Chapter 8 - Someone Inside the Family
Theresa Nolan had not been a police officer.
She had been an accountant.
For Gideon Vale.
Nolan finally admitted it.
“She told me she handled legitimate companies.”
Jack laughed bitterly.
“You believed that?”
“I loved her.”
Those three words explained too much.
Theresa discovered what Vale was doing.
Instead of reporting him, she initially accepted money to alter records.
Then Daniel found out.
“He confronted her,” Nolan said.
“She panicked.”
“Did she betray him?”
“Yes.”
Lena's stomach tightened.
Theresa had warned Vale about the investigation.
But guilt changed her.
After Vale threatened Lena, Theresa secretly began copying his records.
“She tried to undo what she'd done.”
“Did Mom know?”
“Yes.”
That explained Claire's warning.
She hadn't known whether Theresa had shared everything with her husband.
“So you weren't the traitor,” Lena said.
“No.”
“But Mom couldn't know that.”
“No.”
Nolan looked twenty years older.
“Theresa died believing I hated her.”
“How did she die?”
“Car accident.”
Jack and Nolan exchanged a look.
Not an accident.
Vale.
Theresa's copied records were missing.
Until Lena remembered the account key.
The necklace did not merely open Daniel's records.
It decrypted Theresa's.
Evelyn helped them access the archive.
That was when Lena confronted her.
“My father thinks you may be the leak.”
Evelyn didn't flinch.
“He should.”
“You were?”
“No.”
“Then why should he?”
“Because I made a mistake.”
Evelyn had trusted her supervisor.
He worked for Vale.
By the time she discovered it, Daniel was gone.
She had spent seventeen years quietly dismantling pieces of Vale's network.
“Why didn't you tell Daniel?”
“I couldn't find him.”
“You found me.”
“Finding you was easy. Approaching you would have exposed you.”
Lena was beginning to hate that explanation.
Yet she also understood it.
The decrypted records finally opened.
Names.
Payments.
Dates.
Politicians.
Executives.
Police.
Lawyers.
Enough evidence to resurrect Daniel's case.
Then Lena found one recent transaction.
Two weeks earlier.
Five million dollars.
Recipient:
D.H.
Daniel Harper.
She stared.
“No.”
Jack looked over her shoulder.
His face changed.
“What?”
“My father took money from Vale.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Or someone wants us to believe he did.”
The transfer led to an offshore account.
The authorization contained Daniel's private encryption.
It appeared genuine.
Lena felt sick.
Had her father spent seventeen years hiding?
Or bargaining?
Her phone rang.
Daniel.
She answered immediately.
“Did you take five million dollars from Vale?”
Silence.
“Dad?”
“Yes.”
Everyone stared.
Lena's heart broke again.
“Why?”
“To buy something.”
“What?”
“My freedom.”
She closed her eyes.
“You sold him the evidence?”
“No.”
“What did you buy?”
May you like
Daniel answered quietly.
“Vale's confession.”
