Chapter 13: The Verdict
Chapter 13: The Verdict
The jury deliberated for eleven hours.
Celeste waited in a private conference room with Victoria, who still used a cane, and Samuel Price.
Marcus remained in federal custody.
Admiral Reed was not present.
Three weeks earlier, he had voluntarily resigned his command and requested an independent investigation into Operation Winter Glass.
Celeste had not asked him to resign.
He had told her, “A uniform cannot become a shield from the truth.”
At four twenty-seven in the afternoon, the jury returned.
Arthur Vale stood beside his attorneys.
The clerk read the verdicts.
Guilty of conspiracy.
Guilty of wire fraud.
Guilty of bribery.
Guilty of falsifying defense certifications.
Guilty of attempted murder.
Guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Eleanor Vale.
Arthur remained perfectly still.
Victoria began crying quietly.
Celeste took her hand.
The judge scheduled sentencing.
As deputies approached Arthur, he turned toward his daughters.
“Celeste.”
She did not respond.
“You think they love you now?”
The deputies stopped him from moving closer.
“The Navy used you,” Arthur said. “The admiral lied to you. Victoria humiliated you. Marcus tried to kill you. And now they stand beside you because you won.”
Celeste looked at him.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
“I don’t need them to prove I matter.”
Arthur’s face twisted.
“You are a Vale.”
“No.”
She stood.
“I am Celeste.”
The deputies led him away.
Outside the courthouse, reporters crowded behind barricades.
Celeste did not speak to them.
She walked with Victoria toward a waiting car.
Then a young woman stepped into their path.
She was holding a photograph of a sailor.
“Commander Vale?”
Celeste recognized him.
Chief Petty Officer Daniel Ross.
The sailor who had died after Operation Winter Glass.
The woman was his daughter.
“I’m Megan Ross.”
Celeste’s throat tightened.
“You were seven when your father died.”
Megan nodded.
“My mother told me you stayed with him in the hospital.”
“I did.”
“She said you promised his death would mean something.”
Celeste looked down.
“For fourteen years, I didn’t know the truth.”
“But you found it.”
“Too late for your father.”
Megan’s eyes filled.
“But not too late for everyone who comes after him.”
She handed Celeste the photograph.
On the back Daniel Ross had written:
A crew survives because someone refuses to leave.
Celeste held the photograph carefully.
Megan glanced toward the courthouse.
“Is it over?”
Celeste thought of Margaret, who still refused to identify Northstar’s members.
She thought of the offshore accounts.
The corrupted officials.
The hidden contracts.
“No,” Celeste said. “But this part is.”
That evening, federal investigators searched Arthur’s prison intake belongings.
Inside the lining of his jacket, they found a handwritten list.
Seven names.
All connected to Northstar.
At the bottom was a warning.
May you like
Celeste is not the target.
She is the replacement.
