Chapter 5 - What Happened on Victoria's Road
Marcus killed the lights.
We crawled behind the desk.
Another shot did not come.
Police outside shouted.
Footsteps thundered toward the west lawn.
Victoria pressed her bleeding sleeve against her arm.
"Not hit."
"Glass?"
"Yes."
I held the red ledger against my chest.
"You watched my father burn this?"
"A copy."
"Why?"
"To make Patricia think the evidence was gone."
Marcus looked through the broken window.
"Shooter's moving."
I opened the ledger.
Old entries.
Property transfers.
Shell companies.
Loans.
One name repeated.
Patricia Cross.
Another.
Michael Cross.
Another.
Samuel Vance.
And coded initials.
P.H.
I turned pages faster.
"Tell me about the crash."
Victoria looked toward the door.
"Now?"
"Now."
She sat against the bookcase.
"Daniel and I were together four years."
"I know."
"No. You know what Patricia let people say."
I waited.
"Daniel was different before she pulled him into the money."
"Was he innocent?"
"No."
At least she did not lie.
"He helped her move small amounts through inactive companies. He said it was temporary. Family debt. Tax problems. Then I found transfers linked to Hale entities."
"My father's?"
"Yes."
"Did Daniel know?"
"He knew the transfers existed. He claimed he didn't know the source."
"Did you believe him?"
"At first."
She looked at the ledger.
"I threatened to go to Jonathan."
"Did you?"
"Yes."
"My father already knew?"
"He knew something was wrong. Not how much."
"And then your car crashed."
Victoria touched the scar near her temple.
"The steering linkage failed."
"Patricia?"
"We could never prove it."
"Daniel?"
Her eyes dropped.
"No."
Relief came too quickly.
Then she said, "But he helped cover it up."
I went cold.
"How?"
"He identified me as dead."
"What?"
"There was another woman in the crash."
I stared.
"Who?"
"A hitchhiker. Twenty-two. I picked her up ten miles before the guardrail."
My stomach turned.
"She died."
"Yes."
"Daniel knew it wasn't you."
"Yes."
"And he told everyone it was."
"Yes."
I could not breathe right.
Victoria's voice softened.
"Your father found me before Patricia did. He moved me. Daniel came to the hospital once."
"To see you?"
"To beg me not to tell anyone."
"Why?"
"Because Patricia told him she would destroy him."
I laughed.
"He married me anyway."
Victoria's face tightened.
"Yes."
A knock came from the door.
Officer.
"Ms. Hale? Shooter fled. We found a rifle abandoned near the tree line."
Marcus opened the door only enough to speak.
I kept reading.
A ledger entry fifteen years old.
TRANSFER: HV-17
AUTH: S.V.
BENEFICIARY: P.H.
Victoria saw the page.
"That's the Vance account."
"What is it?"
"Samuel's emergency archive."
"Where?"
She shook her head.
"Not a place. A structure."
"Explain."
"Companies inside companies. Money routed in circles. Evidence hidden in ordinary accounting."
Marcus turned back.
"Your father called it the Vance file."
Daniel had used the same phrase.
My phone rang.
County detention center.
I answered.
Daniel.
"Emily."
His voice sounded smaller.
"What do you want?"
"To tell you Victoria is lying."
She heard him.
Her face did not move.
"About which part?"
"She is not helping you."
"She just got shot at in my study."
"That is what she wants you to think."
I looked at her.
Daniel continued.
"Ask her why she was paid before the crash."
"I did."
Silence.
He had not expected that.
Then:
"Ask her who her father really was."
Victoria went still.
I noticed.
"Who was Samuel Vance?"
Daniel laughed once.
"Not who she thinks."
Victoria stood.
"Hang up."
I did not.
Daniel said, "Samuel wasn't protecting the Hale family."
Marcus moved toward the phone.
I held up one hand.
"Then what was he doing?"
Daniel lowered his voice.
"Stealing from them."
Victoria's face went white.
"That's a lie."
Daniel continued.
"And your father caught him."
I looked at Victoria.
She shook her head.
"Emily, no."
Daniel said one more thing.
"Open the last page of the red ledger."
I did.
A folded death certificate was tucked into the binding.
Samuel Vance.
Cause of death: drowning.
Reporting witness:
Jonathan Hale.
My father.
May you like
CUT.
