Chapter 4 - WHAT HIS FATHER LEFT BEHIND
“You ordered the cabinets removed,” Ruth said.
Martin adjusted his cuffs. “Facilities issue.”
“Where's the leak?”
His smile thinned.
Daniel held up the empty folder. “Where are the contents?”
“I wouldn't know.”
“Then you'll have no objection to preserving your email and access records.”
Martin looked at Claire for the first time.
“Still bringing trouble into rooms where you don't belong.”
Daniel moved, but Claire put out one hand.
“Let him talk.”
She had spent years replaying what she should have said to this man. Now the sight of him barely made her shake.
“You told me my baby would grow up visiting me in prison.”
“I advised you to cooperate with an internal investigation.”
“You told me to sign a confession.”
“Did you?” Ruth asked.
“No.”
Martin glanced toward the ceiling camera in the hallway.
“I want company counsel present.”
“Then call them,” Ruth said. “You aren't supervising this review.”
Mara escorted him to a conference room. Daniel stood with the red folder hanging from one hand.
“He got here first.”
Claire walked closer to the cabinet.
“Maybe.”
She had reconciled Robert's handwritten expense reports for years. He used red folders for active work and blue for records he considered finished. He also hated wasting good stationery.
She turned the folder over.
There were shallow impressions in the cardboard, left by someone writing on a sheet above it.
Ruth took photographs under the desk lamp. A few letters became visible.
E.P. Duplicate retained. Lower right.
Daniel pulled open the cabinet's lower right drawer. Empty.
Claire pressed the base. One corner dipped.
“My old desk did that,” she said. “Your father had false bottoms put in when the offices were built.”
Mara returned in time to watch them lift the panel.
A blue envelope lay beneath it, together with a small drive and a folded inventory from an outside records company.
Ruth stopped Daniel from plugging in the drive.
“We preserve it properly.”
He opened only the letter addressed to him.
My son, if you are reading this, I failed to tell you the truth while I was alive.
His eyes moved lower.
Then his face changed.
“What?” Claire asked.
May you like
Daniel read the next sentence aloud.
“I knew the child was yours.”
