Chapter 3 - The Dead Husband’s Secret
The next morning, Dileia returned to Thorn Tower with almost no sleep.
Julian was already waiting.
He stood beside the conference table with two cups of coffee.
He pushed one toward her.
“You look exhausted.”
“I am.”
“You should sleep.”
“You should answer questions.”
He accepted that without argument.
Dileia sat.
“Did you know Tommy?”
Julian remained standing.
“I knew of him.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“No.”
She stared at him.
“Did you ever meet him?”
“Yes.”
Her heart sank.
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
“Why?”
Julian hesitated.
“Your husband was investigating one of my shell companies.”
Dileia felt anger replace shock.
“Was he investigating you?”
“Yes.”
“Then why wasn’t he fired?”
“He was.”
She frowned.
“By whom?”
“Marcus Vale.”
Dileia slowly understood.
Tommy had been caught near something dangerous.
Someone had tried to silence him.
Maybe his death had not been an accident.
“What did Tommy find?”
Julian looked toward the windows.
“A transfer.”
“How much?”
“Eight million dollars.”
Dileia stared.
“The same money?”
“Part of it.”
He continued.
“Tommy discovered that Marcus was routing money through a transportation account. He was going to report it.”
“Did you know?”
“I learned too late.”
“And after Tommy died?”
Julian’s voice lowered.
“I thought the problem was gone.”
Dileia stood.
“You thought my husband dying solved your problem?”
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
“I thought Marcus was finished.”
She looked at him.
“Was he?”
“No.”
Salenzo entered carrying a file.
He placed it on the table.
“We found something.”
Inside was the original autopsy report.
Dileia scanned it.
One line had been altered.
The initial toxicology screen showed traces of a cardiac stimulant.
The final report did not.
Dileia looked up.
“Someone changed this.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Salenzo opened another folder.
“A private laboratory associated with a physician named Dr. Aaron Pike.”
Dileia recognized the name.
“He treated Tommy.”
Julian’s face darkened.
Before they could continue, the conference room doors burst open.
One of Julian’s men rushed in.
“Boss.”
Julian turned.
“What?”
“Warehouse twelve has been breached.”
Julian grabbed his coat.
“How much damage?”
“None.”
“Then why call me?”
The man looked at Dileia.
“They were looking for one specific box.”
Dileia’s stomach tightened.
“What box?”
The man swallowed.
“Your husband’s.”
Silence.
Julian looked at Dileia.
“You stay here.”
“No.”
“You don’t know what you’re walking into.”
“My husband’s things are there.”
“This is not an argument.”
“Yes, it is.”
Dileia grabbed her coat.
“If someone risked breaking into a guarded warehouse for one box, I want to know what is inside it.”
Julian studied her.
Then nodded.
“Fine.”
Warehouse twelve sat near the river.
Rain had started falling by the time they arrived.
The building was dark.
Two guards lay unconscious near the entrance.
Holloway checked their pulses.
“Alive.”
Inside, crates had been overturned.
Nothing appeared stolen.
Until Dileia saw the number painted on one steel cabinet.
H-17.
“That.”
Julian followed her gaze.
They opened it.
Inside sat an old brown envelope.
Dileia reached for it.
Julian stopped her hand.
“Wait.”
He examined the edges.
“No wires.”
He opened it.
Inside were photographs.
Tommy stood beside a shipping container.
In another photo, Marcus Vale shook hands with a man Dileia recognized immediately.
Julian.
The photograph had been taken four years earlier.
Dileia looked at Julian.
“Why were you meeting Marcus?”
“I wasn’t.”
She pointed at the photo.
“That is you.”
Julian stared.
“I know.”
“Then how?”
He said nothing.
Salenzo examined the timestamp.
“The photo is real.”
Julian’s expression became colder.
“Someone used my image.”
“How?”
Dileia took the photograph.
She noticed something behind Julian and Marcus.
A wall.
A logo.
A company name.
She zoomed in.
“Wait.”
Julian looked at her.
“The background.”
“What about it?”
“That logo.”
Dileia searched the files on her phone.
She found the same logo attached to one of Tommy’s old emails.
A company called Northline Advisory.
Julian swore softly.
Salenzo looked at him.
“Northline was one of Vale’s holding companies.”
Dileia stared at the photograph.
“Then Marcus was pretending to meet you.”
Julian nodded slowly.
“Or someone wanted me to believe he had.”
They found another item hidden behind the envelope.
A small digital recorder.
Dileia pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then Tommy’s voice.
“Dileia, if you’re hearing this, I’m sorry.”
She stopped breathing.
Julian watched her.
Tommy continued.
“I found out what Marcus was doing. But Marcus isn’t the top.”
A pause.
“The money doesn’t belong to him.”
Another pause.
“It belongs to someone inside the family.”
The recording ended.
Dileia stared into nothing.
Julian’s face became unreadable.
“Which family?”
Tommy had not said.
Thorne.
The only family he could mean.
Julian looked at Salenzo.
“Lock the tower.”
Salenzo nodded.
“No one enters. No one leaves.”
Dileia looked at Julian.
“Do you believe my husband?”
“Yes.”
“Then someone in your family stole forty million dollars.”
Julian’s eyes met hers.
“Yes.”
“And they may have killed Tommy.”
“Yes.”
The rain hammered against the warehouse roof.
Dileia suddenly realized that the woman who had spent fourteen months blaming herself for not saving her husband had been wrong.
Maybe there had never been anything she could have done.
Maybe Tommy had been murdered because he tried to expose something much larger than himself.
And maybe the man standing beside her was the only person powerful enough to uncover the truth.
But Julian had one problem.
May you like
Dileia was starting to realize that if the killer came from inside his family, then nowhere in Thorn Tower was safe.
Not even Julian himself.
