Chapter 13 - The Second Intruder
Daniel was no longer CEO.
But Aurelia was personal property.
Nobody could suspend him from that.
He reached the marina within twenty minutes.
Captain Reyes met him at the gate.
“We found no one aboard.”
“How long were they inside?”
“Fourteen minutes.”
“Cameras?”
“Disabled remotely.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Through what system?”
“Carter Maritime marine security.”
Owen’s world.
Even on leave, Daniel could feel the reach of the company he no longer controlled.
Inside the cabin, the safe remained secure.
The covenant was already in Nora’s custody.
But Thomas Carter’s framed photograph had vanished.
Daniel stared at the empty wall.
“Why take a photograph?”
Reyes said, “Because someone thinks it contains something.”
“It did.”
“The memorandum.”
“They don’t know we found it.”
Reyes looked at him.
“Or they’re looking for something else.”
Daniel remembered the false backing.
They had removed the memorandum.
But had they inspected the frame itself?
Nora arrived with a private forensic technician.
They reviewed old high-resolution photographs of the frame from insurance records.
On the back was a brass manufacturer’s plate.
CARTER SHIPWORKS — 1988.
Daniel frowned.
“That frame was made at Dad’s old yard.”
Reyes nodded slowly.
“The original Long Beach shop.”
That property no longer belonged to Carter Maritime.
It had been sold twenty years earlier.
Or so Daniel thought.
Elena called Harold Bennett.
The retired attorney remembered.
“Thomas retained one storage easement after the sale.”
Daniel stared at the phone.
“What kind?”
“A sealed records room beneath Building Three.”
“Who has access?”
“Thomas did.”
“He’s dead.”
Harold paused.
“And Owen Price handled archival accounting.”
The room became still.
By evening Nora obtained property records.
The underground room remained legally leased to a Carter family holding company.
Annual rent: one dollar.
The rent had been paid automatically for twenty-three years.
Daniel wanted to go immediately.
Nora stopped him.
“You are under investigation. If company records are there and you remove them, Owen will accuse you of evidence tampering.”
“So we leave them?”
“We document entry with independent counsel and a retired federal evidence technician.”
Daniel hated waiting.
But he listened.
The next morning they entered Building Three.
The old shipyard smelled of rust and salt.
Daniel wore his father’s leather shoes.
The storage room sat behind a welded steel door beneath a staircase.
Inside were dozens of banker’s boxes.
Old supplier audits.
Acquisition files.
Insurance records.
Bellweather Marine.
Daniel stopped.
Adrian’s father’s company.
Elena opened the first box.
Safety reports.
Default notices.
Letters between Thomas Carter and Gregory Vale.
Daniel read one.
Thomas had offered Gregory Vale a private restructuring loan before foreclosure.
Gregory rejected it.
Another letter warned Gregory not to falsify load-certification records.
A third showed Thomas personally paying severance for twenty-seven Bellweather employees after the bank seizure.
Adrian’s revenge story collapsed box by box.
Elena whispered, “He knows these exist.”
“Maybe.”
A noise came from the corridor.
Everyone turned.
The exterior door slammed.
Reyes ran toward it.
Locked.
Then the lights went out.
Elena inhaled sharply.
Daniel smelled something.
Smoke.
“Out,” Reyes said.
The emergency exit at the rear had been chained from outside.
Nora called 911.
Daniel and Reyes tried the steel door.
Smoke thickened beneath the ceiling.
Not a raging fire.
Something smaller.
Placed to force evacuation.
Or destroy paper.
Daniel spotted a fire extinguisher, broke the case, and followed the smoke to the source.
A trash bin filled with burning documents.
He discharged the extinguisher.
The fire died.
Sirens approached.
Police and firefighters forced the exterior door.
Everyone emerged coughing but unharmed.
A security camera across the alley captured a man leaving minutes earlier.
Not Adrian.
Not Owen.
A Carter Maritime facilities supervisor named Grant Mason.
Grant was arrested that afternoon on suspicion of arson and unlawful restraint.
He requested an attorney.
Then, six hours later, he requested a deal.
“He says Owen paid him,” Nora told Daniel.
“For the fire?”
“For several things.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What things?”
“Deleting archive backups. Disabling Aurelia cameras. Generating the unauthorized access credential.”
Daniel stared.
“So Owen created Adrian’s card.”
“Yes.”
“And Grant says there were more?”
Nora nodded.
“How many?”
“Three.”
Daniel’s blood ran cold.
“Who had them?”
“One was Adrian.”
“One was used under Owen’s administrator profile.”
Daniel waited.
“The third,” Nora said, “was assigned to Claire Carter.”
Daniel said nothing.
Claire had denied entering his private cabin except once.
May you like
Yet the logs showed the third secret card had been used four times.
Including once while Daniel slept aboard Aurelia.
