Chương 5
Michael went pale.
“What?”
Michael stared at the recorder.
“That wasn’t here before.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
The answer came instantly.
Too instantly.
Daniel looked at him.
Michael swallowed.
“I saw Dad put that somewhere once.”
“Where?”
Michael looked toward the open door.
Toward the hallway.
Toward the world outside.
“I don’t know if I should tell you.”
Daniel almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because he was tired of that sentence controlling their lives.
“You brought me here. You involved me. Someone broke into this place. My name is on everything.”
He held up the recorder.
“So whatever you’re protecting me from already knows where to find me.”
Michael did not argue.
That scared Daniel more than an argument would have.
A sound came from outside.
Footsteps.
Someone walking slowly down the hallway.
Both brothers stopped.
The footsteps paused outside the unit.
Daniel looked toward the entrance.
Michael moved closer.
The shadow of a person crossed the doorway.
Then a voice spoke.
“Daniel Mercer?”
Daniel froze.
The man standing there was not wearing a uniform.
He was older, maybe in his sixties, with a gray coat and a face Daniel had seen before in newspaper articles about local businesses.
Richard Vale.
His father’s former partner.
The man looked past Daniel toward Michael.
“You shouldn’t have brought him here.”
Michael stepped forward.
“Richard.”
Richard’s expression tightened.
Not anger.
Concern.
That was somehow worse.
He looked at the recorder in Daniel’s hand.
And for the first time since this began, someone outside the family looked genuinely afraid.
“Where did you get that?”
Daniel closed his fingers around it.
Neither brother answered.
Richard took one step closer.
“Because if that’s the one I think it is, your father didn’t hide it from me.”
His eyes moved to Daniel.
“He hid it from both of you.”
Richard did not move after saying it.
Daniel kept his hand around the recorder, feeling the cracked plastic edge press into his palm.
“What does that mean?” Daniel asked.
Richard looked at Michael before answering.
“That means your father spent years making sure nobody could use what he found against you.”
Michael’s face hardened.
“You don’t get to say that.”
Richard’s eyes stayed on him.
“You’re right.”
The agreement seemed to surprise Michael more than an argument would have.
“I don’t get to say much about your family.”
Daniel watched the two men carefully.
There was history in the way they avoided looking at each other.
Not the simple kind that came from a business disagreement.
Something older.
Something personal.
“You knew my father was hiding things,” Daniel said.
Richard looked back at him.
“I knew your father was afraid.”
“My father wasn’t afraid of anything.”
The words came out before Daniel could stop them.
Richard’s expression changed slightly.
Not amusement.
Not disbelief.
Something closer to sadness.
“That’s what he wanted people to think.”
Daniel hated that answer.
He hated how easily strangers could take pieces of his father and rearrange them into someone unfamiliar.
“He was my father,” Daniel said.
Richard nodded.
“And I was his partner for twenty-two years.”
The hallway behind Richard remained quiet.
A woman pushed a cart somewhere nearby and hummed to herself without noticing the tension inside the storage unit.
The ordinary sound made Daniel feel even more unsettled.
The world kept moving around a conversation that had already changed everything.
“Why are you here?” Daniel asked.
Richard glanced at the recorder again.
“I came because I heard the unit had been opened.”
“From who?”
“The facility manager called someone.”
“That someone was you?”
Richard hesitated.
A small hesitation.
But Daniel caught it.
“Who told you?”
Richard looked uncomfortable for the first time.
“Someone who wanted me to know before you did.”
Michael stepped forward.
“Who?”
Richard ignored him.
That bothered Michael.
Daniel could tell because his brother’s shoulders tightened.
“You two need to leave this place,” Richard said.
Daniel almost smiled.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“Every person involved keeps telling me what I need to do without explaining why.”
Richard looked at him for a long moment.
Then he reached into his coat pocket.
Daniel instinctively stepped back.
Richard noticed.
“I’m not reaching for anything dangerous.”
“That’s what people say right before they prove they are.”
A brief expression crossed Richard’s face.
A tired kind of recognition.
“You sound like your father when you’re angry.”
Daniel did not answer.
Richard pulled out a small photograph.
He held it out.
Daniel did not take it.
Michael did.
The moment Michael saw the picture, his expression changed.
“What is this?”
Richard looked at him.
“You tell me.”
The photograph showed three people standing outside a building Daniel did not recognize.
His father was there.
Michael was there.
And a third person stood beside them.
A younger Richard Vale.
Daniel stared.
“When was this taken?”
Richard did not answer.
Michael did.
“Six years ago.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You said you didn’t know about this.”
“I didn’t.”
“You knew the date.”
Michael looked down.
“I knew the day.”
“That’s not better.”
“No.”
Michael’s voice became smaller.
“It isn’t.”
Richard watched them argue.
He did not interrupt.
That made Daniel suspicious.
Most people who entered a family conflict wanted to control it.
Richard looked like someone waiting for a storm to finish before admitting he was already soaked.
“Your father called me the night before he disappeared from the company,” Richard said.
Daniel looked at him.
“My father didn’t disappear.”
Richard’s eyes moved away.
“I didn’t mean literally.”
“Then choose your words better.”
The older man accepted the criticism without fighting it.
“Your father believed someone inside the company was moving money.”
Michael nodded slightly.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
Daniel turned toward Richard.
“You suspected and did nothing?”
Richard looked ashamed.
“I tried.”
“Try harder.”
The anger surprised even Daniel.
He was not usually someone who raised his voice.
At work, people described him as calm.
May you like
At home, his mother used to say he could swallow an entire argument before admitting he was hurt.
But this was different.
