Chapter 6 - The Man in the Tender
We reached the stern in time to see a black tender pull away from VALOR.
One man was at the wheel.
He wore a crew jacket and a baseball cap low over his face.
Captain Hale swore under his breath.
"That's Mason Pike. Richard's private security contractor."
Richard snapped, "He's not my contractor anymore."
"Since when?" I asked.
"Three months ago."
Evan grabbed binoculars from a cabinet.
"He's carrying something. Black case."
My case.
"Stop him," Celeste said.
I turned to her. "You seem suddenly interested."
"Because this is insane."
Hale radioed harbor patrol. The tender cut sharply between two docked yachts and disappeared behind a fuel pier.
For ten minutes, nobody spoke much.
Then a patrol officer called back.
The tender had been found empty near a maintenance dock.
The case was gone.
So was Mason.
We returned to the salon, but the party had collapsed. Guests were whispering into phones. Directors were arguing in corners.
Evan found me near the aft deck.
"I didn't take the recorder."
"I know."
He blinked. "You do?"
"Your login was used from Celeste's suite. That's not subtle enough for you."
"You don't know me."
"I know your reputation."
He gave a dry laugh. "And you trust reputations?"
That landed harder than he knew.
My father's reputation had been destroyed in a month.
"No," I said. "I trust patterns."
Evan looked toward the salon where his father stood with two lawyers.
"Then here's a pattern. Every time someone got close to the truth about your father's collapse, they left the company. Retired. Took settlements. Moved overseas."
"How many?"
"Six."
"Why are you telling me this?"
His jaw tightened.
"Because one of them was my mother."
I had never heard that.
Publicly, Margaret Whitmore died after a long illness when Evan was seventeen.
He reached into his jacket and handed me a folded photograph.
It showed my father standing beside Margaret Whitmore on this same yacht.
On the back, in her handwriting, were four words.
DANIEL WAS TELLING THE TRUTH.
May you like
Before I could speak, Celeste appeared behind us.
"Evan," she said, "Dad wants you downstairs. Alone."
