Chapter 3 - THE PHOTOGRAPH FROM THE NIGHT OF THE BOMBING
The photograph should not have existed.
Adrian stared at it beneath the private lights of Mercer Bank’s underground archive.
Daniel Vale stood beside Victor Mercer.
Both men looked tense.
Both were alive.
And according to the timestamp, the photograph had been taken forty-seven minutes before Daniel Vale’s car exploded.
Natalie stood beside Adrian.
“My father prosecuted organized crime.”
“He did.”
“Your father ran organized crime.”
“He did.”
“So why were they meeting?”
Gabriel stood near the vault door.
“Maybe Victor was cooperating.”
Adrian gave him a look.
“My father would have considered cooperation a contagious disease.”
Natalie studied the photograph.
There was a third person in the background.
A woman.
Only half her face visible.
“Can we enlarge this?”
Gabriel photographed the image and transferred it to a secure tablet.
The woman came into focus.
Natalie’s blood went cold.
“No.”
Adrian looked at her.
“You know her?”
“That’s my mother.”
Silence.
Adrian enlarged the photograph further.
Claire Vale stood ten feet behind the two men.
She wasn’t afraid.
She was holding a folder.
And Adrian’s father was reaching for it.
Natalie stepped backward.
“My mother told me she never met Victor Mercer.”
“She lied.”
“Why?”
Adrian looked toward vault 731.
“Maybe the answer is inside.”
The brass key fit.
Natalie’s hand shook as she turned it.
The vault opened.
Inside sat one black metal box.
Nothing else.
Adrian lifted it onto a table.
There was no lock.
Inside were six cassette tapes.
A ledger.
And a sealed letter.
The envelope read:
FOR EMILY.
Natalie stopped breathing.
“My father knew I’d find this.”
Adrian handed it to her.
She opened it.
Emily,
If you are reading this, then Claire managed to keep you alive.
Do not blame her for the lies.
I asked her to tell them.
Natalie’s eyes filled.
Adrian said nothing.
She continued.
Victor Mercer is not my enemy.
He is the reason we had a chance.
The men I was investigating were not merely criminals.
They were men inside law enforcement, politics, and federal offices.
One of them had access to every witness we tried to protect.
Victor discovered the leak before I did.
Natalie looked at Adrian.
“Your father tried to help mine.”
Adrian’s expression was unreadable.
She kept reading.
If anything happens to me, trust Victor’s eldest son.
Adrian.
Natalie’s breath caught.
Adrian went completely still.
“He knew you?”
“I met Daniel Vale once.”
“When?”
“I was nineteen.”
“You never said.”
“You never asked.”
“What happened?”
“He came to our house. My father told me to leave the room.”
Natalie looked back at the letter.
Emily, there is something Adrian does not know.
Something Victor never had the courage to tell him.
You will find the proof on Tape Six.
Gabriel located the cassette.
Adrian found an old recorder in the archive.
He inserted the tape.
Static.
Then Daniel Vale’s voice.
“Victor, if we don’t survive this, Adrian needs to know.”
Victor Mercer answered.
“He never needs to know.”
“He deserves the truth.”
“The truth gets people killed.”
“So does your silence.”
A pause.
Then Daniel said:
“Adrian is not your biological son.”
The room went dead silent.
Adrian did not move.
Natalie stared at him.
The tape continued.
Victor’s voice broke.
“He is my son.”
“Then tell him who his father was.”
Another pause.
Victor whispered a name.
May you like
And when Natalie heard it, she understood why Adrian looked as though the floor had disappeared beneath him.
“Daniel Vale.”
