Chapter 5 - The Man Who Asked for the Red FileThe man reached the bottom step.
He was in his early fifties, broad-shouldered, with neatly combed silver hair and a dark coat that looked expensive without drawing attention to itself. He carried no umbrella despite the rain.
His eyes moved from me to Nina, then to the candlestick in my hand.
“Mr. Ashby,” he repeated. “Put that down, please.”
“Who are you?”
“Daniel Pike. I work with Greg.”
“What kind of work?”
“Corporate investigations.”
He produced a business card.
DANIEL PIKE
DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE SECURITY
HALCYON MUTUAL
I didn't take it.
“How did you get into this house?”
“The back door was unlocked.”
“That's not an answer.”
“No,” he agreed. “It isn't.”
His calmness bothered me more than a raised voice would have.
Daniel looked at Nina.
“Where's the photograph?”
She stood perfectly still.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“The photograph Greg kept in his office. The blue building.”
Nina's eyes flickered toward the hallway.
Daniel noticed.
“So you have seen it.”
“Get out of my house,” she said.
He sighed as if she were making an unreasonable demand.
“Your husband has made a serious mistake. He took confidential documents that do not belong to him, contacted someone who should have remained missing, and apparently decided to investigate events that occurred more than thirty years ago.”
“Then call the police,” I said.
Daniel turned toward me.
“That's precisely what we want to avoid.”
“Who is we?”
He didn't answer.
I tightened my grip on the candlestick.
“Get out.”
For the first time, his expression hardened.
“You don't understand the danger your daughter is in.”
“Then explain it.”
“I can't.”
“Convenient.”
“Mr. Ashby, I am trying to prevent something terrible from happening. Greg has been reckless. He involved people who don't know when to stop.”
“And you came to the house of an injured man to search his office?”
“I came to retrieve company property.”
“You came through an unlocked back door without permission.”
He looked at me for a long moment.
Then he smiled.
It was the same kind of smile Greg used to wear when he wanted someone to believe a conversation had ended on friendly terms.
It made my skin crawl.
“Perhaps we should talk again when you've had time to think.”
He slipped the business card onto the dining table.
Then he walked toward the front door.
At the threshold, he turned back.
“One more thing, Mr. Ashby. If you find anything marked with a red cover, do not open it. Give it to me.”
“Why?”
“Because some truths have consequences that innocent people aren't equipped to survive.”
He stepped outside.
I shut the door and locked it.
For several seconds, neither Nina nor I spoke.
Then I turned to her.
“Who is he?”
She sank into the nearest chair.
“Greg's former boss.”
“He said he works with Greg.”
“He's lying.”
“How do you know?”
She looked up at me.
“Because Greg told me that Daniel Pike was the last person to see Rebecca Vale alive.”
The silence that followed seemed to swallow the entire house.
“Explain.”
Nina rubbed her face with both hands.
“Three months ago, a woman came here asking for Greg. I was home alone. She said her name was Rebecca and that my husband needed to stop investigating Halcyon Mutual.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I thought it was a threat. I thought she was trying to frighten him.”
“What did she tell you?”
“That there had been accidents. People who died, families who never received the money they were owed, and records that disappeared. She said Daniel Pike was involved.”
“Did you tell Greg?”
“Yes. He told me he would handle it.”
“And now?”
“Now I don't know whether he was investigating her or helping her.”
She began to cry again, but there was anger in her tears this time.
“He wouldn't tell me anything. Every time I asked, he said I was safer not knowing.”
I sat beside her.
“Why did you recognize Rebecca at the hospital?”
“Because she left me something.”
“What?”
Nina reached into her pocket and removed a folded sheet of paper.
I'd seen it before, though I hadn't known what I was looking at.
It was a photograph of the blue building.
On its back were three words written in unfamiliar handwriting.
ASK ABOUT MARTHA.
I stared at my wife's name.
Then I looked at Nina.
“Sweetheart, I need you to tell me everything you know about your mother's last year.”
Nina's face crumpled.
“That's what Greg wanted to tell you,” she whispered. “He found something about Mom.”
“What did he find?”
She shook her head.
“I don't know the whole story. But I think he went to Brookhaven to meet Rebecca because she had the missing pages.”
“Missing pages from what?”
“The red file.”
She looked toward the locked front door.
“And Daddy, there's something else.”
“What?”
“Rebecca told me that if Greg ever got hold of the original file, someone would try to kill him.”
I glanced at the business card Daniel had left on the table.
Then I called Detective Alvarez.
She answered on the second ring.
I told her everything about the man in the house.
When I finished, she was silent for so long that I checked to make sure the call hadn't dropped.
Finally, she said, “Mr. Ashby, listen carefully. Do not let that man back inside. Do not give him anything Greg left behind.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel Pike wasn't just Greg's boss.”
“Who was he?”
“He was the subject of our investigation.”
My stomach turned.
“Then why is he walking around freely?”
“Because, until twenty minutes ago, we had no evidence placing him at your daughter's house.”
She paused.
“And because he has an alibi for the crash.”
I stared at the front door.
“What kind of alibi?”
“His car was recorded entering a private garage in Harrisburg at 11:52 last night.”
“Could someone else have been driving?”
“We're checking.”
Then her voice dropped.
“Mr. Ashby, I need you to answer one question. Did Daniel Pike ask you for anything?”
“The red file.”
A long silence.
When Detective Alvarez spoke again, her words chilled me.
“If he knows about the red file, then Greg wasn't the only person who discovered what happened to Martha.”
“What happened to my wife?”
“I don't know yet.”
“Then find out.”
“I intend to.”
She ended the call.
Nina was standing beside the window, watching the rain slide down the glass.
I approached her and touched her shoulder.
“We're going to find the truth.”
She didn't turn around.
“Daddy, what if the truth is worse than what happened to Greg?”
I thought about the broken watch, the muddy footprints, and the photographs taken at the service station.
Then I remembered the note in Greg's office.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, TELL ASHBY ABOUT MARTHA.
I finally understood that Greg hadn't been trying to protect himself.
May you like
He had been trying to protect us from something that began long before he married my daughter.
And whoever was responsible had just walked out of our house.
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