Chapter 15 - MY BROTHER FINALLY LOOKED AT ME
Daniel asked to see me after learning Richard had gone back into the mine.
The prosecutor said no.
I said I wanted five minutes.
Sarah opposed it at first.
"You do not owe him anything."
"This isn't for him."
"Then why?"
"Because Mom told me to listen once."
Sarah understood.
The meeting happened through reinforced glass in a secure interview room at Daniel's hospital.
He was handcuffed to the chair by his good wrist.
I had never seen handcuffs on my brother before.
I thought I would feel satisfaction.
Mostly I felt tired.
Daniel picked up the phone on his side.
I picked up mine.
For several seconds neither of us spoke.
Then he said, "How's Sophie?"
"Alive."
He looked down.
"I know."
"You don't get to ask like an uncle."
His face tightened.
"I know."
"Stop saying you know."
He nodded once.
"Okay."
I wanted him to apologize.
I also knew any apology would make me angrier.
He tried anyway.
"Melissa, I am sorry."
"For which part?"
He flinched.
"All of it."
"Forgery?"
"Yes."
"Helping Dad steal Mom's trust?"
"Yes."
"Letting him smear me after Nathan died?"
"Yes."
"Putting your hands on me?"
His eyes filled.
"Yes."
"Watching Sophie fall?"
He closed his eyes.
"Yes."
"Then standing there while Dad listened to see if we were still alive?"
Daniel's lips pressed together.
"Yes."
"You were going to let the blast bury us."
"Yes."
"And now you're sorry because Dad shot you."
His eyes opened.
"No."
"Convenient timing."
"I deserve that."
"You deserve prison."
"I know."
I almost slammed down the phone.
He leaned forward.
"I was going to tell you before Silver Creek."
"I saw the draft."
"Carla gave them the USB?"
"Yes."
"Then you know."
"I know you typed a warning and deleted it."
His face crumpled.
"Dad found out I was talking to Sarah's office."
Sarah, watching from behind me, frowned.
"When?"
Daniel heard her through the room microphone.
"About six weeks ago."
"You contacted my office?" Sarah asked.
"Anonymous email."
"The message about title records?"
"Yes."
Sarah stared at him.
It was Daniel who had alerted her that the successor schedule might still exist.
That anonymous message had caused Northstar's counsel to discover the title discrepancy.
It had also likely accelerated my father's panic.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because Dad started talking about Sophie."
"What did he say?"
Daniel stared through the glass.
"He asked whether Nathan left life insurance to her."
A cold line ran down my back.
"Why?"
"I asked the same thing. He said he was figuring out whether the trust was the only money tied to her."
"And that scared you?"
"Yes."
"But not enough to stop you from pushing her."
He looked away.
"No."
The honesty was ugly and necessary.
"What did Dad use on you?"
"Everything."
"That isn't an answer."
"Debt. Shame. Mom."
"Mom?"
"After she died, Dad told me she had evidence that could send me to prison too."
"Did she?"
"Probably."
"For what?"
"I signed false environmental disclosures when I was twenty-five. Dad told me they were corrections. Later I knew they weren't."
"You were an adult."
"I know."
"Stop hiding behind him."
"I'm trying not to."
For the first time, Daniel sounded less like our father.
He took a breath.
"I kept thinking there would be a point where I could get out without losing everything."
"So you kept doing worse things to protect what you had left."
"Yes."
"Until everything included me."
"Yes."
"And Sophie."
His eyes filled again.
"Yes."
I thought of Mom's sentence.
Do not confuse listening with forgiving.
I finally understood why she wrote it.
Understanding how Daniel became weak did not make his choices less cruel.
It only made the cruelty more ordinary.
That was almost worse.
"Why did Dad go back into the mine?"
Daniel's face changed.
"The east tunnel leads to the old assay chamber."
Ruth had mentioned that room in passing.
"What's there?"
"Dad's private samples."
"From Northstar?"
"From decades."
"Evidence?"
"Yes, but that's not why he's there."
"Then why?"
Daniel leaned close to the glass.
"There is a second explosives cache."
Sarah swore softly.
"How much?"
"Enough to collapse the east side."
"Why would he do that?"
"Because the assay chamber connects to the old office where Mom kept duplicate files."
"We have the ledger."
"He doesn't know what you have."
"He saw the empty red cover."
"Then he knows the notebook is somewhere else."
Daniel shook his head.
"Dad never assumes one copy. Mom taught him that."
"Is anyone else in the mine?"
"I don't know."
"Martin Vale?"
Daniel's eyes flicked toward Sarah.
That was enough.
"What about him?"
"Vale is not just a businessman who paid Dad."
"Explain."
"He was Dad's partner before Northstar existed."
"In what?"
"The original illegal sampling operation."
"Mom's ledger says that."
"It gets worse."
"How?"
"Vale financed the private drilling that caused the 1991 collapse."
Ruth, behind me, whispered, "Three men died in that collapse."
Daniel nodded.
"Dad and Vale knew the support plan was unsafe. Grandpa Henry threatened to report them."
"Then Grandpa died two years later."
"Yes."
"And now Vale runs Northstar."
"Yes."
"Is Vale helping Dad now?"
"I don't know."
"You looked scared when I said his name."
Daniel stared at his handcuff.
"Vale has private security."
"So?"
"Dad told me yesterday that if the county failed, Vale had people who could finish it."
A new kind of fear entered the room.
The police had been hunting Richard as a fugitive acting alone.
If Daniel was right, my father might still have resources outside the county.
"Names?" Sarah asked.
"I only know one. Grant Voss. Former contractor. He handles Vale's problems."
Leah, who had been watching remotely, immediately sent the name to investigators.
I looked at Daniel.
"Anything else?"
He hesitated.
"Dad has a satellite phone."
"Number?"
Daniel gave it from memory.
"And he keeps an emergency bag in the assay chamber. Cash, passport, maybe a gun."
"You expect me to believe he told you all this?"
"I helped pack it."
There it was again.
Daniel could reveal my father's crimes because he had helped make them possible.
I stood.
"Five minutes is over."
"Melissa."
I stopped.
"What?"
"Mom was right about one thing."
"Only one?"
He winced.
"You were always the one Dad couldn't understand."
"He understood me well enough to trick me."
"No. He understood how to guilt you. He never understood why you could walk away from money."
"I didn't know there was money."
"Even when you did, you cared more about Sophie's scraped knee than the trust."
I stared at him.
"That's called being a parent."
"I know."
For once I let the phrase pass.
"Goodbye, Daniel."
His face went pale.
"Will you come back?"
"I don't know."
That answer was mine to control.
I left him behind the glass.
Outside, Leah was waiting with her phone.
"Grant Voss exists."
"Where is he?"
"His private plane landed in Colorado Springs yesterday morning."
"Before the mine attack?"
"At 10:06 a.m."
"Where is he now?"
"Unknown."
"What about Martin Vale?"
"Northstar says he is in New York."
"Do you believe them?"
Leah looked at the screen.
"His phone is in New York."
Sarah gave a humorless laugh.
"That was not the question."
Leah nodded.
"No. It wasn't."
Then another message arrived.
State police at the east mine entrance had found fresh tire tracks.
Two vehicles.
May you like
Not one.
My father had not gone back into Silver Creek alone.
