My Father-In-Law Gave Me A 40-Page File And 3 Days To Resign — Then I Checked The Letterhead…
Chapter 4
The police found no signs of forced entry.
That made Daniel even more nervous.
“Someone had access,” he said.
Claire nodded.
“Or a key.”
“Who has keys?”
“Security.”
“Employees?”
“Executives.”
She paused.
“My father.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You still think he’s protecting us?”
“I don’t know what to think.”
They spent the night at Daniel’s mother’s house.
Claire refused to sleep.
Neither did he.
At four in the morning, Daniel found her sitting at the kitchen table.
“You should rest.”
“So should you.”
He poured coffee.
“I checked something.”
“What?”
“The company server logs.”
“And?”
“The forty-page file was created on a computer that doesn’t exist anymore.”
Claire frowned.
“How?”
“Someone copied the system image.”
“From where?”
“Your father’s old office.”
She stared.
“Richard’s office was sealed after his heart attack.”
“Exactly.”
“Who opened it?”
“Only your father.”
She looked at him.
“And me.”
Daniel stopped.
“Your access too?”
She nodded.
“My father gave me access two months ago.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel sat.
“Claire.”
“What?”
“Do you think your father is hiding something from you?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
She looked at him.
“I think my mother did too.”
Daniel remembered the letterhead.
“What do you mean?”
Claire opened a drawer and removed an old envelope.
“My mother died six years ago.”
Daniel nodded.
“She left this.”
He looked at the envelope.
The same outdated letterhead.
Harrison Family Legal Office.
Daniel’s heart raced.
“You never opened it?”
“I did.”
“What was inside?”
“A blank sheet of paper.”
He frowned.
“That’s all?”
“Yes.”
Daniel held the paper up.
Nothing.
He tilted it toward the light.
Still nothing.
Then he noticed a watermark.
He looked closer.
A faint symbol appeared.
A triangle.
Inside it, the number 17.
Claire stared.
“That wasn’t there before.”
Daniel smiled faintly.
“Security ink.”
He held it under his phone’s flashlight.
Words appeared.
The file is not the evidence.
Claire’s breath caught.
“What?”
More words slowly appeared.
The evidence is what the file makes you search for.
Daniel and Claire stared at one another.
The forty pages were bait.
Someone wanted them to chase Daniel’s resignation.
Meanwhile, the real evidence was hidden somewhere else.
Claire turned the page.
Another sentence appeared.
Look at the letterhead. Not the signature.
Daniel’s eyes widened.
“The letterhead isn’t old.”
“What?”
“It’s a reproduction.”
He checked the paper fibers.
The paper had been manufactured recently.
The design was old.
The ink was new.
Someone had recreated the letterhead intentionally.
“Who has access to your mother’s old files?”
Claire thought.
“Her former attorney.”
“Name?”
“David Mercer.”
Daniel searched the company database.
David Mercer had died two years ago.
Another dead name.
Exactly like Martin Vale.
Someone was systematically using identities of dead people.
Then Claire remembered something.
“My mother had a secretary.”
“Who?”
“Laura Bennett.”
“Where is she?”
“Retired.”
“Alive?”
Claire nodded.
“She lives outside the city.”
They drove there.
The woman opened the door.
The moment she saw Claire, she began crying.
“Your mother was right.”
Claire froze.
“Right about what?”
Laura looked at Daniel.
“You’re Thomas Brooks’s son.”
Daniel’s heart stopped.
“My father?”
Laura nodded.
“He and your mother were trying to expose someone.”
“Who?”
She closed the door.
Then whispered,
“Richard.”
Claire stared.
“My father?”
“No.”
Laura shook her head.
“Not Richard.”
“Then who?”
She looked at Daniel.
“Your own father-in-law was the only person who could have saved your father.”
Daniel felt sick.
“Then why didn’t he?”
Laura’s answer was devastating.
“Because he was too late.”
