hung up.
Rachel stood across the room.
She knew from my face.
"What?"
I told her.
She sat down hard.
"Oh God."
"You gave Daniel the safe combination."
She covered her mouth.
"I know."
"Did Dad confront you?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"A week before he died."
"Did you tell Daniel?"
Rachel's eyes closed.
"Yes."
I stepped back from her.
"Why?"
"He was helping me."
"He was using you."
"I know that now."
"Did you tell him Dad threatened to go to the police?"
She started crying.
"Yes."
My knees weakened.
I wanted to hate her.
Part of me did.
But another part saw the broken woman standing in front of me.
A woman who had made one terrible choice and then spent years trapped inside it.
Just as Lena had.
Daniel didn't create everyone's sins.
He collected them.
Then he used them as chains.
The next morning I viewed the video.
It had been recorded from a camera hidden in Daniel's jacket or shirt.
The angle was low and unstable.
My father's study appeared on screen.
Dad stood near his desk.
Older than I remembered.
Furious.
"You manipulated Rachel."
Daniel's voice answered.
"Rachel manipulated herself."
"You used her desperation to get into my private files."
"You should secure your private files better."
My father's face went red.
"I know what you're doing."
"Do you?"
"You don't love my daughter."
Silence.
Dad stepped closer.
"You love what comes with her."
I pressed my hand against the table in the viewing room.
Reyes sat beside me.
On screen, Daniel laughed.
"Sarah is an adult."
"Sarah trusts people. That's different."
Then Dad said something that shattered me.
"I warned her about you."
Tears filled my eyes.
Dad had known.
He had tried.
I hadn't listened.
The video continued.
"I'm changing the trust protections," Dad said. "And I'm telling Sarah everything."
Daniel's voice became colder.
"That would be a mistake."
"Is that a threat?"
"Call it advice."
"You'll be out of her life by the weekend."
Daniel stepped closer to him.
Dad didn't move.
"She'll never believe you," Daniel said.
My father smiled.
"Then I'll show her."
"Show her what?"
"I hired someone."
Daniel went silent.
Dad continued.
"I know about the offshore accounts. The debts. The shell companies. I know you were using Sarah's credit and moving money through Whitmore vendors."
My heart pounded.
This was larger than the trust.
Reyes glanced at me.
On screen, Daniel said, "You have no idea what you're talking about."
"I have enough."
Dad walked toward the door.
"I'll make sure Sarah sees it tomorrow."
Daniel's voice followed him.
"You'll never get the chance."
The video ended.
I stared at the black screen.
"Is that all?"
"That's all on the card."
"Where's the rest?"
"We don't know."
I looked at Reyes.
"Do you think Daniel killed my father?"
"We have evidence of motive and a threat. That's enough to reopen questions. It is not proof of homicide."
"What about the person Dad hired?"
"We're trying to identify them."
I remembered Dad's papers.
His assistant.
His lawyer.
Martin.
"Ask Martin."
We did.
Martin went silent when Reyes mentioned a private investigator.
Then he said one name.
"Thomas Vale."
Reyes wrote it down.
"Where is he now?"
"I don't know. Robert hired him privately. After Robert died, Vale contacted me once."
"What did he say?"
"He said the assignment was finished."
"Did he provide a report?"
"Not to me."
"Contact information?"
Martin gave us an old number.
Disconnected.
An address.
Vacant.
Reyes started searching.
Meanwhile, prosecutors held Daniel without immediate release because of the intimidation evidence and concerns about flight.
For the first time, I slept three hours without checking the door.
Then everything went wrong.
At 1:12 p.m., Martin called.
"The judge granted Daniel bail."
I sat upright.
"What?"
"His attorneys argued that the threat allegations are disputed and that he has strong community ties."
"He's dangerous."
"There are strict conditions. An ankle monitor. No contact with you or Jacob."
I almost laughed.
"Daniel photographed us inside a confidential apartment."
"I know."
"Rules mean nothing to him."
"Sarah, police are aware."
I called Reyes.
She already knew.
"We'll monitor him."
"He'll find a way."
"Then we document it and bring him back in."
I hated the calmness of procedure.
Daniel left custody at 4:30.
At 5:10, his ankle monitor showed him entering his mother's house.
At 6:00, he was still there.
At 7:00, still there.
At 8:15, Reyes called me.
"We found Thomas Vale."
Relief hit me.
"Where?"
"Arizona."
"Did you speak to him?"
"Briefly."
"And?"
"He remembers your father."
"What did Dad find?"
"Vale won't discuss details by phone. He's concerned about attorney-client issues and his own safety."
"Then bring him here."
"He's agreed to meet federal investigators tomorrow morning."
"Federal?"
"The financial records Lena provided may involve interstate fraud."
Daniel's world was collapsing.
I should have felt safer.
Instead, I felt something approaching.
At 9:03, Jacob came into the kitchen holding his stuffed bear.
"Mommy, I forgot something."
"What?"
"My science project."
"We'll make another one."
"But it's at Aunt Rachel's."
Rachel smiled.
"I can get it tomorrow."
Jacob shook his head.
"It's due tomorrow."
A normal problem.
A beautiful, normal problem.
For ten seconds, we were just a family again.
Then Rachel's phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
She declined.
It rang again.
Then a text arrived.
Her face changed.
"What?"
She showed me.
A photograph of her house.
Taken seconds earlier.
The porch light was on.
Under it:
COME ALONE.
Rachel went pale.
Another message.
Or the 2018 records go to police tonight.
I grabbed her phone.
"Good. Let him send them."
Rachel stared at me.
"What?"
"You stole money. You'll face it."
Her eyes filled.
"Sarah—"
"I'm not losing you too because Daniel owns a secret."
"But I could go to prison."
"Maybe."
She flinched.
I hated saying it.
But I had finally understood.
Daniel survived because everyone was more afraid of their secrets than of him.
No more.
"We call Reyes."
Rachel nodded slowly.
Then another message arrived.
Not to Rachel.
To me.
A photograph.
Jacob sleeping.
My heart stopped.
Not now.
The picture was old.
Taken in his bedroom.
But the caption beneath it made my blood freeze.
You think the camera in his room was the only one?
I looked around the rental.
Walls.
Smoke detectors.
Air vents.
Rachel understood immediately.
"We need to leave."
I called Reyes.
She told us not to touch anything.
Officers arrived.
They swept the apartment.
Twenty minutes later, one of them found a small device behind an electrical outlet cover.
A camera.
Installed before we moved in.
I stared at it.
"How?"
The victim advocate looked horrified.
"This apartment is confidential."
Reyes's expression hardened.
"Someone inside the system gave him information."
The betrayal had spread beyond my home.
An officer's radio crackled.
Reyes listened.
Then swore.
"What?"
"Daniel's ankle monitor just went offline."
"Where?"
"At his mother's house."
"Did he cut it?"
"We don't know."
Then my phone rang.
Daniel.
I answered before anyone could stop me.
"Where are you?"
He laughed softly.
"You finally sound like yourself."
"Stay away from my son."
"You still don't understand."
"What?"
"This was never just about money."
My stomach tightened.
"What was it about?"
"Your father took something from me."
"You're insane."
"No, Sarah."
His voice went quiet.
"Your father discovered who I really was."
Then he said:
"And tomorrow, Thomas Vale is going to tell you too."
The line went dead.
Reyes stared at me.
She had heard every word.
"What does that mean?"
I asked.
She didn't know.
None of us did.
Three hours later, federal agents reached Thomas Vale's Arizona home.
The front door was open.
May you like
His car was gone.
And Vale had disappeared.
