Chapter 6 - THE MAN UPSTAIRS
Evan Pike did not resist security.
He also did not immediately talk.
His attorney arrived within an hour.
Rowan wanted him off the property.
Isolde wanted to know why he had a photograph of her mother's box.
That mattered more.
The photograph had been taken two weeks earlier.
Inside the storage company's Queens warehouse.
Not inside the mansion.
Someone had known Isolde retrieved it.
Pike's lawyer allowed one statement before they left:
“My client was assigned to locate property believed to belong to Vale Holdings.”
Isolde stared.
“My mother's box belongs to me.”
Pike's attorney replied:
“We are not conceding the underlying ownership claim.”
Rowan stepped between them.
“Get out.”
Malcolm escorted them to the gate.
Police received the trespass and unauthorized-access information.
Again, no instant handcuffs.
Pike had entered with a credential issued through a family security contractor.
The question was whether he exceeded permission.
The more disturbing problem was the assignment itself.
Malcolm pulled the internal order.
Client:
Vale Family Trust Special Matters
Approver:
Julian Vale
Rowan looked at Genevieve.
“You knew.”
“I knew Julian was looking for the tape.”
“For six months?”
“No.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Who told you?”
She hesitated.
Then handed him her second phone.
The anonymous number had messaged her four times in two days.
First:
MARIANNE'S BOX MOVED.
Second:
JULIAN HAS PIKE ON IT.
Third:
HE THINKS THE TAPE IS INSIDE.
Fourth:
the warning they already saw.
Rowan asked:
“Who is this?”
“I don't know.”
“Why believe it?”
Genevieve stared at the sealed cassette.
“Because only three living people should have known Marianne ever had a tape.”
“Who?”
“Me.”
“Julian.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Her eyes moved toward Isolde.
“Thomas's old lawyer.”
Name:
Elliot Crane.
Ninety-one.
Retired.
Living in Vermont.
Isolde had never heard of him.
She called anyway.
Elliot's daughter answered.
Then put her father on speaker.
His voice was weak.
Still sharp.
When Isolde said Thomas Hart, he went silent.
Then:
“You finally opened Marianne's box.”
Isolde's eyes closed.
Everyone looked at her.
“How do you know about it?”
“Because I told her not to destroy the tape.”
Rowan leaned forward.
“What is on it?”
Elliot coughed.
“I heard only the first side.”
“What's on it?”
“A conversation between Thomas and Adrian Vale.”
Isolde's grip tightened around the phone.
“Did my father say he wasn't driving?”
“Yes.”
She shut her eyes.
Then Elliot added:
“He also admitted helping make the lie work.”
There.
No clean exoneration.
Thomas had been Adrian's chauffeur for four years.
That night, Adrian had been drinking at a family fundraiser.
Thomas told him not to drive.
Adrian ordered him to hand over the keys.
Thomas did.
Why?
Because Adrian threatened to fire him.
Thomas had a wife.
A toddler.
Debt.
That explained the cowardice.
It did not erase it.
After the crash, Thomas moved Adrian from the driver's seat before police arrived.
He sat behind the wheel himself.
He lied.
Then continued lying through a plea.
Isolde looked sick.
“So he wasn't the driver.”
“No.”
“But he helped cover it up.”
“Yes.”
“Why plead guilty?”
Elliot said:
“That's on the second side.”
He never heard it.
Marianne refused to play it for him.
“Why?”
“She said if I heard everything, I'd become part of the problem.”
Then Elliot said something stranger.
“Your mother wasn't protecting Thomas when she kept that tape.”
“Who was she protecting?”
A pause.
“You.”
Isolde frowned.
“I was a baby.”
“Yes.”
“From what?”
“I don't know.”
Then:
“She told me one thing before we stopped speaking.”
“What?”
“Thomas accepted prison because someone threatened to take you away from Marianne.”
Isolde looked directly at Genevieve.
Genevieve's face changed.
Not recognition.
May you like
Fear.
And for the first time, Isolde wondered whether the darkest part of the story might be something even Genevieve had not known.
