GET OUT, HE TOLD HIS WIFE AND TWINS—THREE HOURS LATER, HE REGRETTED EVER CLOSING THAT DOOR

Marcus stared at the letter until the words blurred.

“I never signed this.”

Rachel examined the scanned document.

“We need the original before drawing conclusions.”

“The signature is mine,” Marcus said. “But I never saw this letter.”

Paige looked at the date.

“Three weeks before your father died?”

“Yes.”

“Were you in New York then?”

“I was in London. I have passport records and hotel receipts.”

“Then we can establish that you weren't present to sign it.”

Marcus nodded, but his face had gone pale.

Someone had forged his signature on a document designed to suggest he knew about the Lantern transfers.

If the letter were accepted as genuine, it could make him appear to have authorized the scheme and then attempted to conceal it.

The investigation now had two competing possibilities: someone was framing Marcus, or he had signed documents years earlier that he no longer remembered.

Rachel refused to choose between them.

“We establish facts,” she said. “We don't build a defense around assumptions.”

She arranged for handwriting analysis and requested the original document from the archive.

Daniel traced the scanned file to a server used by Arthur Bell's former firm. The document had been uploaded several years after Richard's death.

That suggested someone had inserted it into the archive later.

“Who had access?” Paige asked.

“Several senior employees. But the access logs were altered.”

“Victor?”

“Possibly.”

“Peter?”

“Possibly.”

“Celeste?”

“Her name doesn't appear in the records.”

Paige leaned back.

Every answer led to another uncertainty.

That afternoon, Marcus received a call from Peter asking him to come to Boston.

“Alone,” Peter insisted.

Marcus refused.

“If you have information, tell me through the attorneys.”

“Your mother trusted me.”

“Then you should have no reason to avoid a recorded meeting.”

Peter's voice grew angry.

“You think you can clean up this family by handing everything to investigators?”

“I think I can stop people from using it to hurt others.”

“You'll destroy the company.”

“If the company can only survive by hiding crimes, it deserves to change.”

Peter ended the call.

An hour later, Rachel received a message from an investigator.

Peter Hale had attempted to access the Harbor archive using credentials belonging to Arthur Bell's former partner.

The attempt had been blocked.

Marcus read the report twice.

“Why would my uncle try to access the file?”

“Because he wants to know what it contains,” Paige said. “That doesn't prove he created the forged letter.”

“No.”

“But it means he should be questioned.”

The investigators contacted Peter through his attorney. He denied involvement and said he had been trying to retrieve documents belonging to the family.

He agreed to an interview.

Before that interview could take place, Celeste contacted Paige.

“I need to tell you something about Thomas,” she said.

Paige met her at Rachel's office.

Celeste looked thinner than she had at the gala. Her hands trembled as she placed a small memory card on the table.

“My brother made a second recording. He gave it to me the day before he died.”

“Why didn't you provide this earlier?”

“Because I was afraid it would expose something I had done.”

“What did you do?”

Celeste looked down.

“I gave Victor access to Thomas's old files. I thought he was going to use them to expose the foundation. I didn't know he would use them to blackmail people.”

Paige said nothing.

“I kept the recording because it was the only thing Thomas left me. I thought if I held on to it, I could eventually prove what happened.”

“And now?”

“Now I think Victor knows I have it.”

Rachel arranged for the memory card to be preserved and examined.

The recording began with Thomas speaking quietly.

“If you're hearing this, it means I couldn't get the original documents out.”

A second voice answered.

“Then tell me where you hid them.”

Thomas replied, “You promised no one would be hurt.”

The other person said, “I promised I'd protect the family.”

Paige felt her pulse quicken.