Chapter 4 - THE DEAD MAN'S LOGINThere are moments in life when fear doesn't arrive with a scream.
It arrives quietly.
It simply sits down beside you and waits.
Seeing Robert's name on that screen was one of those moments.
I reached for the laptop.
"That's impossible."
The board member nodded.
"I know."
"His account was disabled after his death."
"Exactly."
"Then how was it used?"
He looked at Sandra.
"We don't know."
I stared at the timestamp.
2:41 a.m.
The same night someone entered my house.
The same night Joselyn disappeared.
The same night Derek had allegedly been in my neighborhood.
Too many coincidences.
I hated coincidences.
Engineers don't believe in mysterious cracks.
We look for pressure.
Someone was applying pressure from several directions at once.
"Trace the IP address."
"We did."
"And?"
"Private network."
"Whose?"
He hesitated.
"Northstar Advisory."
I laughed.
There was no humor in it.
"Of course."
Sandra closed the laptop.
"We're going to the police."
We spent most of the day explaining a conspiracy that sounded increasingly insane even to me.
Vanessa.
Derek.
Forged documents.
My stolen identity.
A dead man's company login.
And my missing daughter.
The police took everything seriously.
But they didn't have enough evidence to arrest anyone.
Then, at 6:20 p.m., I received a text.
From Joselyn.
Mom, don't trust the police.
I stared at the screen.
Another message came.
I'm alive. I'm safe. Don't come looking for me.
My hands shook.
I typed:
Where are you?
No response.
Five minutes passed.
Then another message.
Derek knows about the trust. He knows everything.
I typed:
Did he take you?
Her response came almost instantly.
No. I went willingly.
I froze.
Why?
Another message.
I need you to believe me.
Then:
Dad wasn't killed by an accident.
I stopped breathing.
Robert had died in what authorities called a workplace accident.
A fall at one of our construction sites.
A structural failure.
A tragic accident.
I had never questioned it.
Not seriously.
Grief had made questions feel disrespectful.
I called Joselyn.
No answer.
I called again.
Nothing.
Then a final message appeared.
Ask why Dad was investigating Vanessa before he died.
I dropped the phone.
Sandra caught it.
"What?"
I showed her.
She read the messages.
Her face went pale.
"Frances..."
"I need Robert's old files."
"We searched them after his death."
"Not everything."
"What do you mean?"
I stood.
"When Robert died, I couldn't touch his office."
I had locked it.
For years.
His desk still held his notebooks.
His old calculator.
His coffee mug.
A photograph of Joselyn as a child.
I had never cleaned the room.
Never really entered it.
Until now.
We went home.
I unlocked the office.
Dust covered everything.
I opened the desk drawers.
Nothing.
Then I remembered something.
Robert always hid important documents somewhere ridiculous.
He once told me, "The safest place in the house is the place no thief would bother checking."
I looked at the bookshelf.
Then the floor.
Then the old drafting cabinet.
Nothing.
Finally, I noticed the back panel of a wooden cabinet.
One screw was newer than the others.
I removed it.
The panel came away.
Behind it was a black metal box.
I opened it.
Inside were notebooks.
A flash drive.
And dozens of photographs.
The first photograph showed Robert with Vanessa.
The second showed Vanessa with Derek.
The third showed a bank officer.
The fourth made my heart stop.
It was a photograph of Robert standing outside a courthouse.
Beside him was someone I hadn't expected.
Sandra.
I turned slowly.
"Sandra?"
She looked at the photograph.
"I've never seen that."
"That's you."
"No."
"It is."
She shook her head.
"I didn't know Robert."
My hands trembled.
The photograph was older.
At least ten years old.
Then I found a notebook.
On the first page Robert had written:
FRANCES MUST NOT KNOW UNTIL SHE IS SAFE.
I felt tears burn my eyes.
Sandra took the notebook.
The pages were filled with numbers, names, dates.
Then one phrase appeared again and again.
Project Meridian.
"What is Meridian?" I asked.
Sandra shook her head.
"I don't know."
I turned the page.
Robert had drawn a diagram.
Several companies.
Several bank accounts.
Several people.
At the center was one word.
WEBER.
Underneath it:
THE COMPANY IS NOT THE TARGET. FRANCES IS.
Then I found the final page.
Robert had written a warning.
If anything happens to me, Vanessa will return. Derek will finish what we started.
The room became silent.
Someone was standing behind us.
I turned.
The door was open.
No one was there.
But on the floor was a fresh envelope.
I hadn't heard anyone enter.
I picked it up.
Inside was a single photograph.
Robert.
Alive.
Standing beside Derek.
May you like
And written across the back:
You were never supposed to find this.
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