Chapter 6 - THE SIGNATURE THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE EXISTED
"That photograph was taken before my father died."
Adrien looked from the gold ring in the picture to Samuel Rourke.
"I didn't put the ring in the family safe until after his funeral, almost two years later."
Samuel adjusted his glasses.
"Then Michael must have allowed Victor to wear it."
"Or Victor took it without permission."
Evelyn studied the photograph from her hospital bed.
"There's something else wrong," she said.
She pointed to the handwritten warning on the back.
"My father died the night of the fire. How could he have written on a photograph taken six months afterward?"
Samuel looked embarrassed.
"I should have explained. I mounted Victor's photograph onto an old index card from Gabriel's archive. The warning was already written on that card."
He carefully separated the photograph from its backing.
A date appeared above Gabriel's handwriting.
Three weeks before the fire.
Evelyn went still.
"My father suspected Victor before the warehouse burned."
Samuel nodded.
"And now we know he had a reason."
Adrien examined the old card.
It contained a list of shipping container numbers, followed by a notation about restricted warehouse access.
At the bottom were two words.
AUTHORIZED ACCESS.
Adrien recognized the procedure.
"Victor had temporary authority to represent my father on port inspections."
"Enough to carry his keys?" Evelyn asked.
"Yes."
"Enough to close emergency exits?"
Adrien didn't answer.
Later that afternoon, Sienna Vale arrived at the hospital.
Marcus stopped her near the elevators.
"Mrs. Cross doesn't want visitors."
"I need to speak to her."
"Then you can leave a message."
Sienna looked exhausted.
Her elegant gown had been replaced by jeans and an oversized sweater.
"I have information about Victor."
Marcus studied her.
"Give it to me."
"No. She deserves to hear this from the person who helped hurt her."
Marcus almost refused.
Then Evelyn, who had heard their voices from the nearby corridor, spoke from her wheelchair.
"Let her come."
Adrien stood beside her.
"Evelyn, you don't have to do this."
"I know."
She looked at Sienna.
"Five minutes."
Sienna entered Evelyn's room without her usual confidence.
For several seconds, she simply stood beside the visitor's chair.
Then she said, "I'm sorry."
Evelyn's face remained still.
"Which part?"
Sienna swallowed.
"The ballroom. The lie. Everything."
"You watched me collapse."
"I did."
"And you kept pulling my husband away."
Sienna began crying.
Evelyn didn't soften.
"Those tears should have come before you closed the ballroom doors."
Sienna lowered her eyes.
"You're right."
She sat down only when Evelyn indicated the chair.
"Victor told me Julian would lose everything if certain shipping accounts were examined. My brother had signed off on payments he didn't understand."
"Why should I believe you?"
"Because Julian came back from Boston this morning. He brought copies of the payments."
Sienna opened a folder.
Inside were transaction records associated with a waterfront redevelopment company.
Evelyn recognized the name.
"Harbor Renewal Holdings."
"Victor controls it through three other companies," Sienna explained. "The money came from insurance settlements paid after the Pier Fourteen fire."
Adrien leaned forward.
"Those settlements were supposed to compensate displaced workers."
"Some did. The rest went into property acquisitions."
Evelyn looked at the figures.
Millions of dollars.
Moved through companies associated with men Adrien claimed he had spent years fighting.
"Victor wasn't stealing old photographs to protect you," she told Adrien.
"He was protecting himself."
Adrien stared at the records.
He had trusted Victor to handle the settlement program while he rebuilt the shipping business.
He had never examined the individual transactions.
Now he understood why Victor had insisted on controlling them.
That evening, Julian Vale met Marcus at a secure conference room inside St. Catherine's.
He was younger than Sienna, with tired eyes and an accountant's careful way of speaking.
He admitted that he had approved suspicious transactions.
But he also brought something more important.
An original carbon copy of a warehouse safety authorization from the week of the fire.
"The insurance investigators were never shown this version," Julian explained.
Marcus examined the page.
The document authorized a temporary closure of one warehouse exit for structural repairs.
Its language was ordinary.
Until Marcus turned the page.
Attached was a handwritten instruction ordering the rear emergency exit to remain secured during nighttime unloading.
At the bottom was a signature.
Adrien M. Cross.
Marcus stared.
He knew Adrien's signature.
It looked genuine.
Julian spoke quietly.
"The original file lists Adrien as the person who approved the closure."
Marcus gathered the papers.
He needed to speak to his boss.
When Adrien saw the document, he became very still.
Evelyn watched him.
"Is that your signature?"
He examined it for a long time.
Then he nodded.
"Yes."
The room seemed to tilt beneath her.
"Adrien?"
He closed his eyes.
"I signed that authorization."
Evelyn looked at the words describing the secured emergency exit.
The same exit her father had been trying to photograph when he died.
"Are you telling me," she whispered, "that you signed the order that trapped my father inside that warehouse?"
May you like
Adrien stared at the paper.
And for the first time, he couldn't even tell his wife he was innocent.
