Daniel tracked down a retired accountant who had once worked for the Ashford family.<\/p>\n
His name was Peter Lawson.<\/p>\n
At first, Lawson refused to speak with us.<\/p>\n
He said he had signed confidentiality agreements and didn't want trouble.<\/p>\n
Daniel explained that we weren't asking him to reveal private information unlawfully. We wanted to know whether he could provide relevant evidence through appropriate legal channels.<\/p>\n
After consulting his own attorney, Lawson agreed to an interview.<\/p>\n
He confirmed that Thomas had questioned several property transactions.<\/p>\n
He also recalled that Richard Ashford had ordered certain records moved from the main office to an off-site storage facility.<\/p>\n
"Why?" I asked.<\/p>\n
Lawson looked uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
"He said the files were outdated and no longer needed."<\/p>\n
"Did you believe him?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
He explained that the disputed transactions involved more than land.<\/p>\n
Some properties had been used as collateral for loans. Others had been transferred through businesses whose ownership was difficult to trace.<\/p>\n
Thomas believed that some families had been deprived of property through misleading agreements.<\/p>\n
Lawson had not personally witnessed every transaction, and he could not verify all the accusations.<\/p>\n
But he had retained copies of several accounting schedules because he had been concerned about discrepancies.<\/p>\n
He agreed to give them to his lawyer for review.<\/p>\n
When the interview ended, I asked whether he knew what happened to my father.<\/p>\n
Lawson shook his head.<\/p>\n
"I saw Thomas the week he disappeared. He looked frightened, but he also looked determined."<\/p>\n
"Did he say where he was going?"<\/p>\n
Lawson thought for a long time.<\/p>\n
"He said he had found a way to protect the records from being destroyed."<\/p>\n
My heart pounded.<\/p>\n
"Did he mention a place?"<\/p>\n
Lawson closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
"Only one word."<\/p>\n
"What word?"<\/p>\n
"Harbor."<\/p>\n
Daniel tracked down a retired accountant who had once worked for the Ashford family. His name was Peter Lawson. At first, Lawson refused to speak with us. He said he … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40546","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\/40546","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=40546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40566,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40546\/revisions\/40566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}