Chapter 13 - THE PROMISE GIDEON NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT|
I showed Gideon the message.
His face changed, but he didn't deny knowing something.
"Who sent it?" he asked.
"I don't know."
He called his security director and asked him to trace the number.
Then he took me to a private room away from the ballroom.
"There's something I should have told you," he said.
I folded my arms.
"Then tell me."
Five years earlier, Gideon's father, Charles Ashford, had been negotiating with Hale Meridian. The proposed acquisition would have created a major financial partnership between the two companies.
Martin Kessler had approached Charles privately with concerns about irregular accounting.
Charles had promised to protect him if he provided evidence.
But after the fire, Kessler changed his story.
He claimed the missing ledger had contained information that could expose several investors, including people connected to Ashford Capital.
Charles became worried that the company would be dragged into a criminal investigation.
"He promised Kessler something," Gideon said. "A financial arrangement. I don't know all the details."
"What kind of arrangement?"
"A payment in exchange for silence and cooperation."
I stared at him.
"Your father paid the man who may have been involved in the fire?"
"Possibly. But the payment records are incomplete."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I only discovered the agreement last month. I didn't know whether it was legitimate or a blackmail payment."
I thought about the hospital authorization, the missing memory card, and the security consultant who had been paid through an Ashford subsidiary.
"Did your father know I had been injured?"
"Yes."
"Did he know I was the one who saved Preston?"
Gideon nodded.
I stepped back.
"So everyone knew about me. Everyone knew what happened, and nobody thought I deserved the truth."
"Vivian—"
"No. You don't get to tell me you're different just because you helped me tonight."
He accepted the rebuke without defending himself.
"I should have told you sooner."
"Yes."
The silence between us lasted several seconds.
Then Gideon placed an old letter on the table.
It was written by his father two weeks before his death.
The letter mentioned a woman named Vivian Hale and said that she might possess the only surviving copy of the original financial recording.
I read the paragraph again.
"What recording?"
Gideon looked at me.
"Your memory card."
I remembered Nora's words. Preston had removed it from my phone.
But if the card had survived, where was it?
Gideon opened the letter's envelope. Inside was a small key and a handwritten address.
The address belonged to a storage facility in Brooklyn.
"Your father kept something there?" I asked.
"I believe he kept a backup of the original acquisition files."
"Why would he write my name?"
"Because he thought you might be the only person who could identify what was on the recording."
I picked up the key.
Before we could leave, Gideon's security director called.
They had traced the anonymous message to a prepaid phone purchased near the hotel.
The device had been registered to a company associated with Martin Kessler.
But the message had been sent from a second location.
A private residence in Manhattan.
The address belonged to Richard Cole.
Gideon's chief operating officer.
The man who had approved the payment to retrieve my phone.
Gideon stared at the screen.
"Richard knows we're looking at him."
Then the security director added one more detail.
May you like
Richard had just requested an emergency meeting with the board.
And he had submitted a document claiming Gideon had concealed evidence of the original fire.
