Chapter 12 - Before Ethan
Ava stared at the photograph until the room around her faded.
Her father looked younger.
Margaret did too.
They were standing outside a courthouse.
On the back of the scanned photo, someone had written:
SAMUEL + MARGARET — JUNE 2006.
Ethan sat beside Ava in an empty conference room.
“My mother knew your father?”
“Apparently.”
Neither had ever mentioned it.
Brooks searched archived court records.
What she found changed the shape of the entire case.
In 2006, Samuel Monroe had sued a pharmaceutical distributor for stealing early-stage research.
One of the distributor’s finance executives was Margaret Vale.
The case settled quietly.
Margaret left the company.
Samuel received the patents.
Conrad Pike, then Samuel’s attorney, was accused of leaking internal strategy to the other side.
Samuel fired him.
Ava stared at the records.
“So this started before Ethan and I even met.”
Brooks nodded.
“Maybe not the current conspiracy. But the relationships did.”
Ethan looked ill.
“My mother introduced me to Pike after Dad died.”
His father, Robert Vale, had died when Ethan was twenty-six.
Margaret had handled the estate.
Brooks checked those records too.
Robert’s company had collapsed under debt shortly before his death.
Ava remembered Ethan telling her his mother had rebuilt the family’s finances alone.
That story was true.
Just incomplete.
The money used to rebuild came through a loan fund tied to Pike.
Margaret owed him.
Maybe for years.
That afternoon, Martin agreed to a formal proffer.
He admitted helping Pike obtain board schedules.
He admitted taking money.
He denied knowing about the brakes until after the crash.
Then he said something Ava did not expect.
“Pike hated your father.”
“Why?”
“Samuel found out Pike stole from clients.”
Ava frowned.
“Then why didn’t my father report him?”
“He tried.”
Martin looked down.
“But somebody inside the district attorney’s office warned Pike. Evidence disappeared.”
Brooks’s expression changed.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because Samuel recorded everything.”
Ava sat straighter.
“My father kept recordings?”
Martin nodded.
“He had a private archive. He called it the blue room.”
Ava had never heard of it.
“Where?”
Martin looked at her.
“You have.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Yes, you have.”
He swallowed.
“Your father left you the house in Maine.”
Ava’s breath caught.
The old summer house had been closed since Samuel died.
Martin continued.
“There’s a room behind the library wall.”
Ethan stood.
“We need a warrant team there.”
Brooks was already calling.
Martin’s voice lowered.
“One more thing.”
Ava looked at him.
“Pike knows about the room.”
“When did he learn?”
May you like
Martin’s face tightened.
“Yesterday.”
