Chapter 7 - The Brother Who Knew Too Much
Evan did not move.
"Tell him I'm busy."
Celeste's voice sharpened. "He said now."
"Then he can come find me."
Something passed between them that had nothing to do with me.
Fear.
Not Celeste's.
Evan's.
He waited until she walked away.
"Don't be alone with my father," he said.
"That's dramatic."
"So is a stolen recorder and a man escaping in a tender."
Fair.
He told me Margaret Whitmore had served as CFO during the year my father's company collapsed. She discovered unusual guarantees, backdated collateral documents, and a consulting company paid through three Caribbean accounts.
"She confronted Dad," Evan said. "Three weeks later she resigned. Two months after that, she got sick."
"You think Richard hurt her?"
"I think she was terrified of him."
He showed me a scanned ledger on his phone.
One vendor appeared again and again.
Northstar Advisory.
The same company had received payments from my father's lenders.
"Where did you get this?"
"My mother's storage unit."
"Does Richard know you have it?"
"He knows I found something."
A crew member approached.
"Mr. Whitmore, your father insists."
Evan looked at me once.
"If I don't come back in fifteen minutes, don't call security. Call federal agents."
Then he followed the crew member below deck.
I hated the way that sentence sat in my chest.
Twelve minutes later, every light on VALOR went out.
Guests screamed.
Emergency strips flickered red along the floor.
Captain Hale shouted orders from the bridge.
I turned on my phone flashlight.
"Evan?"
No answer.
I moved toward the lower deck.
A door slammed somewhere ahead.
Then came a dull crash.
I found Evan at the base of a stairwell, conscious but dazed, one hand gripping the rail.
Blood darkened the side of his forehead.
"Who did this?" I asked.
He pulled me closer.
"Not Dad," he whispered.
"Then who?"
May you like
His eyes shifted toward the corridor behind me.
"Celeste knows where Mason is."
