Chapter 5 - Box B-17
At eight the next morning, Rachel sat across from Daniel at the kitchen island with the brass key between them.
Neither had slept.
"B-17 could be a bank box," Daniel said.
"Or a storage locker."
"Your father used First Harbor Bank."
Rachel looked up. "How do you know that?"
Daniel went still.
"You told me."
"Did I?"
"When we refinanced the house. You said your dad kept everything at First Harbor."
Rachel tried to remember. She probably had.
The problem was that every ordinary detail now sounded like evidence.
Melissa arrived with coffee and bad news.
Vanessa had retained a criminal-defense lawyer.
"Fast," Daniel said.
"Too fast," Melissa replied. "She expected police involvement."
Rachel put the key in a small evidence bag Melissa had brought.
"Can we check First Harbor?"
Melissa called a contact. Forty minutes later, they learned Thomas Morgan had rented a safe-deposit box there until his death.
Box B-17.
Rachel was still listed as successor access holder.
At the bank, a manager led Rachel alone into the vault. Daniel had to wait outside.
The box contained no cash.
No jewelry.
Only a sealed folder, a voice recorder, and a photograph.
Rachel picked up the photograph first.
Her father stood outside a restaurant beside Peter Shaw.
And beside them was a third person.
Vanessa.
She looked younger, but there was no mistaking her.
Rachel's pulse pounded.
She opened the folder.
Inside was a copy of a consulting agreement between Morgan Clinical Systems and Peter Shaw. Her father had hired him to investigate "unauthorized licensing payments and suspected internal diversion."
The last page included a handwritten warning.
P.S. believes V. is moving money through marital companies. D. may not know.
Rachel read it twice.
D.
Daniel.
Her father had known about him before they ever met.
The voice recorder had one file.
Rachel pressed play.
Her father's voice filled the tiny vault room.
"Rachel, if you are hearing this, I failed to finish something I should have finished. Peter Shaw came to me because he believed Vanessa Hale was stealing from both her husband and my company. He also believed Daniel Hale was being set up to take the blame."
Rachel stopped breathing.
Then her father's voice continued.
"But Peter discovered something worse."
A loud bang echoed in the recording.
May you like
Her father whispered one last sentence.
"There is another account, and it is already in Rachel's name."
