Chapter 14 - The Brake Report
Julian did not speak on the drive back.
Mara sat beside him, watching city lights slide across the window.
Finally she said, “Did you ever see the accident report?”
“Yes.”
“The full one?”
He looked at her.
“I thought so.”
At Vale House, Julian called the law firm that had represented his father twelve years earlier.
No one wanted to answer at two in the morning.
Julian made them.
Forty minutes later, an encrypted file arrived.
The original mechanical inspection was missing from the family archive.
The law firm still had a scanned copy.
Julian read it once.
Then again.
“The rear brake line was cut.”
Mara felt the room narrow.
Rachel whispered, “Someone tried to kill you?”
“Or scare me.”
Julian kept reading.
The report noted the damage was consistent with deliberate tampering.
A second memo recommended police referral.
Across the top, Edmund Vale had written in blue ink:
NO POLICE. HANDLE PRIVATELY.
Mara stared at the words.
“Why would your father hide that?”
Julian leaned back.
“At the time, I was fighting him for control of a division he wanted to sell. If news got out that someone inside Vale security had access to my car, the board would have panicked.”
Rachel shook her head. “So Dad buried attempted murder to protect the stock price?”
“We don’t know it was attempted murder.”
Mara pointed at the cut brake line.
“Someone crawled under your car with a tool. That wasn’t a pothole.”
Julian looked at the date of the inspection.
Then he looked at the second garage video from Box 14C.
Brent Cole had worked temporary event security for the Vale charity gala that night.
The same gala Julian left before crashing.
Mara’s stomach dropped.
“Brent had access to the garage.”
Julian stood.
“Moreno needs to know now.”
They went upstairs.
The room where Brent had been waiting was empty.
A guard lay unconscious near the service stairs, breathing but bleeding from the forehead.
The rear door stood open.
Brent was gone.
Julian ran to the security office.
The remote archive was flashing warnings.
Someone was trying to wipe the backup server from an external account.
Julian cut network access.
Too late for one folder.
The folder labeled ASHFORD had been deleted.
Mara stared at the screen.
Then Sophie’s voice came from the hallway behind them.
“Uncle Julian?”
May you like
She was holding a small black phone.
“The security man dropped this.”
