Chapter 12 - The House in Sedona
We drove to Sedona that afternoon.
Not Bennett.
Not Damian.
Just Gabriel, Rachel, Victoria, and me.
The house sat behind a stone wall at the end of a winding private road.
Red cliffs rose behind it.
The landscape was beautiful enough to make the place feel harmless.
It wasn’t.
As we entered, I noticed cameras.
Keypad locks.
A security desk.
Exactly the kind of house Bennett had planned to send me to “for privacy.”
I stopped in the foyer.
Victoria saw my expression.
“I didn’t know about the restrictions.”
“I believe you.”
She looked surprised.
“I don’t forgive you.”
Her shoulders lowered.
“I understand.”
She led us through the kitchen and down a narrow hallway.
At the end was a wine room.
Rows of bottles lined the walls.
Victoria pressed her palm against a wooden panel.
Nothing happened.
She tried again.
“It hasn’t been opened in years.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“Move.”
Ten minutes later, a maintenance worker removed the panel manually.
Behind it was a small steel safe.
Victoria entered six digits.
Error.
Again.
Error.
Her face tightened.
“What was the code?”
“My anniversary.”
Gabriel muttered, “Of course.”
She tried a different number.
The lock clicked.
Inside were documents.
Old photographs.
A cassette recorder.
Three USB drives.
And a thick ledger wrapped in plastic.
My knees almost gave out.
My mother’s handwriting appeared across the first page.
ELEANOR MERCER - PRIVATE REVIEW.
I touched the letters.
Thirteen years disappeared.
For one second, I was nineteen again.
Waiting for her to come home.
Gabriel put a hand on my shoulder.
Rachel immediately photographed the safe contents before anyone moved anything.
Then we began reading.
The ledger documented payments from Halloway subcontractors to consulting entities.
Some were legitimate.
Some were not.
Millions moved through companies that seemed to have no employees.
One name appeared repeatedly.
CRESCENT STRATEGIC ADVISORS.
Rachel searched corporate records on her laptop.
“Dissolved.”
“Owner?”
She kept typing.
Then stopped.
“Damian Vale.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
Gabriel swore.
I stared at the page.
Damian had told us he financed a subcontractor.
He had not said money flowed directly through one of his companies.
“What else?”
Rachel kept searching.
Another entity.
MESA HERITAGE CONSULTING.
Owner.
Charles Halloway.
Another.
SUNRISE PATIENT SOLUTIONS.
Owner hidden behind a trust.
Rachel traced it.
Then looked at Victoria.
“Beneficiary is Simon Halloway.”
My stomach twisted.
Simon had been twenty-eight at the time.
A new physician.
Young enough to claim ignorance.
Old enough not to deserve it automatically.
Gabriel picked up one of the USB drives.
“We need professionals to image these.”
Rachel nodded.
“Nobody plugs anything in.”
Victoria sat down heavily.
“I never read all of it.”
I stared at her.
“You hid evidence for thirteen years without reading it?”
“I read enough.”
“Why didn’t you give it to police?”
Her eyes filled.
“Because Charles threatened Bennett.”
The room went still.
“What?”
“Bennett was twenty-three.”
“He had just started working at the company.”
“Charles told me that if I exposed him, Bennett would take the blame for accounting approvals his father had placed under his signature.”
Bennett.
Young.
Ambitious.
Eager to please his father.
Maybe innocent then.
Maybe not.
“I chose my son.”
Victoria whispered.
“And my mother died with the truth buried.”
“Yes.”
Anger moved through me so intensely I had to grip the table.
“You let Gabriel believe there was nothing.”
“Yes.”
“You let me marry Bennett.”
Her voice cracked.
“Yes.”
I stood.
Gabriel moved closer in case I became dizzy.
I looked at Victoria.
“I don’t know whether I will ever forgive you.”
“I don’t expect you to.”
I looked at the ledger.
“But you’re going to help me expose everything.”
She nodded.
“Yes.”
A noise sounded outside.
Gravel.
Tires.
Rachel moved to the window.
Her face changed.
“Someone’s here.”
Gabriel joined her.
A black Range Rover stopped outside.
Then another.
Three men stepped out.
And behind them came Margot Vale.
Victoria whispered, “How did she know?”
Margot walked toward the front door.
She was smiling.
May you like
Then I noticed what one of the men carried.
A red gasoline can.
