Chapter 9 - Simon Voss
Simon Voss returned to New York in federal custody.
His attorney negotiated carefully.
Simon would answer questions about financial crimes and obstruction.
Any discussion of the crash required separate protections.
Claire was not present during interrogation.
She learned what mattered through Detective Torres and corporate counsel.
Simon admitted monitoring Daniel.
Vale ordered it.
He admitted tracking Adrian.
Vale ordered that too.
He admitted sending security staff to hospitals after both crashes.
Again, Vale.
Then came the car.
Simon denied cutting Daniel’s brake line.
“Do you believe him?” Claire asked Torres.
“I don’t decide based on whether I like his face.”
Claire appreciated that.
“What can you prove?”
“His department had access. One of his employees inspected Daniel’s sedan four days before the crash.”
“Which employee?”
“Martin Keene.”
“Where is he?”
“Missing.”
Of course.
Simon claimed Vale told him Daniel might remove confidential company material.
Vale ordered North Gate personnel to follow him.
On the night of the crash, Simon received an encrypted message:
Stop the meeting fallout before morning.
“What does that mean?” Claire asked.
“Simon claims he interpreted it as recover documents.”
“Could mean more.”
“Yes.”
“Could mean exactly what he says.”
“Yes.”
Again, uncertainty.
Simon also admitted he moved Daniel’s phone after the crash.
“Why?”
“Vale wanted it.”
“Did Eleanor know?”
“Simon says no.”
That mattered.
Eleanor’s lies had been monstrous.
But not every act belonged to her.
The phone later reappeared at Blackwood because Simon’s subordinate returned Daniel’s personal-property bag before fleeing.
That gave Daniel the chance to call Claire.
A mistake in the conspiracy.
Or guilt.
Either way, the call happened.
Claire then asked about Adrian.
Simon claimed his team followed Adrian but did not strike his car.
Traffic reconstruction could not conclusively tie North Gate to that collision.
The truck that hit Adrian had stolen plates.
No driver identified.
Vale’s involvement remained suspected, not proven.
Then Simon provided something new.
Richard’s blue ledger.
He had stolen it from Eleanor’s archive six months earlier.
“For Vale?” Claire asked.
“No.”
“For himself.”
Simon kept it as insurance.
The ledger documented decades of hidden transactions.
Some embarrassing.
Some potentially unlawful.
Most too old for practical prosecution.
But one section involved Graham Vale directly.
Richard had discovered Vale diverting fees through Rook & Ash twelve years earlier.
Richard confronted him.
Vale repaid part of the money.
Richard did not fire him.
Why?
Because Vale knew where other hidden debts were buried.
Mutual leverage.
Claire stared at the copy.
“This family built a business on blackmail.”
Eleanor’s face hardened.
“No.”
“You kept people because they knew where bodies were.”
“Financial bodies.”
“Still bodies.”
Daniel read the ledger from his hospital room.
His reaction was quieter.
“My father knew.”
“Yes.”
“He knew Vale stole.”
“Yes.”
“And kept him.”
“Yes.”
Daniel closed the file.
“Then Mom inherited a bomb.”
Claire looked at him.
“And decided to keep it in the nursery.”
He almost smiled.
Then didn’t.
The ledger also contained a list of trusts granting Vale proxy authority.
Two remained active.
Miriam challenged them in court.
The board vote moved again.
Vale responded by doing something unexpected.
He resigned as general counsel.
Not from the board.
Not from every entity.
Just counsel.
Then he issued a statement accusing Eleanor and Daniel of running undisclosed borrowing schemes and using him as scapegoat.
Some of that was true.
Again.
The most dangerous lies contained fact.
Vale attached documents proving Eleanor created Bellweather.
He released emails showing Daniel discovered hidden borrowing months earlier but did not immediately inform lenders.
Claire confronted Daniel.
“You knew in May.”
“Yes.”
“You told me you discovered it weeks before the crash.”
“I discovered Vale’s diversion weeks before the crash.”
“Daniel.”
He looked away.
“I knew Bellweather existed.”
“For four months?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell lenders?”
“I was trying to understand exposure.”
“Or protect Ashford.”
“Both.”
Claire felt anger rise.
“You kept telling me you were different.”
“I never said that.”
“You let me believe it.”
Daniel flinched.
The sentence echoed Eleanor.
Claire hated that.
She continued.
“If we win by editing your part, we become them.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“What do you want?”
“The full timeline.”
“You have it.”
“No.”
Claire placed Vale’s email printouts on his bed.
“I have the timeline Vale chose to release.”
Daniel stared.
Claire said:
“I want yours.”
He closed his eyes.
Then finally spoke.
“I found Bellweather in May.”
Claire waited.
“I confronted Mom.”
“And?”
“She admitted creating it.”
“Did she tell you Vale was diverting money?”
“No.”
“What did you do?”
“I spent two months trying to unwind it quietly.”
“Without disclosure.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if lenders froze us, payroll stopped.”
Claire looked away.
Same justification.
Different generation.
Daniel whispered:
“I thought I could fix it before anyone got hurt.”
Claire laughed sadly.
“That sentence should be carved above the Ashford boardroom.”
Daniel took the hit.
Then said:
“I was wrong.”
Claire looked back.
No explanation.
No excuse.
Just wrong.
That mattered.
His phone rang.
Dr. Park’s successor hospital team had restored his access.
He answered.
Listened.
Then his face changed.
“What?”
Claire stood.
Daniel lowered the phone.
“Vale disappeared.”
Claire stared.
“What does that mean?”
“He missed a court-ordered deposition.”
“Where is he?”
“No one knows.”
Then Miriam called.
She had worse news.
Before disappearing, Graham Vale had authorized one final transfer.
Thirty-one million dollars left Bellweather.
Destination:
Rook Meridian.
May you like
And from there, the money vanished.
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