Chapter 14 - THE STORAGE UNIT
The unit belonged legally to Carter & Hayes.
Not Andrew personally.
That prevented us from simply kicking the door down.
Company counsel authorized access.
First Atlantic sent an observer.
Daniel.
Rebecca.
Me.
Elliot.
Too many adults in one hallway.
Inside:
Old architectural models.
Boxes of contracts.
Trade-show banners.
Two broken monitors.
Nothing cinematic.
Then Rebecca found a plastic archive bin marked:
A.C. PRIVATE — NOT FOR MIGRATION
Andrew Carter.
My husband.
Inside were Bluebird duplicates.
Old valuation drafts.
Noah's 2019 school form.
The legacy recovery code.
Everything someone needed to create the school setup.
Daniel stared.
“Who has been in here?”
Storage access records.
Five entries in four years.
Three from company movers.
One from records contractor.
One:
Six weeks ago.
Badge code belonged to—
Peter Sloan.
The Crestline consultant.
Except Peter had never physically visited the facility.
He proved it.
Badge code had been issued remotely to a pickup vendor.
Who requested it?
A Carter & Hayes employee account.
Emily Larson.
Rebecca's chief of staff.
Rebecca looked furious.
Emily was brought into counsel's office that evening.
She did not deny requesting pickup access.
Rebecca had asked her six weeks earlier to locate legacy Northstar materials before sale diligence.
Emily sent a records contractor.
The contractor scanned the Bluebird bin.
That was how Crestline got it.
Poor judgment.
Not intentional school manipulation.
“Did you create the fake number?”
“No.”
“Did you alter Noah's school profile?”
“No.”
“Did you know Rebecca would spoof Noah?”
“No.”
Her devices supported most of that.
Then one question.
“Who else knew the bin existed?”
Emily answered:
“Andrew's old executive assistant.”
Name:
Mark Ellis.
Left Carter & Hayes three years ago.
Current job:
Crestline Advisory.
Silence.
There.
A direct bridge.
Mark had worked for Andrew.
Knew Bluebird.
Knew the school systems.
Knew Daniel.
Knew Elliot's role.
Now worked at the buyer's diligence firm.
Crestline suspended him immediately.
He retained counsel.
Through counsel, he denied:
altering school records,
impersonating me,
coordinating Rebecca's message.
He admitted accessing the old Bluebird archive.
Why?
Northstar due diligence.
Authorized broadly.
Did he know the legacy recovery code was inside?
Yes.
Did he use it?
“No.”
Could investigators prove otherwise?
Not yet.
Then something else.
Mark had left Carter & Hayes after Andrew's death because Rebecca eliminated his role.
He had been angry.
Daniel remembered.
“He blamed Rebecca.”
Rebecca nodded.
“He thought I pushed him out.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
Why?
Mark had copied Andrew's private correspondence into his own working files.
Rebecca considered it a confidentiality problem.
Mark called it preserving institutional memory.
Now the same habit had made him useful to Northstar.
Maybe too useful.
We had a plausible suspect.
No proof.
Then Northstar terminated Mark's system access regardless.
Employment investigation pending.
The sale process stayed alive.
Business did not stop because family mysteries got interesting.
First Atlantic recommended:
Daniel remain protector for now, with a professional co-protector.
Rebecca remain off trust authority for twelve months.
Northstar or any buyer negotiate through independent fiduciary.
I agreed.
Daniel agreed.
Rebecca hated it.
Then agreed.
Not healing.
Function.
We were finally close to knowing what happened at the school.
Then Elliot received the carrier response for the fake Claire number.
The woman who answered his call had used a voice-masking service.
Not an imitation of me.
Just a generic female voice.
Meaning Elliot had heard what he expected.
“Claire Carter?”
“Yes.”
He had supplied my identity first.
The caller only confirmed it.
Another assumption doing half the work.
Then carrier data showed the call did not originate from Mark Ellis's phone.
Or Rebecca's.
Or Emily's.
May you like
The device was still active.
Somewhere in Manhattan.
