Chapter 13 - Raymond’s DebtRaymond Vale opened the door holding two grocery bags.
“Please tell me you’re not here to ruin another Tuesday.”
Adrian took one bag.
“I’m here to ruin Wednesday early.”
Raymond glanced at him.
“That was almost funny.”
“I’ve had practice.”
They carried the groceries inside.
Raymond put milk in the refrigerator.
“You look terrible.”
“People keep saying that.”
“Maybe listen.”
Adrian placed a folder on the table.
“What is this?” Raymond asked.
“Your bankruptcy.”
“I already have one.”
“This one has Marcus’s fingerprints.”
Raymond sat.
Adrian explained Bracken Maritime.
The contract changes.
The payments.
The connection to Cypress North.
By the time he finished, Raymond had stopped pretending not to care.
“You’re saying Marcus used my collapse to recruit Corinne.”
“Yes.”
“And he paid her.”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“To help pressure me into selling Brooks Marine.”
Raymond looked toward the photograph of his daughter.
“And the yacht?”
Adrian was silent.
Raymond swallowed.
“Did he tell her?”
“I don’t know what he told her.”
“You talked to Corinne?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“That she pushed Junie.”
Raymond closed his eyes.
Adrian expected him to defend her.
Instead Raymond whispered, “God.”
He stood and walked to the window.
“I taught her to hate you.”
“Marcus helped.”
“No.”
Raymond turned.
“Don’t make me feel better.”
“I’m not.”
“I spent ten years telling my daughter rich men destroyed us because they could. Every Christmas. Every drink. Every time I got angry.”
“You believed it.”
“I wanted to.”
“Why?”
“Because the alternative was admitting I signed bad loans.”
Adrian looked at him.
Raymond laughed bitterly.
“Marcus changed the deal, yes. But I also expanded too fast. I gambled the company because I wanted to look bigger than I was.”
He sat again.
“Blaming you made me a victim.”
Adrian understood that better than he wanted to.
Blaming Corinne alone would be easier than examining how Marcus had entered his family.
Blaming Marcus alone would be easier than examining how Adrian had ignored Naomi.
There were different degrees of responsibility.
But responsibility was not a pie. One person’s guilt did not reduce another’s.
Raymond opened a cabinet.
“I have something.”
He retrieved an old external hard drive.
“What’s that?”
“Company backup.”
“You had this the whole time?”
“I forgot about it.”
“Convenient family trait.”
Raymond gave him a look.
“Do you want it or not?”
Adrian smiled faintly.
They connected the drive.
Most files were ordinary.
Invoices.
Payroll.
Contracts.
Then Raymond found a folder named BELL.
Inside were emails his old accountant had copied during the bankruptcy.
One showed Marcus instructing Bracken Maritime to purchase distressed Vale Shipping debt.
Another showed Bracken selling that debt at a profit after Vale collapsed.
Raymond stared.
“He was betting against me.”
“Looks that way.”
“He engineered the contract failure and then bought the debt.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
Marcus had not merely destroyed a supplier.
He had profited from it.
Raymond opened another email.
This one was from Naomi.
Raymond, I believe there are irregularities in the revised inspection schedule. Do not sign anything else until I can review it. Please keep this between us for now.
Raymond covered his mouth.
“She tried to warn me.”
“Yes.”
“I thought it was a trap.”
“Why?”
“Marcus called five minutes later.”
Adrian went still.
“What did he say?”
“He said you discovered Naomi was helping me and were furious. He told me if I spoke to her again, Brooks Marine would sue us immediately.”
Adrian sat back.
Marcus had isolated everyone.
Raymond from Naomi.
Adrian from Raymond.
Corinne from the truth.
Naomi from company records.
“That man has been writing everybody’s version of everybody else for eleven years,” Raymond said.
Adrian looked at the screen.
“Yes.”
Raymond’s eyes filled.
“And my daughter believed him.”
“She made her own choices.”
“I know.”
It was painful to hear him say it.
Raymond looked older.
“I need to see Corinne.”
“You may not be allowed.”
“She’s my daughter.”
“So is Junie.”
Raymond nodded slowly.
“I know.”
Adrian stood.
At the door, Raymond stopped him.
“Adrian.”
He turned.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For teaching Corinne that revenge was the same thing as justice.”
Adrian considered the apology.
Then said, “Help us prove what Marcus did.”
Raymond nodded.
“I will.”
Adrian stepped into the hallway.
His phone rang.
Ortiz.
“We got the marina footage.”
His pulse jumped.
“Tell me.”
“Corinne went to the garage like you remembered.”
“And?”
“She met someone.”
“Marcus?”
“No.”
Adrian waited.
“Calvin Reese.”
The former network contractor.
The man whose credentials erased the camera.
“What did he give her?”
“We can’t see clearly.”
“How long?”
“Forty-three seconds.”
“Did she give him anything?”
“No.”
“What did he give her?”
“A small black device.”
Adrian looked back through Raymond’s doorway.
The conspiracy had finally acquired a physical shape.
A device.
A meeting.
May you like
A deleted camera.
And Corinne had never mentioned any of it.
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