Chapter 13 - THE MAN IN THE GRAY COAT
The man was Arthur Vale, Thomas's former business partner.
At the funeral he had stood beside the casket and told me Thomas was the most honest man he had ever known.
Now the parking-garage video showed him discussing plans to strip our family of control over assets.
Michael warned me that a video clip alone could be edited or misleading.
He was right.
The fake hospital document had taught us the danger of certainty without verification.
Detective Ruiz requested the original recording and began checking the garage location.
Elise supplied an earlier email containing Vale's signature and references to the same ledger.
David remembered Vale losing his board seat after an investigation into purchasing irregularities.
He had never known the full reason.
We discovered that Vale still controlled a company that held liens against several small contractors.
Greg had worked for one of them.
The debts appeared to tie the men together.
June, meanwhile, had vanished.
Her car was found near an airport, but no confirmed travel record established where she had gone.
On Thursday, Arthur Vale telephoned me personally.
"Margaret," he said, "I am deeply sorry for this misunderstanding."
I put the call on speaker with Michael present and told Vale not to contact me again except through counsel.
He laughed.
"Thomas understood business. You don't."
"Thomas understood people too," I said.
"Not well enough to trust you, apparently."
The silence after that was delicious.
Then Vale said, "Ask David what happened the night the warehouse burned."
The line disconnected.
David turned so pale I thought he might collapse.
The warehouse fire had occurred seventeen years earlier.
A night watchman had died.
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And David had been the last person recorded entering the building.
