Chapter 9 - THE MAN BEHIND FRANK MILLER
Thomas Miller had died twelve years earlier.
At least, that was what Frank believed.
A warehouse fire.
Dental identification.
Closed casket.
Michael remembered attending the funeral.
Frank had not cried.
He simply returned to work the next morning.
Now Simon Vale placed an old property-management file on the table.
Thomas Miller’s signature appeared across page after page.
Housing contracts.
Chemical treatment invoices.
Insurance settlements.
One address stopped Emily cold.
17 Barlow Street.
Her childhood apartment.
“No.”
Her voice barely existed.
Michael looked at her.
Emily pointed.
“That’s where my brother died.”
Frank sat down.
“This isn’t possible.”
Vale answered:
“It is.”
“You’re saying Thomas owned the building?”
“Managed it.”
“For Carter Residential.”
Michael frowned.
“We sold Carter Residential fifteen years ago.”
Vale nodded.
“To a shell company.”
“Owned by?”
Vale slid over another sheet.
Frank read it.
His face collapsed.
THOMAS MILLER FAMILY TRUST.
Frank whispered:
“He never told me.”
Michael almost laughed.
Family secrets.
Always the same sentence.
Emily stood completely still.
“My brother died because Thomas used illegal chemicals?”
Vale answered carefully.
“The records suggest his company approved an unlicensed fumigation treatment. I don’t know whether he personally ordered it.”
“And Dad sealed the report.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Liability.”
Emily looked at Michael.
For a moment, he saw what she must see.
A billionaire saying he had not known.
Another Carter standing beside another dead child saying someone else handled the paperwork.
He hated himself for how familiar it sounded.
“I didn’t know.”
Emily’s eyes filled.
“I believe you.”
That was worse.
Frank stood suddenly.
“Thomas is dead.”
Vale shook his head.
“The body identified after the warehouse fire had no intact dental records.”
Frank stared.
“What?”
“The identification was based on a private report.”
“Signed by who?”
Vale did not answer.
Frank already knew.
“You.”
Vale looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Frank lunged.
Michael caught him.
“STOP.”
“He told me my brother was dead!”
Vale shouted back:
“Edward ordered it!”
The room exploded into silence.
Frank turned.
“What?”
Vale’s voice dropped.
“Thomas agreed to disappear.”
“Why?”
“Because federal investigators were getting close to the housing company.”
Emily whispered:
“And my brother’s death.”
“Yes.”
Frank’s face twisted.
“Where is Thomas?”
“I don’t know.”
Michael released Frank.
Frank stumbled backward.
Then Emily’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Nobody moved.
She answered.
“Hello?”
A man’s voice.
Older.
Calm.
“Emily Parker.”
Her face changed.
“Who is this?”
“You look like your mother.”
Frank grabbed the phone and switched it to speaker.
“Thomas?”
Silence.
Then the man laughed.
Frank went white.
He knew the laugh.
“Hello, little brother.”
Frank sat down hard.
Michael felt every piece snap together and then immediately break again.
Thomas was alive.
Emily’s childhood tragedy.
Carter Residential.
Sealed settlements.
Olivia’s investigation.
The poison used on Noah.
“Where are you?” Frank demanded.
Thomas ignored him.
“Michael Carter is standing beside you, isn’t he?”
Michael answered:
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Did you poison my son?”
“No.”
“Did you supply the chemical?”
“Yes.”
Emily covered her mouth.
Michael’s hand tightened around the table.
“To who?”
Thomas laughed softly.
“That is the billion-dollar question.”
“I will find you.”
“I know.”
“Then save me the time.”
Thomas’s voice became colder.
“Ask your father why he paid me four million dollars the week Olivia died.”
Michael looked at Vale.
Vale shook his head.
He did not know.
Thomas continued.
“Ask Victoria why she visited my house two days later.”
Frank shouted:
“WHERE ARE YOU?”
Thomas ignored him.
“And ask Emily why Daniel Parker had my private number on his phone before he died.”
Emily froze.
“What?”
Frank looked at her.
“I didn’t know.”
Thomas laughed again.
“Of course you didn’t.”
The line disconnected.
Immediately, Emily opened Daniel’s old phone.
Contacts.
Hidden folder.
Numbers.
One matched the number that had just called.
Emily stared.
“My brother knew Thomas.”
Michael’s phone buzzed.
A message from Victoria.
No words.
A location.
An abandoned Carter Residential property outside Gloucester.
Then one photograph.
Victoria sitting in a wooden chair.
Hands tied.
Bruised face.
Alive.
Behind her stood Edward Carter.
Also tied.
And between them stood an older man.
Thomas Miller.
He held the missing poisoned mattress upright beside him.
Across the photograph:
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO ORDERED NOAH’S DEATH.
Frank whispered:
“It’s a trap.”
Michael stared at his father.
His sister.
The man connected to Emily’s dead brother.
Then another message arrived.
BRING EMILY.
She read it over his shoulder.
“No.”
Michael looked at her.
Emily’s fear disappeared.
“I’m coming.”
Frank shook his head.
“Absolutely not.”
Emily looked directly at him.
“Twelve paramedics couldn’t see what was killing Noah because they didn’t know what had happened in my childhood.”
She pointed toward Thomas.
“He did.”
May you like
Her jaw tightened.
“If that man knows why my brothers died, you’re not leaving me behind.”
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