Chapter 9 - The Silver Drive
Maren listened to the recording six times.
The words never changed.
Gideon could have stopped me.
He chose not to.
Helena insisted Reed was lying.
Nathan warned that the statement might have been designed to divide them.
Maren remembered her father’s letter.
Conrad’s greatest weapon has always been division.
But Reed had not made the accusation directly to her.
He had spoken privately to Celeste before the poisoning.
He had no reason to believe Maren would hear it.
Unless he recorded the conversation knowing she eventually might.
Nothing about Reed was accidental.
“The silver drive,” Maren said.
Celeste had mentioned it during the phone call.
Maren had found the device among Gideon’s papers after his death and handed it to Reed.
If Gideon knew about the crash, the explanation might be on that drive.
Nathan searched the inventory from Reed’s office.
No silver device had been recovered.
Helena contacted the technicians examining the boathouse drives.
One encrypted folder was labeled SILVER.
It required a twelve-digit password.
Maren went downstairs to Celeste’s guarded hospital room.
Two officers stood outside.
Inside, Celeste sat beside the window with a bandage around her head.
She looked smaller without the silk robe, wineglass, and practiced contempt.
Maren stopped near the doorway.
Celeste looked up.
“I wondered whether you would come.”
“I need the password to Reed’s silver folder.”
Celeste gave a tired smile.
“Hello to you too.”
“You helped remove my emergency medication.”
“I know.”
“You helped forge the insurance papers.”
“I know.”
“You knew Reed had sabotaged my car.”
Celeste looked away.
“I knew afterward.”
“Your voice is on the recording.”
“I gave him your route.”
“Why?”
“He said he wanted to surprise you.”
“With what?”
“A weekend at the mountain house.”
“You believed that?”
“I wanted to.”
Maren moved closer.
“Reed says Dad knew.”
Celeste’s expression shifted.
“He told me that for years.”
“Did you believe him?”
“Sometimes.”
“What was on the silver drive?”
“I never saw it.”
“Then why did you mention it?”
“Because Reed changed after you gave it to him.”
“How?”
“He stopped talking about divorcing you.”
Maren stared.
“He was planning to leave me?”
“Before the accident.”
Celeste pulled the blanket higher across her legs.
“He said he had enough evidence to force you to surrender part of the company.”
“Then you found the drive.”
“After that, he said divorce was no longer necessary.”
“Why?”
“He said the drive proved he could take everything.”
Maren’s thoughts moved quickly.
“Did he tell Conrad?”
“They met that night.”
“Where?”
“At Grandmother Eleanor’s old townhouse.”
The building had remained empty since Eleanor’s death.
Whitaker Medical still paid its maintenance costs.
“Does Reed use a twelve-digit password?” Maren asked.
Celeste hesitated.
“His mother’s birthday and the date she died.”
“I thought Conrad raised him.”
“He did.”
“Reed’s mother died when he was six.”
“What was her name?”
“Anna Mercer.”
Helena had followed Maren into the room.
At the name, she stopped.
Maren noticed.
“You knew her.”
Helena’s face had gone pale.
“Anna worked for Whitaker Medical.”
“What did she do?”
“She was a clinical data analyst.”
“Was she involved in the records you were investigating?”
“Yes.”
Helena lowered herself into a chair.
“Anna was the first person who warned me.”
“She discovered that Conrad had altered trial results for a cardiac medication.”
“She threatened to report him.”
“Then she died in a house fire.”
Celeste looked at her mother.
“Reed believes Gideon ordered the fire.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
“But Conrad told Reed he did.”
Maren understood the shape of the lie.
Conrad had raised his son to believe the Whitakers murdered his mother.
Reed had married Maren not only for money.
He believed he was reclaiming something stolen from him.
“What was Anna’s birthday?” Maren asked.
Helena remembered.
“March fourth.”
“And the fire?”
“November nineteenth.”
Nathan entered the dates.
0304111906.
The folder remained locked.
“Twelve digits,” he said.
“We need two more.”
Celeste stared toward the window.
“Reed was six when she died.”
“Add zero six,” Maren said.
The folder opened.
Inside were copied files from the silver drive.
The first document was Gideon’s private investigation into Anna’s death.
It proved that Conrad had ordered the fire after discovering his wife intended to testify.
Gideon had hidden the evidence because Conrad threatened Maren and Celeste.
Reed had spent his entire life avenging his mother by serving the man who killed her.
The second file was dated one week before Maren’s car crash.
It contained messages between Gideon and Reed.
Reed had demanded control of ten percent of Whitaker Medical in exchange for surrendering Conrad’s criminal records.
Gideon refused.
Reed then sent a photograph of Maren’s car.
Beneath it was a single sentence.
You built her an escape from every house.
Can you build her one from a road?
Maren stopped breathing.
Helena covered her mouth.
The next message was from Gideon.
If you harm either of my daughters, I will release the evidence about Anna.
Reed answered.
Then give me the company.
Gideon did not reply.
For five days, he remained silent.
Then the crash occurred.
“He could have warned me,” Maren said.
Nathan read the next file.
“He tried.”
The morning of the crash, Gideon had sent a security team to intercept Maren’s vehicle.
The team never arrived.
Their dispatch orders had been changed from inside Whitaker headquarters.
The person who altered them used Celeste’s executive credentials.
Celeste stared at the screen.
“I didn’t do that.”
“Did Reed have access to your password?” Maren asked.
“Yes.”
“Then Dad did not choose to let it happen.”
Helena’s shoulders sagged with relief.
Maren felt no relief.
Her father had tried to protect her, but again he had chosen secrecy.
Again, secrecy had failed.
The final file was an audio recording.
Gideon spoke with Anna Mercer three days before the fire.
Anna sounded terrified.
“Conrad knows I copied the trial files.”
“Bring Reed and come to the Whitaker house,” Gideon said.
“I can protect both of you.”
“No, you can’t.”
“You don’t know how many people work for him.”
“Then testify.”
“If I testify, he will kill my son.”
Gideon lowered his voice.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Promise me Reed will never learn what his father is.”
The recording ended.
Reed’s entire identity had been built around a promise made by the mother he believed Gideon murdered.
Maren looked at Helena.
“Can we send this to him?”
Nathan answered.
“Federal agents can broadcast it through known Mercer channels.”
“Do it.”
Celeste watched her.
“You think learning the truth will change him?”
“No.”
Maren closed the folder.
“But I want him to know he destroyed my life for the man who murdered his mother.”
A secure phone rang in Nathan’s hand.
He answered and listened.
Then he looked at Helena.
“Conrad’s seaplane has been found.”
“Where?” Maren asked.
“In a field outside Burlington.”
“Any bodies?”
“No.”
“But there was a message painted across the interior.”
Nathan turned the phone toward them.
A photograph showed five words written in black across the aircraft wall.
THE DAUGHTERS PAY FOR THE MOTHERS.
Helena looked at Maren and Celeste.
May you like
Conrad had failed to kill one generation of Whitaker women.
Now he intended to finish the next.
