gave him what he wanted.”
Adrian reached inside his coat and produced a small envelope.
Inside was a recent photograph of a man sitting in a private hospital room.
I recognized him immediately.
Jonah’s father.
Richard Vale.
Alive.
Jonah stared at the photograph in disbelief.
“He faked his death?”
“Yes,” Adrian replied. “After Maria died, Richard discovered that the investigation was getting too close to him. He arranged to disappear and let everyone believe he had died from a heart attack.”
“Why didn’t you expose him?”
“Because I didn’t have
the original documents. Without them, he could still deny everything.”
I pulled the silver necklace from beneath my shirt.
“Then let’s get the documents.”
Adrian looked at me with a mixture of pride and sadness.
“Your mother would have said exactly the same thing.”
For the first time that night, I felt close to her again.
Not as the frightened little girl who had lost her mother.
But as the woman Maria had spent her entire life trying to protect.
The safety deposit box was located in an old bank
