Chapter 3 - The Dark Deck
Emergency lights flickered red along the corridor floor.
“Engine room fault,” one security officer said into his radio.
Laura heard hurried footsteps, crew voices, the low growl of auxiliary generators.
Ethan grabbed her wrist.
“Move.”
They headed toward the aft staircase.
Marcus followed.
“Laura!”
She ignored him.
Robert came behind them more slowly.
At the next landing, Laura turned.
“Dad?”
“I’m fine.”
“You sure?”
“I’m old, not dead.”
Despite everything, Ethan almost smiled.
Then Robert’s expression sharpened.
“Folder.”
Ethan held it up.
“Still here.”
They reached the upper deck just as backup power restored the main lights.
Rain hammered the enclosed windows.
Below, crew members moved across the aft deck securing loose furniture.
Laura looked over the dark ocean.
Newport was still hours away.
Richard appeared behind them.
“The generator fault changes nothing.”
Robert turned.
“It changes your audience.”
“What?”
“You humiliated me because you wanted witnesses to one version of the story.”
Richard’s eyes narrowed.
Robert continued.
“The harmless old man. The disgraced former executive. The embarrassing poor relation who came begging.”
“You did come begging once.”
Laura looked sharply at her father.
Robert said, “Yes.”
Richard smiled.
“Tell them about that too.”
Laura felt suddenly exhausted.
“Stop speaking in riddles.”
Richard leaned against the doorway.
“Your father came to my home three months after your mother died. He asked for money.”
Robert’s face tightened.
Richard looked almost pleased.
“He said he would sign anything.”
“Why?” Laura asked.
Robert said nothing.
Richard answered.
“Because Meridian’s collapse didn’t just cost him his shares. He personally guaranteed a line of credit.”
Laura looked at her father.
“You had debt?”
“Fourteen million dollars.”
Ethan stared.
“You never told us.”
“I negotiated it down.”
Richard laughed.
“With my help.”
Robert shook his head.
“With the proceeds from selling our house, the Maine property, my retirement accounts, and nearly everything your mother and I built.”
Laura remembered moving out of the large coastal house where she grew up.
Robert said it was too empty after Susan died.
She had believed him.
“You lost the house because of Meridian?”
Robert nodded.
“And Richard knew the personal guarantee existed before he set up the Blue Current scheme.”
Richard’s smile vanished.
“That’s a lie.”
Robert looked at Laura.
“The fraud triggered the lender’s default clauses. The default triggered my guarantee. I didn’t only lose my shares. I lost almost everything else.”
Laura’s hands trembled.
Marcus stepped toward her.
“Laura, I swear I didn’t know that.”
She moved away.
“You knew about the settlement.”
“I told you when.”
“After three years of silence.”
“I was trying to verify it.”
“How?”
Marcus said nothing.
Laura gave a bitter laugh.
“By asking the man accused of committing the fraud.”
Richard said, “Enough of this.”
“No,” Laura replied. “You don’t get to say enough anymore.”
His stare hardened.
“You work for me.”
“I work for Vale Maritime.”
“I am Vale Maritime.”
That sentence settled over the deck.
Robert looked at Laura.
“That’s the problem.”
The yacht’s chief steward approached cautiously.
“Mr. Vale, Captain Brennan asks that everyone remain inside. We may alter course because of the storm.”
Richard waved him away.
Laura turned back to Robert.
“You said most of the folder was copies.”
Robert glanced at Richard.
Then he took a small brass key from his pocket.
Richard’s expression changed.
“What does that open?”
Robert closed his fingers around it.
“Something you should have remembered.”
“Dad,” Laura said.
Robert looked toward the dark horizon.
“After I signed Richard’s settlement, I was supposed to deliver every original document I had. I delivered a banker’s box.”
Richard stepped forward.
“You certified it was complete.”
“I lied.”
Ethan let out a breath.
Robert continued.
“I kept three originals.”
“What originals?” Laura asked.
“The Blue Current payment authorization bearing Richard’s handwritten instruction. The original stock ledger showing my shares had never been properly canceled before the forced sale. And a letter Claudia Ames signed before she disappeared from the industry.”
Richard’s face whitened.
Marcus said, “Claudia Ames?”
Laura knew the name from the folder.
Former controller of Meridian.
Richard spoke quickly.
“She was fired for misconduct.”
Robert looked at him.
“She resigned because you ordered her to falsify the ledger.”
Richard laughed too loudly.
“And where are these supposed originals?”
Robert held up the brass key.
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“You’re not getting them.”
Richard looked toward security.
Robert slipped the key back into his pocket.
“You can have your men throw me overboard, Richard. It won’t help.”
Laura stared at him.
“What do you mean?”
Robert looked at her.
“I made arrangements.”
“What arrangements?”
“If I don’t check in tomorrow morning, copies go to a lawyer.”
Richard studied him.
“You don’t have a lawyer.”
“I didn’t ten years ago.”
Something like satisfaction appeared in Robert’s eyes.
“I do now.”
Laura felt the balance shift.
For the first time, Richard seemed unsure what Robert had already done.
Then Marcus said something that destroyed the moment.
“Dad.”
Richard looked at him.
Marcus held out his phone.
A message was displayed on the screen.
Laura could not read it.
Richard could.
His eyes narrowed.
“Where did you get that?”
“My assistant forwarded it.”
“What is it?” Laura demanded.
Marcus looked sick.
“A notice from Atlantic Commonwealth Bank.”
Richard snatched the phone.
Laura stepped toward him.
“Read it.”
He refused.
Marcus finally did.
“The bank’s outside counsel received a document this afternoon alleging Robert still has a beneficial ownership claim related to assets pledged in the refinancing.”
Robert nodded slowly.
Laura stared at him.
“You sent them something?”
“No.”
Richard looked up.
“Then who did?”
Robert’s expression changed.
For the first time that evening, he appeared genuinely surprised.
“I don’t know.”
Silence.
Lightning illuminated the wet deck.
Laura realized someone else knew.
Someone who had Robert’s information.
Someone who had acted before the dinner was even over.
Richard stared at Robert.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
Marcus looked from his father to Robert.
Then at Laura.
“If Robert didn’t contact the bank, somebody else is already moving against us.”
Richard’s phone rang.
He answered immediately.
“What?”
His face slowly lost color.
“Who received it?”
A pause.
“All of them?”
Another pause.
Richard lowered the phone.
Laura asked, “What happened?”
He stared at Robert.
“The entire audit committee just received the 2016 Blue Current files.”
Robert whispered, “That wasn’t me.”
May you like
And Laura realized the black folder was no longer Richard’s biggest problem.
Someone had opened a second front.
