Chapter 5 - The Voice From the Past
Richard brought the recording to my father's old office.
Nothing had changed.
The dark walnut desk remained beneath the window.
His collection of antique clocks lined the shelves.
A photograph of me at seventeen stood beside his reading lamp.
I touched the frame.
For a moment, I wasn't a woman fighting for a $558 million inheritance.
I was a daughter who missed her father.
Richard placed a small encrypted drive on the desk.
"He gave me this the week before the accident."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because he told me not to release it unless Daniel attempted to seize control."
I stared at him.
"And you didn't think ten years of manipulation counted?"
Richard lowered his eyes.
"I was afraid."
"Of Daniel?"
"Of what might happen to the company."
I almost laughed.
Everyone had been so busy protecting the company that nobody had protected the truth.
Miriam connected the drive to an isolated laptop.
The recording began with static.
Then my father's voice filled the room.
"Daniel, these transfers stop today."
My knees weakened.
I gripped the desk.
I hadn't heard his voice in eight years.
Daniel answered.
"You don't understand the arrangement."
"Then explain it."
"Northbridge handles sensitive acquisitions."
"Northbridge doesn't appear to have employees."
A pause.
Then Daniel said something that made my skin crawl.
"You should have left this alone."
My father sounded furious.
"Are you threatening me?"
"No."
A chair scraped.
"I'm telling you that you've made powerful people nervous."
The recording continued.
My father demanded invoices.
Daniel refused.
Then another voice entered the conversation.
A woman's voice.
"Arthur, you're being unnecessarily difficult."
I looked at Miriam.
She looked equally stunned.
The voice continued.
"We can resolve this without damaging anyone's reputation."
My father responded.
"Who authorized you to enter my office?"
The woman laughed softly.
"Daniel invited me."
I listened again.
The voice was younger.
Cooler.
But unmistakable.
Vanessa Cole.
Miriam paused the recording.
"She was involved before your father died."
I stared at the screen.
"Vanessa told the board she first met Daniel six years ago."
Richard nodded.
"That was a lie."
I felt the entire story rearranging itself.
The affair might not have started recently.
The financial misconduct might have preceded my father's death.
And Vanessa's appointment as CEO might have been part of something far larger than an office romance.
"Why did Dad record them?"
Richard looked miserable.
"He believed someone inside the company was helping Daniel."
"Who?"
Richard hesitated.
"Your father's chief financial officer."
I frowned.
"Martin Hale?"
"Yes."
Martin had retired seven years earlier.
He had attended my wedding.
He had hugged me at my father's funeral.
"Where is he now?"
Richard looked at Miriam.
"That's the problem."
"What problem?"
"Martin disappeared after his retirement."
Miriam opened her laptop.
"I'll have an investigator locate him."
Richard shook his head.
"You don't understand."
He reached into his jacket and removed a photograph.
It showed a man leaving a private medical facility.
Older.
Thinner.
Walking with a cane.
But unmistakably Martin Hale.
The photograph was dated three days earlier.
I looked at the location.
A private rehabilitation center outside Philadelphia.
"Who took this?"
Richard swallowed.
"Someone who contacted me yesterday."
"Who?"
May you like
He looked at me with an expression I couldn't understand.
"Your father."
