Chapter 6 - THE NIGHT VINCENT MORETTI DIED
Adrian did not sleep.
Claire found him at six the next morning sitting alone in the safe house dining room.
Vincent's photograph lay before him.
She knew immediately.
"What happened?"
Adrian handed her the toxicology report.
She read it.
Then sat.
"Oh my God."
He said nothing.
"Adrian."
"He raised me."
"Victor?"
"After my father died."
Claire understood.
This was not only betrayal.
Victor had stepped into the space created by Vincent's death.
He had comforted Adrian for a murder he may have committed.
"Do we know the report is authentic?"
"Yes."
"Does it prove Victor?"
"No."
Adrian smiled bitterly.
"You've trained me well."
"I learned from you."
"No."
He looked at her.
"You learned despite me."
Claire reached across the table.
Stopped.
Then placed her hand over his.
Adrian stared at it.
Nobody touched him casually.
Claire did.
He turned his hand beneath hers and held it.
Neither mentioned it.
Daniel joined them later.
When he saw the toxicology report, he closed his eyes.
"You knew."
Adrian's voice was quiet.
Daniel shook his head.
"I suspected."
"Difference?"
"A very important one."
"What happened?"
Daniel sat.
Three weeks before Vincent died, he discovered Victor had been diverting money.
Vincent believed him.
They planned an internal audit.
Victor somehow learned.
Vincent asked Daniel to gather copies and disappear temporarily if necessary.
Then Vincent died.
Daniel panicked.
Victor blamed stress.
Heart attack.
Daniel requested toxicology.
A friendly medical examiner quietly ordered additional tests.
Before Daniel could act, Victor discovered it.
Then came the brake failure.
Threats.
Daniel vanished.
"Why didn't you contact me?"
Adrian asked.
"You were twenty-three and Victor controlled everyone around you."
"I would have listened."
"Would you?"
Adrian wanted to say yes.
But nineteen years ago, Victor was practically family.
Daniel was an obscure compliance officer accused of theft.
Would twenty-three-year-old Adrian have believed him?
He hated that he did not know.
Claire asked:
"Why keep the report?"
"I didn't."
Daniel pointed.
"Victor did."
That was the strange part.
Why preserve evidence of murder?
Adrian understood.
"Insurance."
Daniel looked at him.
"Against whom?"
"Someone else was involved."
Silence.
Victor had kept the toxicology because it gave him leverage over an accomplice.
They searched the remaining storage records.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Arthur Vale.
Former state prosecutor.
Later senator.
Thomas Vale's older brother.
The same political family connected to Bellamy-style harbor dealings across Massachusetts.
Arthur had died six years earlier.
But his son remained alive.
Nathan Vale.
Current president of Atlantic Harbor Management's parent investment fund.
The conspiracy was generational.
Victor had not been trying to hand the docks to himself.
He was handing them to the Vale family.
Why?
Debt?
Partnership?
Blackmail?
At noon, Claire received an email.
From her own supposedly suspended corporate account.
Subject:
YOUR FATHER LIED AGAIN.
Inside was an audio file.
She played it.
Daniel's voice.
Years younger.
"I'll take the money. But Claire and Emily stay out of this."
Then Victor:
"Of course."
Daniel:
"And Vincent never learns I helped you."
Claire stopped the recording.
Her face drained.
Daniel stared.
"That's edited."
"Is it?"
"Claire."
She stepped backward.
"You said you accepted money for Mom's treatment."
"I did."
"You said you still tried to expose him."
"I did."
"What did Vincent never learn?"
Daniel closed his eyes.
Adrian watched.
"Tell her."
Daniel looked at Claire.
"I gave Victor access to Vincent's private audit schedule."
Claire's face broke.
"Why?"
"He said if I didn't, your mother's treatment stopped."
"You helped him."
"Once."
"Once was enough."
Daniel stood.
"I spent every day afterward trying to fix it."
"You don't fix betrayal by disappearing."
He flinched.
Claire left.
Adrian followed her outside.
She stood beneath bare trees, arms wrapped around herself.
"Everyone lies."
"Yes."
She looked at him.
"That's your answer?"
"It's the one thing I know."
"That's horrible."
"I didn't say I liked it."
Claire wiped tears angrily.
"My father let me think he was dead."
"Yes."
"Victor may have murdered yours."
"Yes."
"And we're supposed to trust evidence created by people who lie."
"That's why evidence needs corroboration."
She laughed bitterly.
"You sound like me."
"Terrifying."
She looked at him.
Then her expression softened.
"I'm sorry about your father."
Adrian nodded.
"I'm sorry about yours."
"He's alive."
"Sometimes that complicates grief."
Claire stared.
"That was almost emotionally intelligent."
"Don't spread it around."
She smiled faintly.
Then a black SUV appeared at the end of the private road.
Adrian's security moved.
The vehicle stopped.
A woman stepped out.
Evelyn Price.
Moretti Holdings general counsel.
She raised both hands.
"I need to speak to Adrian."
He approached cautiously.
Evelyn looked terrified.
"I know who's behind Atlantic Harbor."
"Victor."
"Victor is part of it."
"Who else?"
She swallowed.
"Nathan Vale."
"We know."
"No."
Evelyn shook her head.
"You don't understand."
She looked at Claire.
"Victor isn't trying to give Vale your docks."
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
"Then what?"
May you like
"He's trying to give Vale your entire company."
And according to Evelyn, the Harbor Point contract was only Phase One.
