She thought for a moment.
"Yes. Once."
"When?"
"That night. October fourteenth."
"What did she do?"
Eleanor looked frightened again.
"She said she was looking for something Richard had left there."
"Did you let her in?"
"No. She entered before I could stop her."
Daniel felt his pulse quicken.
"Did she take anything?"
Eleanor nodded slowly.
"The envelope."
Daniel looked at Thomas.
The discovery was important.
Vanessa had taken the original documents.
But the security recordings had preserved her actions.
There was another detail.
Daniel looked back at the video.
"Can you identify what she removed from the study drawer?"
Thomas shook his head.
"Not yet."
"Then let's find out."
Thomas paused the recording.
"I've already started."
He opened a new folder.
Inside was a scanned document recovered from the company's digital archive.
It was an inventory list.
The final entry was highlighted.
A storage device containing original financial records, authorization forms, and correspondence.
The inventory showed that the device had been removed from the company's office several months earlier.
The signature authorizing its removal belonged to Peter Lawson.
Daniel stared at the screen.
The same Peter Lawson Thomas had identified as the company executive involved in the suspicious transactions.
"Where is it now?"
Thomas shook his head.
"That's the problem."
Daniel looked at the photograph of Vanessa leaving the study.
Then at the inventory record.
"She took it."
"That's what I suspect."
"And if the original records are on that device?"
"Then they may contain evidence connecting everyone involved."
Daniel leaned back.
He now understood why Vanessa had been so desperate to maintain control of the house.
The surveillance system had captured more than arguments.
It had recorded the movement of documents and devices that could establish the chain of responsibility.
And one of those recordings might have revealed the location of the original evidence.
But there was something else.
The storage device had disappeared months before Eleanor discovered the financial documents.
Which meant Vanessa had been removing evidence long before Daniel returned.
The scheme had been anticipated.
The preparations had been deliberate.
And the people involved had known that one day somebody might begin asking questions.
***
The following morning, Daniel received a call from an unfamiliar number.
He answered cautiously.
"Hello?"
A man's voice spoke.
"Mr. Whitmore?"
"Yes."
"My name is Peter Lawson."
Daniel remained silent.
"I believe we need to talk."
"About what?"
"Your father's company."
Daniel looked toward Thomas, who was seated across the room.
"Why?"
"Because things have gone much further than you realize."
Daniel stood.
"Then tell me."
"Not over the phone."
"Where do you want to meet?"
There was a pause.
"Somewhere public. Somewhere neither your father nor Vanessa can find us."
Daniel glanced at Thomas.
"Why are you afraid of them?"
Peter exhaled.
"Because I helped them."
The admission was immediate.
Daniel felt a cold sensation in his chest.
"What did you do?"
"I approved transfers. I signed documents. I believed the money would be returned."
"And the authorization documents in my name?"
Another pause.
"I know about those."
Daniel's voice hardened.
"Did you help forge my signature?"
Peter sounded close to tears.
"I didn't create them."
"But did you approve them?"
"Yes."
Daniel closed his eyes briefly.
"Why?"
"Because Vanessa told me the arrangement had already been approved by your father. She said you knew about it."
"That's a lie."
"I know that now."
Daniel looked at Thomas.
Thomas was already writing notes.
"Peter, I want to hear everything. But before we meet, I need to know one thing."
"What?"
"Do you still have the original records?"
Peter was silent for several seconds.
Then he answered.
"No."
Daniel's heart sank.
"Who has them?"
Peter lowered his voice.
"Vanessa."
"Where?"
"I don't know exactly. But I know where she was planning to take them."
Daniel tightened his grip on the phone.
"Where?"
Peter gave him an address.
It was a storage facility on the outskirts of the city.
Daniel wrote it down.
Then Peter spoke again.
"Mr. Whitmore?"
"Yes?"
"There's something else."
"What?"
"Your father isn't the only person Vanessa has been protecting."
Daniel frowned.
"Who else?"
Peter hesitated.
Then he whispered a name.
"Your uncle."
Daniel went completely still.
He had not seen his father's younger brother, Robert Whitmore, in nearly ten years.
Robert had left the family after a bitter disagreement over the business. Richard had always described him as irresponsible and untrustworthy.
But according to Peter, Robert had been involved in the financial arrangements from the beginning.
Daniel stared at the address written on his notepad.
He had believed the investigation was about exposing his father's wrongdoing.
Now he was beginning to understand that the Whitmore family had been hiding a much larger secret.
And the next person he would have to confront might be someone he had spent his entire childhood believing was the victim of his father's cruelty.
The phone call ended.
Daniel slowly lowered the device.
Thomas looked at him.
"What happened?"
Daniel handed him the note.
"Find out everything you can about Robert Whitmore."
Thomas read the name.
"Your uncle?"
Daniel nodded.
"Apparently, he has something to do with all of this."
Thomas looked up.
"And Vanessa has the original records?"
"That's what Peter says."
"Then we need to move quickly."
Daniel looked toward the living room.
Eleanor was sitting by the window, unaware that another revelation was about to change everything.
He walked toward her.
"Mom, there's something I need to tell you."
She turned.
"What is it?"
Daniel paused.
"It's about Uncle Robert."
The color drained from her face.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she whispered:
"Robert?"
Daniel nodded.
"Why?"
Eleanor looked toward the floor.
"Because your father told me he was dead."
Daniel stared at her.
"What?"
She lifted her eyes.
"Three years ago, Richard told me Robert had died overseas. He said there had been an accident."
Daniel felt the room tilt around him.
"Did you see a death certificate?"
"No."
"Did you attend a funeral?"
"No. Your father said the arrangements had been handled privately."
Daniel looked at Thomas.
Thomas was already reaching for his phone.
The pieces were no longer fitting together.
They were revealing something much worse.
Robert Whitmore might not simply have been connected to the financial scheme.
His disappearance might have been part of it.
And if Richard had lied about his own brother's death, Daniel could no longer trust any version of the family history he had been told.
He looked at his mother.
"Mom, I think we need to find Robert."
Eleanor nodded slowly.
But before either of them could say another word, Daniel's phone vibrated.
A new message had arrived.
It came from Peter Lawson.
"Do not go to the storage facility. Vanessa already knows you're looking for the records."
A second message appeared immediately afterward.
"She has just left to meet Robert."
Daniel stared at the screen.
Then a final message arrived.
"He's alive. And he's the one who started everything."
Daniel looked up.
For the first time since the investigation began, he felt something stronger than anger.
Fear.
Because if Robert had started everything, then the man Daniel had spent his childhood blaming for destroying the family might have been hiding the truth all along.
And somewhere in the city, Vanessa Reed was on her way to meet him.
**End of Part 2**