Chapter 6 - THE EMPTY OFFICE
By sunrise, the Sterling estate had become a crime scene.
Investigators photographed the staircase, removed the damaged wheelchair, and sealed the medication room. A technician copied the security system onto a protected drive. Every employee was interviewed again, including the people who had been off duty when Celeste arrived.
Richard Vale was still missing.
His apartment was empty. His company car had been found at a private airport outside the city, but the vehicle had been abandoned. A search of his office revealed that several files had been removed from the cabinet and that his computer had been wiped.
Daniel Price stood beside Julian in the study, reading the inventory.
“He knew we were coming,” Daniel said.
“Or someone warned him.”
“Celeste could have done it.”
Julian looked toward the window. “She was in the house when the police arrived. She had no opportunity to call him.”
“Then Marcus.”
“Marcus had every opportunity.”
The officers had taken Marcus's phone, but the last outgoing call had been deleted. A forensic copy was being prepared. Until then, nobody knew whether he had warned Richard or whether Richard had been planning to disappear long before the party.
Victoria entered with a folder.
“I found this in the office safe,” she said. “It was behind the old insurance policies.”
Daniel opened it. Inside were copies of the original documents from Julian's accident five years earlier: the vehicle inspection, the roadside report, and the repair authorization.
Julian's face tightened.
“Why were these hidden?”
Victoria pointed to the repair authorization. “The brake system had been serviced two days before the crash. The invoice says the work was completed by a company called Vale Fleet Services.”
“Richard's brother owned that company,” Daniel said.
Julian looked up. “You knew?”
“I knew Richard had a brother in vehicle maintenance. I didn't know the company had serviced your car.”
A second page showed a payment made the week after the crash. The amount was large enough to attract attention, but the description was vague: consulting and emergency transport support.
Julian read the page twice.
“Was my accident arranged?”
No one answered immediately.
Dr. Reed, who had come to review the medication test results, entered the room. He confirmed that one of the unprescribed substances found in the cabinet could cause dizziness and impaired coordination. The laboratory had not yet established how much Julian had received, or for how long, but the evidence justified a full investigation.
Julian stared at the report.
“For months I thought my therapy was going backward because I was failing.”
Victoria moved closer. “You weren't failing.”
“I kept losing strength. I blamed myself.”
“You were doing everything you could.”
He looked down at his hands. They were strong enough to control the chair, sign documents, and hold his daughter's hand. But they could not undo the years he had spent believing his body was betraying him.
The study phone rang.
Daniel answered, listened, and put it on speaker.
A man's voice came through.
“Julian. We need to talk.”
Richard.
The attorney signaled the officer, who began recording the call.
“Where are you?” Julian asked.
“Somewhere safe.”
“You mean somewhere you can't be arrested.”
Richard ignored that. “Celeste has made a mess of everything. I can still explain the financial side.”
“You can explain the brake inspection, too.”
Silence.
Then Richard said, “Your father knew what was happening.”
Julian went still.
“What did you say?”
“Your father approved the first repair. He knew the vehicle wasn't safe. I only followed his instructions.”
“You're lying.”
“Check the original invoice. Check the transfer to my brother. Your father wanted you out of the company before you could challenge his decisions.”
Julian's voice became cold. “And you kept the secret for five years?”
“I kept the company alive.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“I tried to make sure the company survived you.”
The line went dead.
Daniel looked at the officer. “Can you trace it?”
“We're working on it.”
Julian remained motionless.
His father had been dead for three years. He could not question him, confront him, or ask why he had allowed his only son to suffer under a lie.
Victoria placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Whatever your father did, it wasn't your fault.”
Julian looked at her.
“No,” he said. “But I am going to make sure it doesn't happen to Lily.”
Before the call from Richard, Daniel had discovered another troubling detail. The consulting company connected to Celeste had been incorporated only three months before the first unexplained medication change. Its registered address was a mailbox in a commercial building. The company had no employees, no website, and no record of providing services to any other client.
The payments were not simply suspicious. They appeared to have been created to move money out of Sterling Global without attracting the attention of the board.
Julian asked Daniel to trace every transfer.
“Don't stop at Celeste,” he said. “Find the people who signed off on the invoices and the people who benefited from them.”
Daniel nodded. “That could reach beyond the estate.”
“Then let it.”
Victoria watched Julian work through the documents. He was exhausted, but his focus had returned. For months, he had struggled to concentrate for more than an hour. Now he was asking precise questions and spotting inconsistencies that the finance team had missed.
“Don't push too hard,” she reminded him.
“I know my limits.”
“You say that every time before ignoring them.”
He gave a small smile. “Then stay here and stop me.”
She did.
A second call arrived from the police. The vehicle inspection report from five years earlier had been signed by a technician who claimed he had never seen Julian's car. The signature had been copied from an unrelated work order. The technician was willing to provide a statement.
Julian listened in silence.
When the call ended, he asked Daniel to put the original report beside the new evidence.
“If the inspection was falsified before the crash, then the story we were told was never true.”
Daniel agreed.
The discovery did not prove that Julian's father had ordered the sabotage. But it proved that someone had used the family name to hide deliberate misconduct, and Richard had helped cover it up.
Julian looked toward Lily, who was coloring at the other end of the room.
“I won't leave her a company built on lies.”
Victoria placed the documents in a neat stack. “Then we'll rebuild it on facts.”
Daniel asked whether Julian wanted the board informed immediately. Julian said yes, but he insisted that the notice include only verified facts. He would not let rumors become another weapon.
The statement explained that an attempted assault had occurred at the estate, that the wheelchair was being examined, and that the company had identified irregular payments requiring an independent audit. It did not name Celeste or Richard while the criminal investigation remained active.
Within an hour, the board chair called. He sounded angry.
“Investors are asking whether the company is stable.”
“The company is stable,” Julian replied. “Its leadership is being investigated.”
“Can we keep this private?”
“No. We can keep confidential information protected. We cannot pretend nothing happened.”
The board chair sighed. “You know what the market will do.”
“I know what happens when people hide the truth. I have lived with the consequences for five years.”
After the call, Victoria brought him a cup of tea. He had barely touched his breakfast, and his hands were beginning to tremble with fatigue.
“You can stop for today,” she said.
“I need to finish the review.”
“You need to eat.”
He looked at the cup. “You always did know how to win an argument.”
“I learned from someone stubborn.”
Julian smiled, then drank. It was a small moment, but it reminded him that his life was not only a series of emergencies. There were still ordinary things worth protecting: a warm cup, a quiet room, his daughter's laughter from the next floor.
The police later confirmed that Richard's call had come from a prepaid phone purchased under a false identity. They were tracing the purchase, but the number itself was no longer active. The officers warned Julian that Richard might have help outside the company.
“Then assume he does,” Julian said. “No one approaches Lily without being checked. No one enters the medical wing without authorization. And every employee gets a direct number to report suspicious behavior.”
He looked at Nora. “Especially the people who think nobody will listen.”
Nora nodded. “I'll make sure they have it.”
The next afternoon, the board's audit committee arrived with two outside accountants. Julian gave them full access to the financial records, including the files his father had kept in a private archive. He made one condition: no document could be removed without being copied and logged.
Arthur Kline complained that the process would disrupt the company's operations. Julian replied that the disruption had begun when people inside the company decided rules did not apply to them.
The accountants found payments to three shell vendors, not one. Two had been used to pay for surveillance equipment and private medical consultations. The third had paid the contractor who supplied the maintenance uniforms found in the estate's service corridor.
Daniel placed the summary before Julian.
“This is bigger than Celeste and Richard,” he said.
Julian looked at the figures. “Then we follow it wherever it leads.”
Victoria reminded him that the police, not the company, would determine criminal responsibility. Julian agreed. He wanted the records preserved, not used to settle old arguments.
That evening, Lily asked whether the people who had done wrong would come back.
“Not if we can prevent it,” Julian said.
“Can people change?”
May you like
“Some can. But changing means telling the truth and accepting what happens afterward.”
Lily thought about that, then returned to her coloring book. Julian watched her for a long moment. He wanted her to grow up believing that honesty was normal, not heroic.
