Chapter 7 - The Box My Brother Opened in My Name
I had never rented box 317.
Yet my signature appeared on the original paperwork.
The signature was good.
Almost perfect.
Nicholas had practiced it.
That realization made me smile for the first time in days.
He used to forge my name on school permission slips when we were teenagers.
The bank manager left Brendan, Tessa, and me alone inside a private viewing room.
The brass key turned.
Inside the box were three items.
A ledger.
A small cassette recorder.
And Nicholas’s watch.
I stared at the watch for a long time.
The one buried with him had been a duplicate.
This was the real one.
Tessa touched the leather strap.
“He gave it to me the last night.”
“Why put it here?”
“He said you’d recognize it.”
I did.
My father had given us matching watches when Nicholas turned eighteen.
I pressed play on the recorder.
Static filled the room.
Then my brother’s voice came through.
Weak.
Breathing hard.
But unmistakably Nicholas.
“Vincent, if you’re hearing this, then either Tessa finally decided you became worth trusting again…”
I closed my eyes.
“…or I was right and I’m already dead.”
Tessa began crying silently.
Nicholas described the harbor attack.
Someone had sold his travel route.
Someone inside the organization had been moving money through construction companies and using my father’s businesses to hide it.
Nicholas found the accounts.
He confronted the wrong person.
“They offered me money to leave Boston,” Nicholas said. “I told them I was leaving anyway. Then they realized I planned to take proof with me.”
The tape clicked.
His breathing grew worse.
Then he said the name.
“Graham Keane arranged the attack.”
I looked at Brendan.
But Nicholas continued.
“Graham isn’t the person you need to fear most.”
My pulse slowed.
“There’s someone above him.”
Static swallowed several seconds.
Then Nicholas said:
May you like
“The initials are B.D.”
Brendan Doyle was standing three feet away from me.
