Chapter 14 - Marcus Tells a Different StoryMarcus Reed chose a public library.
Not a warehouse.
Not a dark parking garage.
Not anywhere dramatic.
Margaret appreciated that.
Secrets had caused enough theater.
He sat at a corner table wearing a gray sweater and glasses.
He looked tired.
Ordinary.
Ethan joined Margaret despite Marcus’s request that only she come.
Marcus noticed.
“I said alone.”
Margaret sat.
“He is my son.”
“I know.”
“And I’m done choosing secrecy.”
Marcus studied her.
Then nodded.
“Fair.”
He placed the black envelope on the table.
Ethan reached for it.
Marcus stopped him.
“First you hear me.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
Margaret touched his arm.
“Go ahead.”
Marcus looked at her.
“Daniel found the vendor scheme because I showed him.”
Margaret stared.
“You?”
“I was twenty-eight. Compliance analyst. I thought I had found accounting errors.”
“You went to Daniel?”
“He was an outside consultant.”
“Why him?”
“He asked questions nobody else asked.”
Margaret smiled faintly.
That sounded like Daniel.
Marcus continued.
“We worked together for almost four months.”
“Did Charles know?”
“Eventually.”
“Victoria?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“Victoria warned Daniel to stop.”
Margaret looked at Ethan.
Same as the recordings.
“But you said Victoria caused his death.”
Marcus’s face hardened.
“She told Arthur where Daniel would be.”
Silence.
Ethan leaned forward.
“Proof?”
Marcus pulled out an old printed email.
Victoria to Arthur’s private assistant.
DANIEL COLE WILL BE IN THE SOUTH GARAGE AT 9:15. HE HAS COPIES.
Margaret’s hands went cold.
Victoria had arranged the meeting.
“Why?”
Marcus shrugged.
“She can tell you.”
“Did she know Arthur planned to poison him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then saying she caused his death is not the same as saying she killed him.”
Marcus stared.
Margaret continued.
“I have spent two days watching people turn partial truth into certainty.”
He looked away.
“You’re right.”
Ethan glanced at her.
Margaret’s voice softened.
“What else?”
Marcus explained that Daniel planned to give the archive to federal investigators the next morning.
Arthur discovered the plan.
Charles wanted Daniel to delay.
Victoria wanted him to abandon it.
Daniel refused everyone.
“Why didn’t you go with him?”
“He told me to stay away.”
“Why?”
“He thought Arthur didn’t know about me.”
“Did he?”
“Not then.”
Margaret felt grief tighten her throat.
Daniel had protected Marcus.
Perhaps he believed he was protecting Margaret too by telling her nothing.
The pattern went farther back than she realized.
“What happened after Daniel died?”
“I panicked.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
“I deleted files. Denied everything. Stayed at Halcyon.”
Ethan frowned.
“For eight more years.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was afraid.”
Margaret understood.
Fear built careers too.
Marcus eventually started asking questions again after Arthur died.
Victoria noticed.
“She fired you.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you expose her?”
“I had no proof.”
“The envelope?”
“I didn’t have it then.”
“How did you get it?”
Marcus looked at Ethan.
“Charles.”
Ethan froze.
“Charles gave it to you?”
“Last year.”
That made no sense.
Charles had supposedly been hiding corruption.
“Why?”
“He wanted insurance.”
“Against who?”
“Victoria.”
Ethan laughed bitterly.
Everyone had insurance against everyone.
Marcus continued.
“Charles knew Victoria had Daniel’s briefcase.”
“He didn’t know where.”
“No.”
“So he gave you the black envelope?”
“He had removed it before giving Arthur the rest of Daniel’s papers.”
Margaret stared.
“In the parking garage?”
“Yes.”
Charles had lied again.
He found Daniel.
Collected scattered papers.
One of them was the black envelope.
He kept it.
Then gave the rest to Arthur.
“Why keep this?”
“Because the names included Charles.”
Ethan’s face hardened.
“Of course.”
Marcus nodded.
“Charles wanted leverage if Victoria ever tried exposing him.”
Margaret looked at the envelope.
“What is the last name?”
Marcus finally opened it.
Inside were five pages.
Payments.
Accounts.
Names.
Judges.
Consultants.
Two former politicians.
A police official.
Executives.
Ethan scanned.
Then stopped.
His face went blank.
Margaret leaned closer.
One name had been highlighted.
PATRICIA COLE.
Margaret stared.
“That’s…”
“My sister.”
Ethan looked at her.
“Aunt Patricia?”
Margaret nodded slowly.
Patricia had died three years earlier.
She had been a nurse.
Nothing to do with Halcyon.
“Why would Arthur pay my sister?”
Marcus looked at Margaret.
“Daniel never figured it out.”
Margaret took the page.
Payment:
$75,000.
Date:
Three weeks before Daniel’s death.
Her mind raced.
Patricia had called around that time.
She sounded nervous.
Asked Margaret strange questions about Daniel’s health.
Margaret had forgotten.
Until now.
“What did she do?”
Marcus shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Ethan looked at Margaret.
“Was Aunt Patricia working at Dad’s hospital?”
Margaret’s heart stopped.
“No.”
Then she remembered.
“Not regularly.”
“What?”
“She occasionally picked up shifts through a staffing agency.”
“At which hospital?”
May you like
Margaret looked at him.
“The hospital where Daniel died.”
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