Chapter 9 - The Missing Page
The gas attack made the case public, but publicity did not make us safe. Celia resigned from the board and vanished into legal protection. Owen Price disappeared before federal agents could question him. Victor was charged with assault, weapons violations, and obstruction, but he refused to speak.
Shah placed Margaret and me in a safe hotel outside Pittsburgh. The room had two beds, a view of a parking garage, and the atmosphere of a waiting room.
“You need rest,” Shah told us.
“We need the final record,” I said.
“You need both. The recording proves David knew about Lattice, but it does not identify who ordered the transfers or who killed Caleb Rusk.”
Margaret sat near the window, pale from the gas. “The final page may do that.”
Shah looked at her. “What was David like when he was afraid?”
“He became charming.”
“And when he was guilty?”
“He bought something expensive.”
Shah almost smiled. “That is not in the file.”
After she left, Margaret called Alma. The old housekeeper answered from a motel room under federal protection.
“There is another place David hated,” Alma said. “The trophy room.”
“He hated the room?” Margaret asked.
“He hated the portrait.”
The Henderson house had been sealed, but Shah arranged an escorted visit. In the trophy room, a huge painting showed David’s grandfather standing beside the first Henderson Meridian plant. David had always said the portrait represented the company’s history. Margaret had always said it represented everything the family had taken from the town.
Behind the painting was a shallow compartment.
Inside lay a sealed envelope and the missing ledger page.
The page listed a transfer from Morrow Field Holdings to an account called Voss Family Restoration. The amount was large enough to buy a small company. Beneath it, David had written three names: Celia Voss, Owen Price, Victor Sloane.
The envelope contained a letter addressed to Margaret.
I watched her read it.
“What does it say?”
“He says he loved me.”
She laughed once, without humor. “He says he loved me in the only way he knew how. By making me part of the machinery.”
The letter explained that David had planned to expose Lattice after Caleb Rusk’s death. He feared Celia would destroy the company and leave thousands of workers without jobs. He also feared that Margaret would be prosecuted because the trust bore her name.
“He was protecting you,” I said.
“He was protecting his own image.”
At the bottom of the page was a reference to an old water treatment plant and an access phrase. The phrase was incomplete. Only four words remained visible: stand beside me.
“The first sentence of the vows,” Margaret said. “I promise to stand beside you, even when the ground gives way.”
“The system may require the entire sentence.”
“Then we say the entire sentence.”
Noah Kline arrived at the house before we could leave. He looked exhausted and carried no briefcase.
“I have something you need,” he said.
Shah’s agents searched him and allowed him inside.
Noah placed a small envelope on the table. “David’s original statement. The one I never delivered.”
“Why now?” I asked.
“Because Celia called me this morning.”
Margaret stiffened. “What did she want?”
“She offered me immunity.”
“And you refused?”
Noah met her eyes. “I offered her a better deal.”
He said he had told Celia the final record was already in federal hands. If she wanted it destroyed, she would have to come to the plant herself.
Shah’s expression turned hard. “You baited her.”
“I gave her a reason to move.”
Noah glanced at me. “I also gave her a reason to believe James still has the access code.”
Margaret looked at me. “Does he?”
May you like
I thought of David’s last call, the sudden crash, and the old calendar files stored in my memory.
“Yes,” I said. “I think I do.”
