Chương 7
“What are you talking about?”
Emily opened her backpack.
She removed a small envelope.
“I didn’t want to come here.”
“Then why did you?”
“Because my father told me that if anything happened to him, I had to bring this to Maxwell Bennett.”
Her eyes moved toward the empty chair.
“But Maxwell isn’t here.”
Emily placed the envelope on the desk.
“So I brought it to the next person.”
Rebecca stared.
“Who?”
Emily looked at Lily.
Then at Catherine.
Then at James.
“I don’t know.”
Nobody expected that answer.
Emily took a breath.
“My father said Maxwell was the only person who could be trusted.”
She looked at the folder.
“But he also said if Maxwell disappeared, nobody should trust anyone who worked closest to him.”
The room went completely still.
James looked at the envelope.
Then at Emily.
“You’re saying my father trusted Maxwell but not me?”
Emily’s expression softened slightly.
“I’m saying my father was scared.”
James did not answer.
Catherine watched him.
For a moment, she saw something different.
Not a powerful executive.
Not a suspect.
A man hearing that someone he loved had doubted him.
Daniel picked up the envelope.
“Should we open it?”
Rebecca looked at him.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if someone went through this much effort to hide information, opening it carelessly might be exactly what they want.”
Emily nodded.
“My father said that too.”
James looked at her.
“What else did he say?”
Emily hesitated.
“He said Maxwell would understand.”
“Understand what?”
She looked at the hidden terminal.
“The reason he had to disappear.”
The reason he had to disappear.
James stared at Emily.
“That doesn’t answer anything.”
“No,” Emily said.
“It doesn’t.”
Her voice was calm, but Catherine noticed the exhaustion behind it.
This was not someone arriving with a dramatic secret.
This was someone who had been carrying a heavy object for too long and was finally setting it down.
Rebecca picked up the envelope but did not open it.
“How long have you had this?”
“Since yesterday morning.”
“Why wait until tonight?”
Emily looked toward the windows.
“Because my father told me not to come unless he stopped answering his phone.”
“And when did that happen?”
“Six hours ago.”
Daniel checked his watch.
“Six hours?”
Emily nodded.
“Why didn’t you call the police?”
The question made Emily look away.
“My father said they might already know.”
Nobody liked that.
Richard walked toward her slowly.
“Chen Wei believed someone inside law enforcement was involved?”
Emily shook her head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
“My father didn’t know.”
The room became quiet again.
Catherine almost admired the way everyone in that room could turn a simple answer into another problem.
No one trusted anything anymore.
Not people.
Not systems.
Not each other.
Emily looked at Lily.
“You were the one who answered?”
Lily nodded.
Emily smiled faintly.
“My father would have been surprised.”
“Why?”
“He always said children listened better than adults.”
James looked at the phone.
“Your father called a ten-year-old because he thought adults wouldn’t listen?”
Emily looked at him.
“No.”
She paused.
“He called because he thought nobody would expect a child to be the person standing between them and the truth.”
The sentence bothered Catherine.
Not because it sounded cruel.
Because it sounded possible.
Daniel cleared his throat.
“We need to make decisions.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Yes.”
She looked at the envelope.
“First, we need to know what’s inside.”
James looked at her.
“You just said opening it might be dangerous.”
“It might be.”
“Then?”
“Then we accept that doing nothing is also a decision.”
Nobody argued.
Because she was right.
Rebecca placed the envelope on Maxwell’s desk.
She examined the edges.
“No damage.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“No seal?”
“There is.”
She pointed.
A small adhesive strip.
No writing.
No markings.
Catherine noticed something.
“Wait.”
Everyone looked at her.
She pointed to the envelope.
“There’s a fold.”
Rebecca frowned.
“What?”
“The paper.”
Catherine stepped closer.
“See the corner?”
Rebecca looked.
The envelope had been folded slightly inward on one side.
“So?”
“I fold my grocery receipts like that.”
Daniel looked confused.
“Why does that matter?”
“It means someone held it.”
Rebecca stared at her.
Catherine shrugged.
“I clean offices.”
She looked uncomfortable suddenly.
“I notice things.”
Rebecca’s expression changed.
Not pity.
Respect.
That was rare enough that Catherine almost did not know what to do with it.
“Thank you,” Rebecca said.
Catherine nodded once.
The lawyer carefully opened the envelope.
Inside was a small flash drive.
And a handwritten note.
Rebecca unfolded the paper.
Everyone watched.
She read silently.
Then her face changed.
“What?”
James asked.
Rebecca looked at him.
“It’s addressed to Maxwell.”
“That’s all?”
“No.”
She looked down again.
Then she read.
“Do not trust the numbers.”
Nobody spoke.
“What does that mean?” Daniel asked.
Rebecca turned the paper over.
“Nothing else.”
James looked frustrated.
“That’s not enough.”
“No.”
Rebecca held the note.
“It isn’t.”
Emily looked at the flash drive.
“My father said the numbers were the trap.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What numbers?” James asked.
“The financial reports.”
James turned toward the blue folder.
“He knew?”
“My father helped create some of the reporting systems.”
Rebecca looked surprised.
“Your father worked with Bennett Industries?”
“Not directly.”
Emily hesitated.
“He was a consultant.”
James stared.
“For how long?”
“Eight years.”
The answer hit him.
Eight years.
A long time.
A long enough time to know where things were hidden.
A long enough time to know where someone would look.
Rebecca inserted the flash drive into a secured laptop from her bag.
“I’m opening this offline.”
Daniel nodded.
“Good.”
The screen showed a single file.
No password.
No folders.
Just one video.
James exhaled.
“Another one.”
Rebecca clicked.
The video started.
This time Maxwell was sitting at his desk.
He looked worse.
His shirt sleeves were rolled up.
His hair was messy.
A cup of coffee sat untouched beside him.
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The Maxwell Bennett in the video did not look like the man from magazine covers.
He looked like someone who had been awake too long trying to fix something that might already be broken.
