Chapter 4 - The Property Daniel Tried to Protect
By sunrise, Emma had stopped thinking of her father’s death as one mystery.
It was becoming three.
Who had been in his office?
Why had zolpidem been in his blood?
And what had happened to the money after he died?
Ryan arranged a private meeting at Crownlight Studios with Susan Park, the studio’s outside forensic accountant.
Emma arrived expecting spreadsheets.
Instead Susan placed a property map across the conference table.
Stage 18 occupied eighteen acres along the western edge of Crownlight’s Los Angeles lot.
“It looks like soundstages,” Emma said.
“Today,” Susan replied.
Ryan stood beside the window.
“In 2018 it was valued as studio land.”
“And now?”
“Los Angeles approved mixed-use redevelopment in the district three years ago.”
Susan tapped the map.
“Residential, office, production, retail.”
Emma remembered Ryan’s estimate.
“One hundred forty million.”
“That is conservative,” Susan said.
Emma looked at the ownership structure.
Crownlight Studios controlled forty-eight percent.
Blake Horizon Pictures controlled thirty-four.
Several smaller partners controlled the rest.
“What happened to Dad’s share in Blake Horizon?”
Susan opened another file.
“Daniel owned seventy percent of Blake Horizon personally.”
“Mom?”
“Twenty percent.”
“And me?”
Ryan looked at her.
“Ten.”
Emma frowned.
“I didn’t own company stock at nineteen.”
“You did through the Blake Family Media Trust.”
Nobody had ever told her.
Susan slid over a 2009 trust document.
Daniel and Vanessa had created it when Emma was ten.
At twenty-five, Emma gained economic rights.
At thirty, full voting control would vest.
Emma stared.
“I’m already twenty-seven.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t I know?”
Susan was careful.
“Your mother remained trustee after Daniel died.”
Emma’s stomach tightened.
“What does Stage 18 have to do with me?”
Susan turned another page.
Daniel’s trust contained a special provision.
If he died before Emma turned thirty, his Blake Horizon shares passed temporarily into a marital trust for Vanessa.
But Emma became remainder beneficiary.
At thirty, most of those shares were supposed to pass to her.
Emma sat back.
“So Mom could control Dad’s shares temporarily.”
“Yes.”
“But she didn’t own them permanently.”
“Correct.”
Ryan said, “Unless the trust was amended.”
Emma looked at him.
“Was it?”
Susan produced a document dated March 14, 2018.
Two days after Daniel died.
It purported to amend the trust and remove Emma’s remainder rights to the Stage 18 interest.
Emma stared at the signature line.
Daniel Blake.
Signed.
Notarized.
Two days after his death.
“That’s impossible.”
“Yes,” Susan said.
“Who filed this?”
“The Blake family legal office.”
“My mother?”
“The transmittal came from her attorney.”
Emma’s anger became almost physical.
Ryan said, “There may be an innocent explanation.”
She looked at him.
“For a dead man signing a trust amendment?”
Ryan stopped.
Susan continued.
“The amendment allowed Vanessa, as successor trustee, to transfer the Stage 18 interest to an affiliated entity.”
“Cypress Gate.”
“Potentially.”
Emma stood.
“My mother stole my inheritance.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“She filed a document signed by my dead father.”
Susan said, “We need the original.”
Emma’s phone rang.
George.
His voice sounded frightened.
“Emma?”
“What happened?”
“Someone was in my hotel room.”
She froze.
“Are you hurt?”
“No. I was downstairs.”
“What did they take?”
“My notebook.”
“What notebook?”
George hesitated.
“The one I used when Daniel gave me the reel.”
Emma gripped the phone.
“What was in it?”
“Frame counts. Notes. Where cuts occurred.”
Ryan stood.
“Ask whether he told anyone about it.”
Emma did.
George’s answer came quietly.
“Only Vanessa.”
“When?”
“Eight years ago.”
Emma closed her eyes.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
George sounded ashamed.
“There was a payment record.”
“What payment?”
“Daniel paid me fifty thousand dollars shortly before he died.”
Emma stared at Ryan.
“For what?”
“Private archival work.”
“What kind?”
“I can explain.”
“Explain now.”
“I transferred corporate records from digital systems onto film.”
Susan leaned forward.
“Which records?”
“Payments. Contracts. Ledgers.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You created them.”
“Daniel took the archive himself.”
Emma’s mind raced.
Her father had been moving evidence off computer systems.
The recording was not paranoia.
It had been part of a plan.
George continued.
“There was one phrase Daniel kept repeating.”
“What?”
“Stage Eighteen.”
Emma looked at the property map.
“What did he say?”
“That if anything happened to him, Stage Eighteen was the reason.”
A studio security officer entered.
“Mr. Cole.”
Ryan turned.
“We located archived access logs from 2018.”
“For Daniel’s office?”
“Yes.”
Ryan glanced toward Emma.
“March twelfth.”
The officer placed a tablet down.
Daniel entered at 9:14 p.m.
Julian Cole’s visitor credential entered at 11:38.
Emma swallowed.
“When did he leave?”
“12:26 a.m.”
“What about Vanessa?”
The officer hesitated.
“Her car entered the executive garage at 11:53.”
Emma stared.
“My mother says she was home before eleven.”
The officer continued.
“Her vehicle exited at 12:31.”
Ryan looked at Emma.
For eight years, Vanessa had said she never returned to Crownlight Studios that night.
The access records said otherwise.
May you like
And Daniel’s car left at 12:34.
Three minutes after Vanessa.
