Chapter 14 - THE MAN WITH THE KEY
I reached for my coat.
Leah blocked the door.
“You are concussed.”
“My father’s records are in there.”
“And the fire department is already responding.”
Martin stood beside her.
“Let me go.”
I hated saying yes.
I said it anyway.
He called from the archive twenty minutes later.
The alarm had triggered the sprinklers in one section.
There was no fire.
Several cartons were wet.
The staff had moved them into a dry processing room.
The originals Leah inspected had already been scanned.
The copies survived.
That was what whoever arranged it had failed to account for.
Then Martin stopped talking.
“Martin?”
“I’ve found something.”
A maintenance employee had used a master key shortly before the alarm.
The facility manager recognized him from previous visits arranged by Owen.
Police located the employee before he left the parking lot.
In his pocket was a payment voucher.
The issuing account belonged to Gerald Pike’s administrative office.
I looked across the room at Gerald.
He had come to help Leah prepare the trust records.
His face lost color.
“That account handles outside services,” he said.
“My assistant could have processed it.”
Leah put her phone on speaker.
“Do not explain yet.
Let the police verify.”
Gerald stood.
“I need to call my office.”
“Sit down,” I said.
He stared at me.
“My father trusted you.”
“I served your father for thirty years.”
“Then sit down.”
He did.
The voucher was real.
The payment instructions had been approved with his credentials.
Unlike Martin, Gerald couldn’t provide a reason someone else had accessed them.
Finally, he said, “Owen told me the archive contained exposure for the family.”
“What exposure?”
“He said your father had approved the Briar transfers.”
“You saw his letter.”
Gerald looked down.
“I saw it tonight.”
“But you authorized the payment yesterday.”
Silence.
“What were you paid?”
His eyes closed.
Leah called the investigator.
Gerald didn’t try to leave again.
When the police arrived, he gave them his phone.
A message appeared as he unlocked it.
From Owen.
DID THE RECORDS GO?
I looked at Gerald.
He had protected the trust’s rules in public while helping destroy the evidence behind them.
Then the hotel lights flickered.
May you like
My phone lost service.
And someone knocked on my door.
