Chapter 5 - MARCUS
Marcus did not run.
When Derek asked him to meet with investigators, he came.
Forty-six.
Former military.
Derek’s driver and security chief for eight years.
He watched the old tape.
His face changed only once.
When his father’s name was spoken.
“My father was involved.”
Not a question.
Derek nodded.
Marcus sat.
Then said:
“I knew he had secrets.”
Jasmine watched remotely with her attorney.
Not because Derek ordered her away.
Because she did not want to be in Drake headquarters while discovering whether its security chief’s father helped kill hers.
Marcus explained.
After Marcus Vale Sr. died, he left a locked storage unit.
Marcus opened it.
Found cash.
Old security files.
A photograph of Thomas Cole.
What did he do?
Burned some records.
Kept others.
Why?
“He was my father.”
Again.
Family.
The most expensive excuse in America.
Marcus admitted he had been searching quietly since.
That was partly why Derek’s background check on Jasmine went deeper than usual.
Marcus recognized Cole.
Not Jasmine.
Her surname triggered him.
He told Derek there were irregularities around her family transfers.
But did not say why.
Derek stared.
“You let me believe this was about her mother’s finances.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to know whether she had the files before Malcolm did.”
Jasmine’s anger rose.
She asked through speaker:
“So I was bait?”
Marcus looked toward camera.
“No.”
“Then what word do you prefer?”
He had none.
Good.
Then Marcus revealed his father’s remaining file.
The warehouse doors were locked.
But Thomas was not trapped inside initially.
He entered voluntarily after a meeting request.
By whom?
Malcolm.
The fire began twenty minutes later.
Security alarm disabled.
Marcus Vale Sr. was told to keep exits locked until “the records were secured.”
He obeyed.
When smoke started, he panicked.
Unlocked one door.
Too late.
Thomas was found near second exit.
Did Malcolm intend murder?
Not proven.
But reckless criminal conduct at minimum.
Then Marcus handed over one document.
His father wrote:
I heard Thomas alive after fire started.
He was shouting that Malcolm had the wrong drive.
Jasmine froze.
Wrong drive?
Meaning Malcolm never obtained real evidence.
Which explained twenty years of searching.
Then another line:
Thomas said, “Jasmine has it.”
Her father named her during the fire.
She had been eight.
Maybe not literal.
Maybe code.
Then:
I told Malcolm the child knew nothing.
He believed me.
For a while.
Marcus looked at Jasmine through screen.
“Your mother’s monthly payments changed that.”
“What?”
Three years ago, Evelyn Cole began paying Aster Consulting.
Malcolm noticed surname.
Connected it.
Started watching.
Why was Evelyn paying?
That mystery still remained.
Jasmine called her mother.
This time:
“Tell me everything.”
Her mother cried.
Then:
“Malcolm came back three years ago.”
Jasmine’s blood went cold.
“What did he want?”
“The book.”
Her mother told him she no longer had it.
He threatened to expose old tax issues and take her house.
So she began paying.
Seven hundred monthly.
Extortion disguised as consulting debt.
The remaining three hundred of Jasmine’s thousand?
Her mother kept it.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you would stop sending money.”
That honesty hurt differently.
Fear and manipulation coexisted.
Then Evelyn whispered:
“I have one thing left from your father.”
“What?”
“A letter.”
“Why didn’t you give it to me?”
“Because Thomas wrote that you should only read it if you stopped believing you were ordinary.”
May you like
Jasmine stared at the phone.
Her father had somehow known exactly what her mother would spend twenty years convincing her to believe.
