Chapter 7: What the Agent Knew
Agent Reyes set his badge on the reading table where Vanessa's phone had been twenty minutes earlier.
"I need you to understand something before we go any further," he said.
"The call I received was not from Vanessa Vance.
It was from a colleague of mine who has been monitoring her communications as part of the inquiry." He looked at Emily.
"She made two calls from this house tonight.
The first was to her attorney.
The second was to a man named Curtis Hale."
Emily felt the name land in her chest like something physical.
"You know that name," Reyes said.
"He was the compliance director at Vance Logistics when I worked there.
He was the one who told me the Meridian account was a standard intercompany transfer.
He was the one who signed off on my termination paperwork."
"Curtis Hale has been cooperating with our inquiry for the past three months," Reyes said.
"Quietly.
Under a proffer agreement." He paused.
"Tonight, Vanessa called him and told him to retract his cooperation.
She told him that if he didn't, she would produce evidence that the fraud originated with him and that she had documentation to support it."
"Does she?" Daniel asked.
"She has altered documentation.
We've known about it for six weeks." Reyes pulled a chair from the wall and sat down, which made the conversation feel less like a briefing and more like something that had been building toward this room for a long time.
"Miss Porter, I need to ask you directly — the records you copied from Vance Logistics.
Do you still have them?"
"Yes."
"All of them?
Nothing lost, nothing damaged?"
"Everything I copied is intact."
Reyes nodded slowly.
"The USB you handed to a federal contact fourteen months ago — that contact was not one of ours."
Emily went very still.
"He presented credentials," she said.
"He had a badge.
He knew details about the account that weren't public."
"He was working for Hale.
Hale sent him to find out what you had and whether you'd already made copies.
When you handed over the USB, they believed that was everything.
That's why they stopped looking for you." Reyes looked at her steadily.
"The USB was delivered to Hale's attorney within forty-eight hours.
It's been in their possession ever since.
They've been using it to stay one step ahead of our inquiry — knowing exactly what evidence existed and structuring their defense around it."
The room was very quiet.
"They thought I only had the one copy," Emily said.
"Yes."
"And Vanessa found out I was here tonight and realized I might have more."
"Which is why she needed to discredit you before you could make formal contact with our office." Reyes leaned forward slightly.
"Miss Porter.
The backup copy — whatever you preserved beyond the USB — that is the only version of this evidence that Vance Logistics has not seen, has not prepared for, and cannot currently defend against." He paused.
"Where is it?"
Emily looked at Daniel.
Daniel gave her nothing — no nod, no signal.
He left it entirely to her.
She looked back at Reyes.
At the badge on the table.
At the way Mrs.
Alderton was standing just inside the door with her hands folded, calm and watchful, like a woman who had been in difficult rooms before and knew how to hold herself in them.
"Someone is already on their way to secure it," Emily said.
"A lawyer.
He should be there now."
"Who sent him?"
"I did," Daniel said.
"My father's attorney.
He's been holding corroborating documents in escrow.
Original audit materials from the Meridian account flagging.
Internal correspondence.
Fourteen months of sealed evidence."
Reyes looked at Daniel for a long moment.
"Your father was Graham Hawthorne."
"Yes."
"He contacted our office once.
Eight days before he d*ed.
He spoke with a colleague of mine who has since retired." Reyes picked up his badge and put it back in his pocket.
"She told me about that conversation two months ago.
She said he had documentation that would close the case.
She said he was afraid." He paused.
"She said he was right to be."
The fire in the grate had burned low.
No one moved to add wood.
"What happens now?" Emily asked.
"Now I need to reach Curtis Hale before Vanessa does," Reyes said.
"If she gets to him tonight and he retracts his cooperation, we lose our inside account.
The case becomes harder.
Not impossible — not with what you have — but harder and slower." He stood.
"I also need to know about the man who was in this room tonight.
Dark suit, side door."
"He's in the gatehouse," Daniel said.
"My security team has him."
Reyes looked at him with an expression that was not quite surprise.
"Since when?"
"Since he reached into his jacket in my foyer."
"I'll need to speak with him." Reyes moved toward the door, then stopped.
"Miss Porter.
Don't leave this house tonight.
And don't contact anyone outside of this room until I've spoken with Hale." He looked at her directly.
"You've been carrying this for fourteen months alone.
You don't have to do that anymore."
He left.
His footsteps crossed the foyer and faded toward the back of the house.
Emily stood in the library with Daniel and Mrs.
Alderton and the low fire and the silence.
"You should have that cheek looked at," Mrs.
Alderton said gently.
"The first aid kit is still in the east sitting room."
Emily almost laughed.
The normalcy of it — the simple, human practicality of it — hit her somewhere she hadn't been expecting.
"In a minute," she said.
"I'll put the kettle on as well," Mrs.
Alderton said, and walked out as if that settled it.
Daniel looked at Emily.
"Are you all right?"
"I don't know yet." She pressed her fingers lightly against her cheek.
"Where's Vanessa now?"
"Still in the house, I assume.
She wouldn't leave without her security man." He paused.
"Or without knowing whether her call to Hale worked."
Emily thought about that.
About Vanessa somewhere in this house right now, recalculating.
Making calls.
Deciding what to sacrifice and what to protect.
"She's not going to stop," Emily said.
"No," Daniel agreed.
May you like
"She's not."
From somewhere in the depths of the house, a door slammed hard enough to shake the frame.
