Chapter 8 - Eleanor’s Last Witness

Nora Hale refused to return to the Vale townhouse.

By midnight, she was sitting in Daniel’s penthouse with a cup of tea trembling between both hands while Detective Ross recorded her statement.

Victoria sat across from her.

“Start with my mother.”

Nora nodded.

“Your mother found the Northstar accounts by accident. Gideon left a folder in his study. She saw Richard’s name and thought it was about one of their investments.”

“What was in it?” Daniel asked.

“Payments. Photographs. Reports about people. Private things.”

“Blackmail material?” Ross asked.

Nora’s mouth tightened.

“Yes.”

Victoria leaned forward.

“And the monitoring?”

Nora looked ashamed.

“I knew someone followed you sometimes.”

Victoria stared.

“You knew?”

“I thought it was security.”

“I was sixteen.”

“I know.”

“You saw men follow me to school and said nothing?”

Nora’s eyes filled.

“I had two children of my own. Gideon knew where they lived.”

Victoria looked away.

The anger did not vanish, but it changed shape.

Ross asked, “What did Eleanor do after she found the accounts?”

“She contacted Richard Mercer.”

Daniel said, “Why him?”

“Because his name was on the earliest transfers. She thought he was part of it.”

“He was.”

“At first she believed he was the worst of it. Then he showed her records Gideon had hidden from him.”

Sophia, sitting near the window, spoke quietly.

“So they became allies.”

“Yes.”

“What about Paul Renner?”

“He helped them copy files.”

“And Eli?” Daniel asked.

“Richard’s investigator. Eleanor trusted him eventually.”

Daniel glanced at Eli, who stood near the kitchen doorway.

Eli did not react.

Victoria asked the question she feared most.

“What happened the day Mom died?”

Nora closed her eyes.

“She told Gideon she was leaving.”

Victoria’s breath caught.

“She actually told him?”

“Yes.”

“I thought she planned to disappear.”

“She did. Then she decided she wanted him to know she was not afraid.”

Victoria gave a broken laugh.

“That sounds like her.”

Nora nodded.

“They argued in the library. I heard Gideon say she would destroy the children if she exposed him.”

“What did Mom say?”

“That telling the truth was the only chance you had to become free of him.”

Victoria wiped her face.

Daniel reached for her hand.

This time she took it.

Ross said, “How did Eleanor die?”

Nora stared into her tea.

“She collapsed that night.”

“Did you see it?”

“No. Gideon called me from upstairs. She was on the bedroom floor. His doctor came before the ambulance.”

“Name?”

“Dr. Samuel Brice.”

Ross wrote it down.

“Where is he now?”

“Dead. Five years ago.”

Victoria whispered, “Convenient.”

Nora looked at her.

“I don’t know if Gideon killed your mother.”

“Do you believe he did?”

Nora’s silence answered.

Daniel asked, “Why take the ledger now?”

“Because Paul called me.”

Everyone looked at her.

“When?” Ross asked.

“Two days before he died.”

“What did he say?”

“That someone inside Mercer had found Richard’s old server credentials and was reconstructing Northstar.”

Sophia’s expression sharpened.

“Who?”

“He didn’t know. He was frightened.”

“Why did he call you?” Victoria asked.

“Because he knew Eleanor had told me about River House. He said if anything happened, I had to move the ledger before Gideon found it.”

Daniel frowned.

“Why bring it to Gideon’s house?”

Nora’s hand tightened around the cup.

“Because I made a mistake.”

Ross said, “What mistake?”

“I thought I could trade it.”

“For what?”

“My son.”

Victoria stared.

“Nora…”

“My youngest, Matthew, has gambling debts. Bad ones. Gideon paid them once and told me that meant my loyalty belonged to him again.”

Daniel’s jaw tightened.

“He blackmailed you.”

“Yes.”

“I took the ledger and brought it to the townhouse. I was going to ask him to release Matthew from the debt.”

“Did Gideon arrange the debt?” Ross asked.

“I don’t know.”

Eli finally spoke.

“We’ll find out.”

Nora looked at him.

“You should also find out who hired the nurse.”

Daniel turned.

“The person who stole the glass?”

Nora nodded.

“She wasn’t a nurse.”

“You know her?”

“I recognized her from the townhouse staff Christmas party last year. Her name is Celia Ward. She worked private events for Gideon.”

Ross stood.

“Do you have a photograph?”

“Maybe in the staff archive.”

Eli was already moving toward his laptop.

Victoria said, “If Celia stole the glass, Dad was involved.”

Daniel shook his head.

“Or someone used one of his people.”

She looked at him sharply.

“You still doubt it?”

“I doubt everything until it survives evidence.”

“Even now?”

“Especially now.”

Sophia nodded toward the ledger sealed inside a police evidence bag.

“We have the Northstar records. We have Mom’s recording. Nora’s statement. What else do you need?”

“A chain connecting Gideon to the poison and the bridge.”

Ross said, “He’s right.”

Victoria looked frustrated.

Ross continued. “Your father admitted Northstar existed. He did not admit murder. The ledger implicates Richard Mercer too. A defense attorney will say Northstar had multiple decision makers and that Gideon had no knowledge of individual operations.”

Sophia said, “Then we find the decision maker.”

Nora put down her cup.

“There was one.”

Everyone turned.

“What?” Daniel asked.

“Eleanor once mentioned a person who approved the most sensitive payments. She called him the Keeper.”

Eli frowned.

“Richard never told me that.”

“Maybe he didn’t know.”

Ross asked, “Real name?”

“No.”

Victoria said, “Gideon?”

Nora shook her head.

“Eleanor said Gideon was afraid of the Keeper.”

That silenced the room.

Daniel looked at Eli.

“You ever heard the term?”

“No.”

Sophia went to the ledger.

“Can we search for initials?”

Ross stopped her. “Not without gloves, and not while it is technically in our custody.”

“Then scan it.”

“We will.”

At two in the morning, the ledger had been digitally copied and indexed.

Sophia searched for KEEPER.

Nothing.

Victoria searched K.

Too many results.

Daniel searched AUTH.

Twelve pages appeared.

Most used the phrase authorization pending or authorization received.

Three included a strange symbol: a small circle crossed by a vertical line.

Eli stared at it.

“I’ve seen that.”

“Where?” Daniel asked.

“On your father’s old cufflinks.”

Sophia looked confused.

“Dad’s compass cufflinks?”

“No. Those were different.”

Daniel remembered a black enamel pair Richard wore only to private board dinners.

“Where are they now?”

Sophia frowned.

“Estate jewelry. Bank vault.”

Daniel looked at the clock.

“Bank opens at nine.”

Ross said, “Nobody touches anything until I get a warrant.”

Daniel almost objected, then nodded.

At 8:40 a.m., another problem arrived first.

Mercer Holdings’ general counsel called an emergency board meeting.

Daniel put the call on speaker.

The counsel’s voice was tight.

“Daniel, three directors have received copies of documents suggesting Sophia authorized illegal Northstar transfers when she was nineteen.”

Sophia closed her eyes.

Daniel looked at her.

“Dad’s warning.”

She nodded.

The counsel continued. “There’s more. The same packet claims Victoria leaked privileged board material to Gideon Vale.”

Daniel said, “That part is true.”

Victoria flinched.

The counsel went silent.

“Daniel…”

“I’ll explain at the meeting.”

“You may not have the opportunity. A motion has been filed to suspend you as CEO pending investigation.”

Sophia’s head snapped up.

“On what basis?”

“Failure to disclose conflicts of interest and potential evidence tampering.”

Daniel laughed softly.

“Efficient.”

“Meeting at noon.”

The call ended.

Victoria looked at him.

“This is Dad.”

“Maybe.”

“Who else benefits?”

Daniel looked at the indexed ledger.

“Someone who wants the company’s records under new control before police finish tracing Northstar.”

Eli said, “If they suspend you, they can revoke my access too.”

Sophia added, “And mine.”

Ross’s phone buzzed.

She read a message.

“We found Celia Ward.”

Daniel turned.

“Where?”

“Queens. She’s alive. She lawyered up, but patrol officers recovered something from her apartment before counsel arrived.”

“What?”

Ross showed them a photograph.

It was the missing champagne flute.

The glass sat inside a padded box.

Next to it lay a black enamel cufflink marked with the same crossed-circle symbol from the ledger.

Sophia whispered, “Dad’s cufflink.”

Daniel stared at the image.

Victoria looked at him.

“If that belonged to Richard, someone wants us to believe your father poisoned his own glass eleven years after he died.”

Daniel’s voice was quiet.

“No.”

He enlarged the symbol.

“They want us to believe the dead man is still responsible for everything.”

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He looked at Sophia.

“And at noon, they’re going to ask us to help them bury the living.”