Chapter 13 - The Man Behind the Name
Rachel did not go alone.
She simply allowed Thomas Reed to believe she had.
A microphone rested beneath her blouse.
Detective Ortiz monitored from a surveillance van half a mile away.
Thomas received Rachel in the same Hudson Valley library.
Tea waited.
Two cups.
"You came."
"You said you knew who killed Eleanor."
Thomas smiled faintly.
"Direct as always."
Rachel sat.
"Where's the money?"
"Safe."
"That's not an answer."
"It is for now."
Thomas walked to the window.
"I loved Charles."
Rachel studied him.
"People keep saying that immediately before explaining how they betrayed him."
He laughed.
"Fair."
"Did you?"
"Many times."
"Why?"
"Because Charles was brilliant at building companies and terrible at understanding people."
"Victoria?"
"Vivian."
Rachel noted the correction.
"You knew."
"From the beginning."
"Who she was?"
"Yes."
"Did Charles?"
"No."
Rachel's stomach tightened.
"Why protect her?"
"Because she was useful."
"For stealing Vale money?"
Thomas looked impressed.
"You've done your homework."
"Answer."
"Yes."
The Vale fortune had been larger than anyone realized.
Sebastian Vale hid assets offshore before his company collapsed.
After his death, infant Adrian became legal beneficiary.
Eleanor discovered the accounts.
Thomas discovered them too.
He recruited Vivian.
"She seduced Charles?"
Thomas shrugged.
"Nobody forced Charles into her bed."
Rachel hated the casualness.
"And Eleanor?"
Thomas's face hardened slightly.
"Eleanor became inconvenient."
"Did you order her death?"
He turned.
"I suggested a problem needed solving."
Rachel's hands went cold.
"Victoria cut the brakes."
"Vivian."
"Did she?"
Thomas smiled.
"You'll need more than my smile in court."
Rachel kept breathing.
"What about Charles?"
"Vivian handled him herself."
"Medication?"
"Eventually."
"And Richard Sloan?"
"A frightened little man."
"Samuel Price?"
Thomas poured tea.
"Also frightened."
Rachel looked at the cup.
She didn't touch it.
Thomas noticed.
"Smart."
"Did you drug it?"
"No."
"Would you tell me if you had?"
"Probably. At this stage I find honesty refreshing."
Rachel wanted to lunge across the room.
Instead she asked, "Why Lily?"
"That was Vivian's mistake."
Rachel's pulse changed.
"You didn't authorize it."
"I told her to discredit the child."
"She chained her."
"Crude."
Rachel's disgust showed.
Thomas sighed.
"Please don't mistake me for Vivian. I have never enjoyed cruelty."
"You just confessed to arranging murder."
"I enjoy outcomes."
The microphone transmitted every word.
Rachel prayed Ortiz was hearing it.
"Why save Adrian at the board vote?"
Thomas smiled.
"Because Vivian had become uncontrollable."
Rachel finally understood.
He had voted for Adrian not out of loyalty.
He was changing pieces.
"You wanted us to destroy her."
"Precisely."
"And then?"
"Adrian remains CEO."
"Under your control?"
"Under influence."
Rachel laughed.
"You don't know him."
"I've known him since infancy."
"No. You knew the frightened boy Charles raised."
Thomas's expression changed.
"The man who walked into that conservatory and chose his daughter over the family name isn't that boy anymore."
Thomas stared.
Rachel continued.
"That's why you called me."
"Why?"
"Because Adrian stopped being predictable."
A long pause.
Then Thomas smiled.
"Charles was right about you."
Rachel stood.
"Where is the money?"
"You really want it?"
"It belongs to people you stole from."
"Some."
"Where?"
Thomas moved toward his desk.
Ortiz's voice sounded faintly through Rachel's earpiece.
"Don't move."
Thomas opened a drawer.
Rachel tensed.
He removed a flash drive.
"Every account."
Rachel stared.
"Why give it to me?"
"Insurance."
"Against whom?"
"Vivian."
"She's in jail."
Thomas smiled.
"For now."
He placed the drive on the desk.
"She has copies of records that could destroy me."
"Where?"
"Whitmore House."
Rachel's stomach tightened.
"We searched it."
"Not the oldest room."
"What room?"
"The chapel."
Whitmore House had a tiny private chapel sealed after Eleanor died.
Adrian never entered it.
Thomas stepped closer.
"Vivian hid everything behind Eleanor's memorial."
Rachel's disgust deepened.
"Why tell me?"
"Because I want it destroyed."
"And you think I'll do that?"
"No."
He looked toward her blouse.
"I think Detective Ortiz will."
Rachel froze.
Thomas smiled.
"You should use a better transmitter."
The library doors opened.
Two men entered.
Rachel backed away.
Thomas took the microphone from her collar.
"Tell Lena I said hello."
He crushed it beneath his shoe.
Outside, Ortiz heard the signal vanish.
Police moved immediately.
But by the time they entered—
the library was empty.
A hidden passage opened beneath the bookcases.
Thomas was gone.
Rachel was gone with him.
Adrian received the call four minutes later.
He didn't yell.
He didn't threaten.
He walked into Charles's study and opened the wooden horse.
Inside the compartment, beneath the key, was one final folded scrap he had never noticed.
Charles's handwriting.
WHEN THOMAS SHOWS HIS HAND, TRUST RACHEL.
Below it was a sequence of numbers.
Coordinates.
Adrian entered them into his phone.
A location appeared.
The abandoned Whitmore textile mill.
The same property where Charles and Thomas Reed had begun their first company forty-eight years earlier.
May you like
Adrian looked at Bennett.
"That's where he took her."
