Victor Sloane did not approach the workshop immediately.<\/p>\n
He stood beside his vehicle with one hand resting on the open driver's door and surveyed the property as though calculating how much had changed since his last visit.<\/p>\n
Gaby watched from behind the corner of the workshop.<\/p>\n
The investigator beside her had already spoken into his radio. His posture was controlled, but the change in it was unmistakable. Whatever this encounter became, Victor would not be allowed to wander casually through the property.<\/p>\n
Denise touched Gaby's arm.<\/p>\n
"Do not engage him."<\/p>\n
Gaby nodded.<\/p>\n
She intended to obey.<\/p>\n
Then Victor called her name.<\/p>\n
"Gabriela."<\/p>\n
His voice carried across the dry field.<\/p>\n
He sounded exactly as Gaby remembered from dinners years earlier: courteous, confident, almost warm.<\/p>\n
That frightened her more than shouting would have.<\/p>\n
The investigator stepped into view.<\/p>\n
"Mr. Sloane, remain by the vehicle."<\/p>\n
Victor stopped.<\/p>\n
His eyes moved from the investigator to the open workshop door, then toward the old pump house.<\/p>\n
For only a fraction of a second, his expression changed.<\/p>\n
He knew.<\/p>\n
He had seen the disturbed weeds and the open service pit.<\/p>\n
Victor looked back at Gaby.<\/p>\n
"Raymond should have destroyed those papers."<\/p>\n
Gaby forgot Denise's instruction.<\/p>\n
"My father apparently disagreed."<\/p>\n
Victor smiled faintly.<\/p>\n
"Your father disagreed with almost everyone."<\/p>\n
The remark was intimate enough to make Gaby angry.<\/p>\n
"You don't get to remember him fondly."<\/p>\n
"I didn't say I did."<\/p>\n
The investigator repeated his instruction.<\/p>\n
Victor raised both hands slightly.<\/p>\n
"I'm not armed."<\/p>\n
"Keep your hands visible."<\/p>\n
Victor complied.<\/p>\n
Gaby studied him.<\/p>\n
The expensive shoes remained, although dust already coated them. His pale blue shirt was open at the collar. His silver hair had been combed carefully despite what appeared to have been several chaotic days.<\/p>\n
He did not look like a man fleeing.<\/p>\n
Marco's message had been correct.<\/p>\n
Victor had come back.<\/p>\n
"Why are you here?" Gaby asked.<\/p>\n
Denise murmured her name in warning.<\/p>\n
Victor answered anyway.<\/p>\n
"Because Marco called me."<\/p>\n
Gaby's stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
"When?"<\/p>\n
"This morning."<\/p>\n
"What did he say?"<\/p>\n
"That you'd finally gone looking for Raymond's insurance policy."<\/p>\n
Gaby frowned.<\/p>\n
"Insurance policy?"<\/p>\n
Victor looked toward the service pit.<\/p>\n
"That's what Raymond called those files."<\/p>\n
Steven, standing near the investigator's vehicle, said, "Evidence seems more accurate."<\/p>\n
Victor glanced at him.<\/p>\n
"Evidence of what?"<\/p>\n
Nobody answered.<\/p>\n
Victor smiled.<\/p>\n
"That's the difficulty with old records. People see columns and numbers and imagine stories."<\/p>\n
Gaby thought of the handwritten ledger.<\/p>\n
"Some of the stories have forged signatures."<\/p>\n
Victor's smile disappeared.<\/p>\n
"I never forged your signature."<\/p>\n
"Did you know Marco did?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
The answer came easily.<\/p>\n
Too easily.<\/p>\n
Gaby no longer trusted speed.<\/p>\n
"Did you know Charles Rowan authenticated it?"<\/p>\n
Victor's eyes shifted.<\/p>\n
Tiny movement.<\/p>\n
Enough.<\/p>\n
Denise noticed.<\/p>\n
So did the investigator.<\/p>\n
Victor said, "Charles authenticated thousands of documents."<\/p>\n
"He's dead," Gaby replied. "Convenient person to blame."<\/p>\n
Victor looked at her more carefully.<\/p>\n
"You've become suspicious."<\/p>\n
"I've become informed."<\/p>\n
Something almost approving entered his expression.<\/p>\n
"Raymond would like that answer."<\/p>\n
Gaby hated hearing her father's name from him.<\/p>\n
The investigator approached Victor.<\/p>\n
"Mr. Sloane, I need identification."<\/p>\n
Victor reached slowly toward his pocket.<\/p>\n
Everything about him remained cooperative.<\/p>\n
But Gaby noticed something strange.<\/p>\n
He had not once asked what they found.<\/p>\n
Because he already knew what Raymond had hidden.<\/p>\n
Maybe not where.<\/p>\n
But what.<\/p>\n
The investigator examined Victor's identification and spoke quietly into his radio.<\/p>\n
Victor waited.<\/p>\n
Then he looked at the document case Steven held.<\/p>\n
"Those originals belong to me."<\/p>\n
Denise answered.<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"They were taken from my business."<\/p>\n
"More than twenty years ago?"<\/p>\n
"Property does not stop belonging to someone because time passes."<\/p>\n
Denise's expression barely changed.<\/p>\n
"You should discuss ownership with counsel."<\/p>\n
Victor smiled again.<\/p>\n
"I don't need counsel to know theft."<\/p>\n
Gaby nearly laughed.<\/p>\n
The word sounded absurd coming from him.<\/p>\n
Victor heard it.<\/p>\n
"You think I'm the villain because Marco told you to."<\/p>\n
"Marco has spent seventeen years telling me almost nothing about you."<\/p>\n
"Exactly."<\/p>\n
Gaby studied him.<\/p>\n
"What does that mean?"<\/p>\n
Victor glanced toward the investigator.<\/p>\n
"I think this conversation is finished."<\/p>\n
Gaby took one step forward.<\/p>\n
"You drove here because you thought those files might still be hidden on my land."<\/p>\n
Victor said nothing.<\/p>\n
"You knew my father had them."<\/p>\n
Still nothing.<\/p>\n
"You knew Marco knew."<\/p>\n
Victor looked at her.<\/p>\n
Then he said quietly, "Marco knew enough to be dangerous and never enough to be useful."<\/p>\n
The insult was casual.<\/p>\n
Gaby felt an unexpected flash of understanding.<\/p>\n
Marco had spent years believing he could manage Victor.<\/p>\n
Victor had never regarded Marco as an equal.<\/p>\n
"What was he to you?" Gaby asked.<\/p>\n
Denise did not stop her this time.<\/p>\n
Victor considered the question.<\/p>\n
"A source."<\/p>\n
The same language as the ledger.<\/p>\n
Originator.<\/p>\n
Access.<\/p>\n
Targets.<\/p>\n
People reduced to function.<\/p>\n
"He brought you borrowers."<\/p>\n
"Sometimes."<\/p>\n
"Elena?"<\/p>\n
Victor's expression changed.<\/p>\n
"Careful."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"Because grief encourages imagination."<\/p>\n
Gaby's anger sharpened.<\/p>\n
"Her signature was used on an insurance assignment she told her sister she wanted back."<\/p>\n
"Then investigate the signature."<\/p>\n
"We are."<\/p>\n
"Good."<\/p>\n
Victor's calm seemed almost impossible.<\/p>\n
Gaby understood why Marco feared him.<\/p>\n
Victor did not need to dominate a room loudly.<\/p>\n
He behaved as though consequences were administrative problems that happened to other people.<\/p>\n
"Did you go into Alma's apartment?" Gaby asked.<\/p>\n
Victor looked at the investigator.<\/p>\n
"I think I'm done answering informal questions."<\/p>\n
The investigator's radio crackled.<\/p>\n
He stepped several yards away to respond.<\/p>\n
Victor's attention returned to Gaby.<\/p>\n
His voice dropped.<\/p>\n
"You should stop."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"Because you have your house."<\/p>\n
"Do I?"<\/p>\n
"You will."<\/p>\n
"My father's land?"<\/p>\n
"Yours."<\/p>\n
"Mateo's money?"<\/p>\n
Victor's expression hardened.<\/p>\n
"Not your concern."<\/p>\n
"That seems to be how this works. Everyone is told the person beside them isn't their concern."<\/p>\n
Victor looked toward the road.<\/p>\n
Gaby continued.<\/p>\n
"My father kept those files because he saw people being separated into assets."<\/p>\n
Victor gave her a tired look.<\/p>\n
"Your father was a contractor who borrowed money he couldn't repay on schedule."<\/p>\n
"And you helped him?"<\/p>\n
"I lent him money when banks wouldn't."<\/p>\n
"Then why was he afraid of you?"<\/p>\n
Victor shrugged.<\/p>\n
"People dislike lenders when repayment begins."<\/p>\n
It was a plausible sentence.<\/p>\n
That was what made men like Victor difficult.<\/p>\n
There was always a legitimate structure around the questionable act.<\/p>\n
A loan.<\/p>\n
A contract.<\/p>\n
A trust.<\/p>\n
A medical letter.<\/p>\n
A signature.<\/p>\n
A business.<\/p>\n
The corruption lived in the spaces between them.<\/p>\n
The investigator returned.<\/p>\n
"Mr. Sloane, I need you to remain here."<\/p>\n
Victor's eyes narrowed.<\/p>\n
"Am I being detained?"<\/p>\n
"For the moment."<\/p>\n
"On what basis?"<\/p>\n
The investigator answered without giving Gaby details.<\/p>\n
Victor requested an attorney.<\/p>\n
The conversation changed immediately.<\/p>\n
No more questions.<\/p>\n
No more answers.<\/p>\n
But as Victor was directed toward the second vehicle, he stopped and looked at Gaby.<\/p>\n
"Ask Marco about Lake Ash."<\/p>\n
The words were so unexpected that Gaby almost missed them.<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
Victor said nothing else.<\/p>\n
He entered the vehicle.<\/p>\n
Gaby turned toward Denise.<\/p>\n
"Lake Ash?"<\/p>\n
"Does it mean anything?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
Steven shook his head too.<\/p>\n
The investigators secured the records from Raymond's hidden container.<\/p>\n
Victor's arrival transformed the property into something more complicated, and Gaby was asked to leave while additional documentation was completed.<\/p>\n
She obeyed.<\/p>\n
On the drive back, she searched her memory.<\/p>\n
Lake Ash.<\/p>\n
A place?<\/p>\n
A company?<\/p>\n
A person?<\/p>\n
Marco had never mentioned it.<\/p>\n
At least not directly.<\/p>\n
Then Steven spoke.<\/p>\n
"Didn't Marco take Diego fishing somewhere called Ash Lake?"<\/p>\n
Gaby looked at him.<\/p>\n
"That's different."<\/p>\n
"Maybe."<\/p>\n
She called Diego.<\/p>\n
He answered immediately.<\/p>\n
"Everything okay?"<\/p>\n
"Yes. Do you remember going fishing with your father somewhere called Ash Lake?"<\/p>\n
"Sure."<\/p>\n
"When?"<\/p>\n
"Lots of times."<\/p>\n
Gaby tightened her grip on the phone.<\/p>\n
"Lots?"<\/p>\n
"When I was a teenager. Dad and Victor used to go too."<\/p>\n
Gaby exchanged a glance with Steven.<\/p>\n
"Victor went?"<\/p>\n
"Sometimes."<\/p>\n
"Where is it?"<\/p>\n
"North. Maybe an hour and a half."<\/p>\n
"Was there a cabin?"<\/p>\n
Diego paused.<\/p>\n
"Yeah."<\/p>\n
"Whose?"<\/p>\n
"I thought Victor's."<\/p>\n
Steven was already searching.<\/p>\n
Gaby asked, "Did your father keep anything there?"<\/p>\n
"What do you mean?"<\/p>\n
"Documents. Equipment. A safe."<\/p>\n
"I don't know."<\/p>\n
Diego became uneasy.<\/p>\n
"Mom, what happened?"<\/p>\n
"Victor mentioned Lake Ash."<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
Then Diego said, "There's something I never told you."<\/p>\n
Gaby closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
That sentence had become exhausting.<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
"Dad took me there last year."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"He wanted help moving boxes."<\/p>\n
Steven turned toward her.<\/p>\n
"What kind of boxes?"<\/p>\n
"Files, I think."<\/p>\n
"From where?"<\/p>\n
"His shop."<\/p>\n
Gaby felt her pulse quicken.<\/p>\n
"Where did you put them?"<\/p>\n
"In the cabin basement."<\/p>\n
"How many?"<\/p>\n
"Maybe twenty."<\/p>\n
"Did you open any?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"Did Marco?"<\/p>\n
"Not while I was there."<\/p>\n
Diego hesitated.<\/p>\n
"He told me they were old tax records."<\/p>\n
Gaby looked at Denise in the passenger seat.<\/p>\n
She had heard everything.<\/p>\n
"When exactly?" Denise asked.<\/p>\n
Diego gave them the approximate month.<\/p>\n
It was shortly after Elena's death.<\/p>\n
Another connection.<\/p>\n
Gaby asked, "Did you see a safe?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
Her breath caught.<\/p>\n
"What kind?"<\/p>\n
"Big floor safe. In the basement."<\/p>\n
Marco had offered to trade a recording of his conversation with Elena.<\/p>\n
He said he kept his copy in a safe.<\/p>\n
Gaby finally understood.<\/p>\n
"Do not call your father," she said.<\/p>\n
"I wasn't going to."<\/p>\n
"Do not mention Lake Ash to anyone."<\/p>\n
"Mom\u2014"<\/p>\n
"Promise me."<\/p>\n
"I promise."<\/p>\n
After ending the call, Denise contacted investigators.<\/p>\n
Gaby stared through the windshield.<\/p>\n
Victor had told her to ask Marco about Lake Ash.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
Not because he wanted to help her.<\/p>\n
Victor had chosen those words while being detained.<\/p>\n
He wanted something to happen.<\/p>\n
Perhaps he wanted Marco's records discovered.<\/p>\n
Perhaps he wanted Marco frightened.<\/p>\n
Or perhaps he knew evidence at the cabin implicated Marco more than himself.<\/p>\n
"He's turning on Marco," Gaby said.<\/p>\n
Denise looked back.<\/p>\n
"Possibly."<\/p>\n
"Victor knows he's in trouble. Marco gave up the records house. So Victor gave us Lake Ash."<\/p>\n
Steven nodded slowly.<\/p>\n
"They're trading each other."<\/p>\n
Exactly.<\/p>\n
The alliance was breaking.<\/p>\n
Not because either man had developed a conscience.<\/p>\n
Because survival had finally become more valuable than loyalty.<\/p>\n
That evening, Gaby returned home exhausted.<\/p>\n
Mariana had cooked soup.<\/p>\n
Nobody ate much.<\/p>\n
At eight-thirty, Marco called.<\/p>\n
Gaby watched his name on the screen.<\/p>\n
She answered.<\/p>\n
"You talked to Victor."<\/p>\n
It was not a question.<\/p>\n
Gaby said nothing.<\/p>\n
Marco's breathing sounded uneven.<\/p>\n
"What did he tell you?"<\/p>\n
"You tell me."<\/p>\n
"Gaby."<\/p>\n
"What is Lake Ash?"<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
Long enough.<\/p>\n
She closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
"What's in the safe?"<\/p>\n
Marco swore quietly.<\/p>\n
"Victor told you."<\/p>\n
"What's in it?"<\/p>\n
"Nothing that concerns you."<\/p>\n
She almost admired the persistence of that phrase.<\/p>\n
"My forged signatures concerned me."<\/p>\n
"Gaby\u2014"<\/p>\n
"Elena's recording concerns Alma."<\/p>\n
"Stop."<\/p>\n
"Mateo's money concerns a child."<\/p>\n
"Stop."<\/p>\n
"Romina's credit concerns her."<\/p>\n
"Gaby!"<\/p>\n
His shout filled the kitchen.<\/p>\n
Mariana looked up from across the room.<\/p>\n
Gaby kept her voice low.<\/p>\n
"What is in the safe?"<\/p>\n
Marco breathed heavily.<\/p>\n
Then his voice collapsed into something tired.<\/p>\n
"Copies."<\/p>\n
"Of what?"<\/p>\n
"Everything I kept because I knew Victor would eventually turn on me."<\/p>\n
Gaby stared at the wall.<\/p>\n
"You've had evidence all this time."<\/p>\n
"I had insurance."<\/p>\n
The word disgusted her.<\/p>\n
"Against Victor."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"And you watched him keep doing it."<\/p>\n
"I needed leverage."<\/p>\n
"You had evidence."<\/p>\n
"I needed leverage."<\/p>\n
Gaby closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
Two men collecting proof of each other's misconduct, not to stop it, but to protect themselves.<\/p>\n
"Is Elena's recording there?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"What else?"<\/p>\n
"Files."<\/p>\n
"Whose?"<\/p>\n
"Victor's."<\/p>\n
"Whose, Marco?"<\/p>\n
He hesitated.<\/p>\n
"People he did business with."<\/p>\n
"People you brought him."<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
"Some."<\/p>\n
Gaby felt anger building again.<\/p>\n
"How many?"<\/p>\n
"I don't know."<\/p>\n
"You moved twenty boxes."<\/p>\n
Marco went quiet.<\/p>\n
That told her Diego's involvement had not occurred to him.<\/p>\n
"You dragged our son into moving evidence."<\/p>\n
"He thought they were records."<\/p>\n
"Exactly."<\/p>\n
Gaby's voice shook for the first time.<\/p>\n
"You used his ignorance the same way you used mine."<\/p>\n
"I was protecting him."<\/p>\n
"No. You were protecting yourself."<\/p>\n
Marco said nothing.<\/p>\n
Then, quietly, "Don't let them take the safe."<\/p>\n
Gaby almost laughed.<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"Because Victor's copies are mixed with things about me."<\/p>\n
"There it is."<\/p>\n
"I can cooperate."<\/p>\n
"Then cooperate."<\/p>\n
"I need terms."<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"Gaby, listen."<\/p>\n
"No more trades."<\/p>\n
She stood.<\/p>\n
"No more one truth in exchange for one consequence. No more pieces."<\/p>\n
"You don't know what you're asking."<\/p>\n
"I know exactly what I'm asking."<\/p>\n
Marco's voice became desperate.<\/p>\n
"If everything in that safe comes out, I could lose the business."<\/p>\n
Gaby looked around the kitchen.<\/p>\n
The home he had risked.<\/p>\n
The family he had manipulated.<\/p>\n
The people whose lives had become columns in a ledger.<\/p>\n
"You are still talking about the business."<\/p>\n
"It's everything I've built."<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
Gaby's answer came quietly.<\/p>\n
"It's everything you chose."<\/p>\n
She ended the call.<\/p>\n
Twenty minutes later, Denise received confirmation.<\/p>\n
Investigators were moving to secure the Lake Ash cabin.<\/p>\n
Gaby stood beside the window while darkness settled over the street.<\/p>\n
For years Marco had believed the safe protected him.<\/p>\n
Now it might become the thing that exposed him completely.<\/p>\n
Victor Sloane did not approach the workshop immediately. He stood beside his vehicle with one hand resting on the open driver's door and surveyed the property as though calculating how … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20166,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20131\/revisions\/20166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}