Chapter 13 - The Wrong Vale
The live location pin moved.
It traveled east along the interstate at seventy miles an hour.
Ortiz coordinated with state police while Daniel drove behind her vehicle. I sat beside him with the phone in my lap, watching the blinking dot.
“Gregor Vale says Thomas has Mom,” I said.
“Gregor could be lying.”
“Everyone could be lying.”
“Yes.”
I looked at him.
“That includes you.”
“I know.”
He did not defend himself. Strangely, that helped.
The pin exited near an old quarry.
State police established a perimeter before we arrived. A gray sedan sat abandoned beside a service road.
Mom’s scarf lay on the passenger seat.
No blood.
No bodies.
No phones.
Ortiz found tire tracks leading toward a gravel maintenance path.
Then a man stepped from behind a concrete barrier with his hands raised.
White hair.
Stiff fingers.
Graham Vale’s face.
Gregor Vale.
“Don’t shoot,” he said.
Ortiz aimed anyway.
“On your knees.”
He complied.
I stared at him.
Up close, he looked less polished than the man in public photographs. A scar ran across his chin. His coat was cheap. His eyes were exhausted.
“Where is my mother?”
“Thomas took her.”
“How?”
“We stopped here because Evelyn felt sick. Thomas was following us. He came out of the tree line with a gun.”
“You expect me to believe you were protecting her?”
Gregor looked at me.
“I expect you to believe nothing until you verify it.”
That was the first sensible thing any Vale had said.
Ortiz cuffed him.
“You were at the warehouse?”
“Yes.”
“You told Evelyn your brother was part of the scheme?”
“Yes.”
“Was he?”
Gregor laughed bitterly.
“Graham thought he ran the scheme. Harrow let him think that.”
“Is Graham dead?”
“Yes.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“Thomas.”
The wind moved gravel across the road.
“Why?”
“Because Graham knew Thomas poisoned Frank Mercer.”
My stomach twisted.
“On Harrow’s orders?”
Gregor nodded.
Daniel asked, “How do you know?”
“Graham kept insurance.”
“Evidence?”
“A digital archive.”
“Where?”
Gregor looked at me.
“Your mother has the password.”
I almost screamed.
“Why would Mom have it?”
“Because Graham gave it to her before he died.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
“He met her while she was homeless?”
“No. At the hospital.”
The hospital.
Mom had said a woman with red glasses came with forms. She never mentioned Graham.
“He visited her?”
“Disguised as a chaplain volunteer.”
“What did he tell her?”
“That Thomas was alive. That Harrow was cleaning up everyone tied to the old network.”
“Why trust Mom?”
“Because Graham was dying.”
“What?”
“Cancer. Maybe three months left.”
The body in the blue house suddenly made a cruel kind of sense.
“Why was he at my property?”
Gregor lowered his eyes.
“He went to retrieve an archive drive hidden there. Thomas found him first.”
Ortiz asked, “How do you know?”
“Graham called me while the house was burning.”
Silence.
“He said Thomas had discovered the archive was incomplete.”
“What part is missing?”
Gregor looked at Daniel.
“The beneficiary file.”
Daniel frowned.
“What beneficiaries?”
“The people who secretly profited from Iron Gate deals.”
“Politicians?”
“Some.”
“Judges?”
“Yes.”
“Law enforcement?”
“Yes.”
“Frank?”
Gregor shook his head.
“Frank’s name is there, but not as a beneficiary.”
“What as?”
“Whistleblower.”
Tears burned behind my eyes.
I had not realized how desperately I needed someone to say that.
Evan arrived under police escort after insisting he could identify Thomas. Ortiz nearly sent him away.
Gregor saw him and went still.
“You look like him.”
“Who?”
“Thomas.”
Evan’s face changed.
We all saw it now.
The same brow. The same narrow chin.
Family resemblance can be a form of evidence no laboratory needs.
Gregor said, “Thomas always hated Frank because Frank got the family he thought should have been his.”
“That makes no sense,” I said. “Dad helped find him.”
“Yes. And then Frank became the father Thomas wished he had.”
Evan whispered, “So he killed him?”
“Thomas believed Frank chose Daniel over him.”
Daniel frowned.
“Chose me for what?”
“To inherit the investigation.”
Gregor’s answer was absurd until Sam arrived and confirmed it.
“Frank wanted Daniel to take the ledger public,” Sam said.
I turned on him. “You knew?”
“Frank told me the week before he died.”
“Why didn’t Daniel?”
“Because Frank changed his mind.”
Daniel stared.
“Why?”
“He believed someone had compromised you.”
“Who?”
“He never said.”
Gregor laughed.
“Because it was Helen Brandt.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
Gregor continued. “Helen had access to your phone records, case files, travel. Frank saw her meeting Harrow.”
“That photo you showed us,” I said to Sam.
“The recent one?”
“Yes.”
Sam nodded.
“Maybe she’s still working with him.”
Ortiz received a call.
She moved away, listened, then returned.
“We found the blue-house fire accelerant container in an abandoned truck two miles away. Prints on the inside door handle.”
“Thomas?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“Helen Brandt.”
Daniel swore.
Almost immediately, his phone rang.
Helen.
He put it on speaker.
“You have thirty seconds,” he said.
Her voice was strained.
“Daniel, whatever Gregor told you, he’s lying.”
Gregor smiled coldly.
“Helen.”
A pause.
“Oh, God.”
Ortiz motioned everyone quiet.
Helen continued.
“Thomas has Evelyn. Harrow has Thomas.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means Thomas thinks he’s still working for Harrow. He isn’t. Harrow plans to kill both of them.”
“Where?”
“I can take you there.”
“Why should we trust you?”
“Because Graham is dead, Sloane is missing, and I am next.”
Gregor shouted, “You burned the house!”
“I tried to destroy the archive before Thomas could use it.”
“You killed Graham!”
“No. He was already dying when I got there.”
I stepped closer to the phone.
“Helen, where is my mother?”
A pause.
“Old courthouse annex.”
Ortiz’s eyes narrowed.
“That building is under federal control.”
“Exactly.”
Helen gave an address.
Then she said, “Claire, there is one thing you need to know before you go.”
“What?”
“Thomas is not the person who put your mother under the overpass.”
“Who did?”
Helen’s answer came softly.
“Evan.”
I looked at my brother.
May you like
He stared at the ground.
And this time, he did not deny it.
