Chapter 6 - The Name They Gave Him
Adrian Cole had spent eighteen days in a private rehabilitation center under his own name.
He had not been missing from the world.
He had been missing from the people who knew where to look.
A truck struck his rental car the morning after he met Daniel.
His phone disappeared at the scene.
He suffered broken ribs, a fractured wrist, and a concussion.
When he woke, someone had already told hospital staff that his family lived abroad.
“How?” Miriam demanded when she finally reached him.
“I don’t know.”
Adrian looked exhausted on the video call.
Claire saw family resemblance around the eyes.
“Did anyone visit you?”
“One man.”
“Who?”
“Simon Voss.”
Claire felt cold.
Adrian nodded when he saw her reaction.
“He said Daniel asked him to secure my files.”
“Did Daniel?”
“No,” Claire said.
Adrian leaned back.
“I figured that out eventually.”
“Why didn’t you contact Miriam?”
“My phone was gone. I didn’t remember her new number.”
Miriam began crying and laughing at the same time.
“You know my office number.”
“Apparently concussions don’t respect sibling guilt.”
She covered her face.
The humor broke some pressure.
Then Adrian became serious.
“Simon wanted the Bellweather analysis.”
“Did you give it to him?”
“No.”
“Where is it?”
“Three places.”
Claire almost smiled.
Professional paranoia.
Adrian explained that Bellweather received money from Ashford Holdings through inflated consulting fees.
Then funds moved into Rook Meridian LP.
Rook Meridian invested in distressed real estate.
On paper, legitimate.
In practice, some of its limited partners were hidden behind trusts.
One trust belonged to Graham Vale.
Another appeared connected to Eleanor.
“How much did Eleanor receive?” Claire asked.
Adrian shook his head.
“That’s where it gets complicated.”
Of course.
“Rook Meridian paid distributions to a trust benefiting Eleanor. But the trust also invested original capital.”
“So payments could be returns, not theft.”
“Exactly.”
“Vale?”
“Different.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“Vale put in almost nothing and received millions.”
Claire absorbed that.
“Can you prove the money originated from Ashford?”
“Part of it.”
“And the rest?”
“Still tracing.”
Daniel called Claire from Blackwood shortly afterward.
His speech was stronger.
“They’re moving me tomorrow.”
Claire tensed.
“Where?”
“Different hospital. Manhattan.”
“Good.”
“I want to go home.”
“No.”
Daniel laughed weakly.
“I missed you too.”
“You have stairs everywhere.”
“I hate reasonable Claire.”
“Reasonable Claire believed you were dead for three weeks. She’s gone feral.”
That earned a real laugh.
Then Daniel became serious.
“Did you find the drive?”
“Yes.”
“Adrian too.”
Silence.
“He’s alive?”
“Yes.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Thank God.”
Claire told him about Rook Meridian.
Daniel swore softly.
“I knew Vale had side deals.”
“Did you know Eleanor benefited?”
“No.”
“What about Simon Voss?”
Daniel looked away.
“I hired him.”
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
“Why?”
“Vale recommended him.”
Claire felt a pattern forming.
Not proof.
A pattern.
“Daniel, why did Eleanor tell me you were dead?”
His face tightened.
“She told me she told you I was too unstable for visitors.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No.”
He thought.
“When I woke, I was confused. I kept asking for you. She said you came once and refused to stay.”
Claire felt sick.
“I never came.”
“I know now.”
“What else?”
“She said you were frightened by my behavior before the crash.”
“What behavior?”
“Asking questions. Accusing Vale. Checking accounts at two in the morning.”
Claire almost laughed.
“Were you doing that?”
“Yes.”
“Then she used true things.”
“Mom’s good at that.”
Claire understood.
Eleanor did not always invent.
She arranged.
Changed context.
Withheld the part that made truth look different.
Daniel said, “There’s something else.”
“What?”
“When I first woke up, Vale was there.”
Claire sat straighter.
“What did he say?”
“That Adrian disappeared because I dragged him into something dangerous.”
“Did he threaten you?”
“Not directly.”
“What exactly?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“He said, ‘People get hurt when you confuse suspicion with proof.’”
Claire wrote it down.
“Anything else?”
“He asked where the drive was.”
Her pulse jumped.
“Did you tell him?”
“No.”
“Did Eleanor hear?”
“She told him to leave.”
Claire paused.
That complicated things.
“Why?”
“I thought she was protecting me.”
“Maybe she was.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You sound like a lawyer.”
“Miriam is contagious.”
Then his expression shifted.
“I remember something about the crash.”
Claire became still.
“What?”
“Owen.”
Daniel’s dead driver.
“He was shouting.”
“What did he say?”
Daniel’s breathing changed.
“‘Voss cleared the car.’”
Claire felt cold.
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
Good.
Painful, but good.
Daniel continued.
“It’s a memory. Maybe real. Maybe my brain filling gaps.”
“We let police verify.”
He nodded.
Claire appreciated that he did not fight her.
After the call she received a message from Miriam.
Police had gone to question Simon Voss.
His apartment was empty.
His company car had been abandoned at Newark Airport.
And his passport showed he had left the United States that morning.
Destination:
Zurich.
May you like
The same city Eleanor had tried to send Daniel to.
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