Chapter 9 - Thomas Reed
Arthur lived in a small apartment above an old bookstore.
No marble. No staff. No security gates.
Just forty-one years of Vance history packed into two rooms.
Sarah joined by video call from the hospital while Daniel sat at Arthur's kitchen table.
Arthur placed a yellow envelope between them.
Across the front, in faded handwriting:
ARTHUR - IF ELEANOR STILL CONTROLS THE COMPANY, OPEN THIS.
Sarah covered her mouth.
"That's my dad's handwriting."
Arthur looked at the phone.
"I'm sorry I never told you."
"Why didn't you?"
"Because your father made me promise to protect the documents until someone in the Vance family was willing to hear the truth."
Daniel looked down.
"And you didn't think that was me?"
"For a long time, you were your mother's son."
That hurt because it was true.
Arthur opened the envelope.
Inside was a handwritten letter and a small brass key.
Daniel read aloud.
"'Eleanor is moving money through shell vendors and using the family trust to hide it. Charles knows enough to be afraid but not enough to stop her.'"
Sarah closed her eyes.
Daniel continued.
"'If I lose my job or anything happens to me, the original ledger is where Charles said no Vance would ever look: under the nursery floor.'"
Arthur sat back.
"The nursery."
Daniel frowned. "At the mansion?"
"The room your mother sealed after your father died."
Sarah spoke through the phone.
"My dad was telling the truth."
Daniel looked at her.
"I believe you."
She gave him a sad smile.
"I wish he could hear that."
There was another page.
Thomas had written about suspicious payments, fake vendors, and a board member named Victor Hale.
Then one sentence stopped Daniel.
"'Charles believes Eleanor altered Section Nine after Henry's death, but the original trust language survives in the nursery records.'"
Daniel whispered, "She forged the trust?"
Arthur nodded slowly.
"Maybe."
A crash sounded in the hallway outside Arthur's apartment.
All three went silent.
Arthur reached for the light switch and turned it off.
Another sound.
Metal scraping metal.
Someone was trying the lock.
Daniel moved toward the door.
Arthur caught his arm.
"No."
The lock clicked.
A shadow appeared beneath the door.
Daniel picked up a heavy lamp.
The door opened three inches.
Then a voice said:
"Mr. Bennett, step away from the envelope."
Arthur recognized the voice immediately.
"Malcolm."
May you like
The security chief pushed the door wider.
And in his hand was a gun.
