Chapter 6 - The Library Wall
Sarah almost called the police.
Instead, she stared at Ben as rain blew through the open doorway.
“You hid evidence in my father’s house?”
“Not exactly.”
“What does not exactly mean?”
“Three weeks ago Victor invited me over.”
Sarah laughed incredulously.
“My father, who hates you?”
“He wanted to know what I was investigating.”
“And you went alone?”
“Yes.”
“Of course you did.”
Ben stepped back inside.
“While he was on a phone call, I saw something in the library.”
“What?”
“A wall safe.”
Sarah frowned.
She knew the safe.
Victor kept passports and property documents there.
“That isn’t a secret.”
“The safe isn’t. The compartment behind it is.”
Sarah stared.
Ben explained.
One panel beside the safe had been slightly open.
Behind it were archival company files.
CardiaCore.
Ben had photographed several pages before Victor returned.
Then, two nights ago, he went back.
Sarah’s disbelief hardened into anger.
“You broke into my father’s house.”
“I used the garage code.”
“That is breaking in.”
“I know.”
“What did you take?”
“Nothing.”
“You just said you moved the evidence there.”
“I hid a flash drive inside the compartment.”
Sarah stared.
“That is the stupidest plan I have ever heard.”
“Reid’s people searched my office yesterday.”
“So you put the only copy inside the house of another man involved?”
“It’s not the only copy.”
“Thank God.”
“There’s another with Arnold.”
Sarah exhaled.
“Why hide one there?”
“Because if Victor destroyed his files, I wanted something planted in the same location that would prove what had been removed.”
Sarah studied him.
It was reckless.
But not entirely stupid.
“Does my father know you found the compartment?”
“I don’t think so.”
Sarah looked toward the rain.
“When is Victor usually asleep?”
Ben blinked.
“Sarah.”
“You committed burglary. I’m asking for scheduling information.”
“You are not going there.”
“It’s my childhood home.”
“It’s still illegal to enter without permission.”
“So was forging my signature.”
“That doesn’t change the law.”
Sarah hated that he was right.
At 8:13 the next morning, she took a simpler route.
She called Victor.
“I left Mom’s estate papers in the library.”
A pause.
“You were carrying nothing when you left.”
“I put them down when we were arguing.”
Another pause.
“Come at ten.”
Victor’s certainty had always depended on believing Sarah predictable.
At 10:04, she entered the Hale house alone.
Ben waited two blocks away.
Sarah hated needing him.
Victor was on a business call upstairs.
The housekeeper let Sarah into the library.
She closed the door.
The wall safe sat behind a framed landscape painting.
Sarah opened it using the birthday combination Victor had used since she was sixteen.
Evelyn’s birthday.
June 14.
Sarah stared at the safe.
Even Victor’s sentimentality had been possessive.
She emptied two folders.
No compartment.
Then she remembered Ben’s description.
Left side.
Loose panel.
Sarah pressed.
A narrow walnut strip shifted.
Behind it was a cavity.
And files.
Dozens.
Her breath caught.
CardiaCore Medical.
St. Catherine Vendor Agreements.
EHT Ventures.
She photographed rapidly.
Then she saw a small black flash drive taped beneath the shelf.
Ben’s.
Sarah removed it.
A floorboard creaked outside.
She shoved the drive into her cardigan.
The door opened.
Victor stood there.
His face was calm.
Too calm.
“What are you doing?”
Sarah held an estate folder.
“Found them.”
His eyes moved toward the wall.
The panel was not completely closed.
Sarah saw him notice.
Something changed.
“You should go.”
“I just got here.”
“Now, Sarah.”
She walked toward him.
Victor stepped aside.
As she passed, he said, “Your husband has made you paranoid.”
Sarah stopped.
“My husband made me ignorant. You did the rest.”
Victor’s mouth hardened.
She left.
Ben was waiting in a coffee shop.
Sarah slid into the booth.
“Drive.”
He did not ask questions until they were three miles away.
“Did you find it?”
She placed the flash drive on the center console.
Ben exhaled.
“There are files behind the safe.”
“What files?”
“Vendor agreements. CardiaCore. Mom’s trust.”
Ben gripped the wheel.
“Did you photograph them?”
Sarah held up her phone.
For the first time in days, she saw something like relief in his eyes.
Then her phone rang.
Victor.
She let it ring.
A voicemail appeared.
She played it on speaker.
Victor’s voice filled the car.
“Sarah, whatever you think you saw, do not involve yourself further. There are issues here you do not understand. Come home alone tonight. Do not bring Benjamin.”
The message ended.
Ben stared ahead.
“He knows.”
“Yes.”
Sarah inserted the flash drive into her laptop after they reached Arnold’s apartment.
Arnold was at the hospital with his attorney.
Ben had a spare key.
The drive contained scanned records.
Device complaints.
Payments.
Internal emails.
Sarah opened a spreadsheet labeled SETTLEMENTS.
Twelve patient names.
Private payments.
Confidentiality agreements.
One name was Evelyn Hale.
Sarah froze.
Her mother’s estate had received a payment.
$4,800,000.
Three months after her death.
Sarah had never seen that money.
“Ben.”
He looked.
Sarah clicked the account destination.
Hale Family Holdings.
Her father had settled a claim on behalf of Evelyn’s estate without telling her.
Then transferred the money into his own company.
Another column read:
AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE: Sarah E. Hale.
Her forged signature appeared again.
Sarah whispered, “He stole the settlement too.”
Ben’s phone rang.
Arnold.
Ben answered.
His face changed immediately.
“What?”
Sarah watched.
“When?”
Another pause.
“Is she stable?”
Ben stood.
“I’m coming.”
Sarah grabbed his arm.
“What happened?”
Ben looked at her.
“Rachel Kim.”
The patient whose failed device had started his investigation.
“She collapsed this morning.”
“Why?”
“They found internal bleeding.”
Sarah’s stomach dropped.
“The device?”
Ben nodded.
Then Arnold said something through the phone.
Ben went very still.
“What do you mean her chart is gone?”
Sarah stared.
Ben put the call on speaker.
Arnold’s voice shook.
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Twelve years after Evelyn Hale died, someone inside St. Catherine was changing the story again.
