Chapter 4 - THE THIRD FOUNDER
Noelle had never seen Gabriel genuinely surprised until she said the name Thomas Vale.
They were standing inside Hearthline's original office, a narrow second-floor space above an old pharmacy in Lincoln Park.
Noelle hadn't entered in years.
Dust covered the windows.
The landlord had preserved a box of abandoned files.
Gabriel found an old incorporation draft inside.
Three names appeared under FOUNDING DIRECTORS.
Noelle Hayes.
Derek Pierce.
Thomas Vale.
Gabriel stared.
"You don't remember him?"
"I remember a Tom."
"That's not the same thing."
"He volunteered for maybe three weeks. He helped Derek with banking paperwork."
"Then disappeared?"
"Yes."
Gabriel looked around.
"People rarely disappear from corporate records accidentally."
They found Thomas's old contact sheet.
The phone number was disconnected.
The address belonged to a vacant lot.
But the emergency contact listed a sister.
Miriam Vale.
Two hours later, Gabriel's people located her running a bakery forty miles outside Chicago.
Miriam refused to speak until Noelle walked into the kitchen alone.
She was in her fifties, flour on her apron, grief carved deeply around her mouth.
"You look exactly the same," Miriam said.
Noelle frowned.
"We've met?"
"No."
Miriam placed a photograph on the counter.
The man from the burned photograph smiled beside Derek.
Thomas Vale.
Noelle recognized him now.
Quiet.
Smart.
Always carrying two phones.
"Where is he?"
Miriam's eyes filled.
"Dead."
Noelle felt cold.
"When?"
"Two years and eight months ago."
Around the same time Noelle had been pushed out of Hearthline.
"How?"
"Car accident."
Noelle already knew from Miriam's face that it wasn't that simple.
"What did Thomas do?"
"He handled early donor transfers."
"Why wasn't he listed on the final incorporation?"
"Derek removed him."
"Why?"
Miriam looked toward the kitchen door.
"Thomas discovered something."
Noelle leaned closer.
"What?"
"The charity wasn't just being robbed."
Noelle's stomach tightened.
"What does that mean?"
Miriam lowered her voice.
"The money went through Hearthline accounts, but Hearthline wasn't the target."
She opened a cabinet and removed an envelope.
Inside was an old flash drive.
"Thomas gave this to me four days before he died."
"Why didn't you go to police?"
"I did."
"And?"
"The detective who took my statement retired three weeks later. The evidence disappeared."
Noelle closed her fingers around the drive.
"What is on it?"
"I don't know. Thomas told me never to connect it to a computer unless someone named Gabriel Russo was standing beside me."
Noelle stopped breathing.
"Gabriel?"
Miriam nodded.
Outside the kitchen window, Gabriel stood beside his car.
Watching the street.
Noelle walked outside.
He took one look at her face.
"What?"
She held up the drive.
"Thomas Vale knew your name."
For the first time since she'd met him, Gabriel Russo looked shaken.
"Where did you get that?"
"His sister."
Gabriel stepped closer.
"Noelle, give it to me."
"Why?"
"Because you don't know what that is."
"Apparently you do."
He looked toward the bakery.
Then back at her.
"Thomas Vale wasn't a volunteer."
Noelle's pulse thundered.
"What was he?"
May you like
Gabriel's voice dropped.
"He worked for my father."
