Chapter 26 - Victor's Letter
The letter arrived through Victor's attorney on a gray Tuesday morning.
It was addressed to Lucas, but the attorney had included a note explaining that the letter had not been sent directly from the prison. Victor had asked counsel to deliver it after learning that investigators had recovered Isabella's recording and the old maintenance invoice. He wanted to provide additional information about the alarm system.
Lucas did not open it immediately.
He took it to his attorney, who read the envelope and confirmed that there was no legal reason he could not review it. The attorney advised him not to respond privately and to forward any factual claims to the prosecutor.
Inside, Victor had written four pages.
He admitted that he had arranged the false warehouse call and had used the confusion to keep Lucas away from the mansion during the hours before the fire. He repeated that he had wanted control of the companies and believed Lucas would be easier to isolate if he appeared to be acting irrationally. He did not admit to starting the fire. Instead, he claimed that the alarm bypass had been arranged by a former operations director named Henry Vale, who had told Victor the system would be monitored manually.
Victor wrote that he had accepted the explanation because he wanted the plan to proceed. He said he had not asked whether the repair had been completed and had not told Lucas about the warning.
The final paragraph was the most troubling.
“I knew the house was not properly protected. I told myself it was temporary. I told myself the people inside would be safe. I wanted the companies more than I wanted to hear anyone tell me to stop.”
Lucas read the paragraph several times.
His attorney reminded him that Victor's letter was a statement from a convicted man with an unresolved charge and a clear interest in shaping the remaining case. It was not independent proof. The prosecutor would need to test the claims against the records and interview Henry Vale.
Lucas forwarded the letter through counsel.
He felt no relief. Victor had admitted to a decision that put the family at risk, but he had also introduced another name into a story that had already taken years to untangle. Lucas wondered whether Henry Vale had been a willing participant, a careless manager, or a convenient person for Victor to blame.
He asked the prosecutor not to treat the letter as a complete account.
Detective Ruiz agreed. “We will compare it with the service records and the communications we have. If Vale was involved, we need evidence of what he did and when.”
Henry Vale was located in Florida. He had worked for the Moretti companies as an operations director and left shortly after the fire. His departure had been described as a retirement, although he was only in his early fifties. He had since worked as a consultant for several property-management firms.
When investigators contacted him, Vale said he remembered the alarm issue but denied authorizing a bypass that remained active overnight. He claimed Victor had been informed of the problem and had insisted that the estate remain open for a private event.
The accounts conflicted. Victor said Vale arranged the bypass. Vale said Victor knew about it and insisted the event continue. The service records showed a warning, an incomplete repair, and a period without full coverage. The question was no longer whether the system had been neglected. It was who had made the decisions that left it that way and whether those decisions were connected to the fire.
Lucas asked his attorney to arrange a formal interview if the prosecutor wanted his help. He would not meet Vale privately.
Grace heard about the letter after the investigator confirmed that the family could be informed. She was concerned that the new information would make the case more volatile.
“Do you think Victor is telling the truth?” she asked.
“I think some of it matches what we already know. I don't know whether all of it does.”
“Then don't decide because you want an answer.”
Lucas nodded. “I won't.”
At the community center, Lily had been practicing her four-note tune. The music teacher had added a fifth note, but Lily said it made the song sound too busy. She preferred the original.
“Can I keep it simple?” she asked.
“Absolutely,” the teacher said. “A song doesn't have to be complicated to matter.”
Lily played the four notes and paused. Then she played them again, a little more confidently.
Grace watched from the side of the room. She thought of Victor's letter, the years of decisions made in private, and the damage caused by people who believed they knew what everyone else should be allowed to hear.
The song was simple. The choice to pause was simple. But both belonged to Lily.
After the lesson, Lily asked whether they could visit Lucas at the mansion again.
“Not yet,” Grace said. “The inspection isn't finished.”
“Can we go when it is?”
“We can talk about it when the adults confirm that the house is ready.”
Lily accepted the answer. She had learned that waiting did not mean being ignored if someone explained why.
That evening, Lucas placed Victor's letter in the legal folder and closed the drawer. He did not keep it beside the family photographs. It belonged to the investigation, not to his memories of Isabella and Daniel.
Then he went to the sunroom and played Lily's four-note tune. He let the pause remain exactly where she had put it.
Victor's attorney later clarified that the letter had been written before Victor learned the full contents of the archived recordings. The timing mattered because the letter's account could be compared with information that had not yet been made public.
The prosecutor asked Victor to confirm whether he stood by the statement. His attorney said he did, but requested that the interview take place under formal conditions and that Victor be allowed to review the relevant documents first.
The interview was scheduled at the correctional facility. Lucas was not present. The prosecutor asked Victor to explain why he had arranged the false warehouse call and what he understood about the alarm system at the time.
Victor repeated that he had wanted Lucas away from the mansion. He said he believed the family would remain safe because the security staff would be present. When asked whether he knew the basement zone was disconnected, he said he had been told that it was a temporary maintenance measure.
The prosecutor asked whether he had seen Isabella's request for written confirmation.
Victor said he did not remember seeing the recording or the request. He admitted that he had been told about the alarm fault and had chosen not to delay the event.
That answer did not settle the question of whether he knew the full risk. It did establish that he had been aware of a problem and had allowed the event to proceed without confirming that the system was fully restored.
Victor's attorney argued that the statement should be considered in the context of his existing convictions and sentence. The prosecutor said the unresolved charge would be evaluated separately and that no conclusion would be announced until the evidence was complete.
Lucas read the interview summary. He felt no urge to send Victor a reply. The letter had given investigators something to test; it had not created a personal conversation that Lucas wanted to continue.
He placed the summary in the legal folder and went for a walk. The air was cold, and his breathing tightened slightly. He stopped, used his inhaler according to Dr. Shaw's instructions, and waited until he felt steady before continuing.
For once, he did not interpret needing help as a failure.
The prosecutor later informed Lucas that Victor had agreed to provide the names of two employees who attended the meeting where the alarm problem was discussed. One had since retired; the other had moved abroad. Their identities did not prove Victor's account, but they gave investigators specific people to contact.
Lucas asked whether the interviews could be conducted without using Lily's name or medical information. Detective Ruiz said the inquiry concerned the estate's safety decisions and would not require Lily to participate.
That answer eased one of his worries. He could not control every part of the legal process, but he could continue to insist that a child who had no role in the decisions should not be drawn into them unnecessarily.
He sent Grace a short update through counsel. She replied that she was glad Lily would not be asked to attend. There was no further conversation, and Lucas did not try to extend it.
May you like
The attorney also reminded Lucas that he could request a copy of any statement Victor made that directly affected the remaining proceedings. Lucas agreed, but asked that routine prison correspondence not be sent to him. He did not want every new letter to become another obligation to revisit the past.
He left the meeting with a clearer boundary: information relevant to the case would be reviewed through counsel; personal messages would not be treated as a demand for a response. For years, Victor had controlled the timing of every confrontation. Lucas would not continue that pattern.
