Chapter 3 - THE RED FILE
David arrived at noon.
Not in a limousine.
Not with security.
He drove himself.
Emily noticed immediately.
So did every neighbor.
His black sedan looked absurd parked beside dented minivans and salt-stained sedans.
Lily opened the door before Emily reached it.
"Sky Man!"
David smiled.
"Merry Christmas."
He held a paper bag.
Emily raised an eyebrow.
"I told you not to bring gifts."
"It's not."
Lily looked disappointed.
David opened the bag.
"Bagels."
Lily approved.
Emily let him inside.
Her apartment embarrassed her.
Secondhand furniture.
Peeling paint near the window.
A radiator that made knocking sounds all night.
But David didn't look around critically.
He looked at the small paper Christmas tree Lily had taped to the wall.
"That's better than mine."
Lily beamed.
Emily brought out the necklace.
David's expression changed the moment he touched it.
"That's Claire's."
Then Emily showed him the note.
FIND THE RED FILE.
David sat down.
"I know what that means."
"What?"
"Claire kept project documents color-coded."
Emily waited.
"A red file meant personal investigation."
"Investigation into what?"
"I don't know."
"Didn't you ask?"
David laughed without humor.
"I thought I knew everything about my wife."
Emily understood that feeling too well.
David continued.
"Two weeks before she died, Claire started acting distracted. She cancelled dinners. Stayed late at the office."
"What did she do?"
"She ran the Harrison Foundation."
That surprised Emily.
"Charity?"
"Housing, food assistance, community development."
Emily looked around her apartment.
"Funny."
"What?"
"Your company's cleaners don't get enough hours for health insurance, but your foundation helps poor families."
The words came out before she could stop them.
David stared at her.
"I'm sorry."
"No."
He looked genuinely unsettled.
"You're right."
Emily hadn't expected that.
David returned to the note.
"Claire had access to our development projects."
"Maybe she discovered something."
"I searched her office after she died."
"No red file?"
"No."
Lily appeared.
"What's a red file?"
"Grown-up homework," Emily said.
"Boring."
"Extremely."
Lily returned to her drawing.
David lowered his voice.
"Claire gave you the necklace because she believed you were connected somehow."
"Through Daniel?"
"Possibly."
Emily's stomach tightened.
Her husband had worked as an electrician on large commercial projects.
One of them had been Harrison-owned.
Rivergate Towers.
David recognized the name when she said it.
The project had been plagued by complaints after construction.
Electrical problems.
Water intrusion.
Unsafe materials.
David's company blamed subcontractors.
Daniel had worked there six months before his death.
"He hated that job," Emily said.
"Why?"
"He said things weren't right."
David leaned forward.
"What things?"
"He wouldn't tell me."
Then Emily remembered something.
A week before the accident, Daniel had come home with a cut above his eyebrow.
He claimed he slipped at work.
She believed him.
Now she wasn't sure.
"He told me once that rich people don't build differently," she whispered. "They just hide mistakes more expensively."
David flinched.
"Did he mention anyone?"
"A man named Richard."
David's face hardened.
"Richard Cole."
"Who is he?"
"My chief operating officer."
Emily stared at him.
"Still?"
"Yes."
For twenty-two years.
Richard had helped David's father build the company.
He was practically family.
And he had supervised Rivergate.
David stood.
"I need to go."
Emily immediately became guarded.
"That's it?"
"No."
He looked at her.
"I need to find the red file."
That afternoon David entered Claire's old study for the first time in months.
He opened drawers.
Boxes.
Cabinets.
Nothing.
Then he noticed something behind the bookshelf.
A red fabric corner.
He pulled.
A folder slid free.
Inside were inspection photographs from Rivergate Towers.
Emails.
Invoices.
And handwritten notes.
Claire had discovered Harrison Global executives were paying inspectors to approve unsafe work.
Richard Cole's name appeared repeatedly.
At the bottom of the final page:
Daniel Carter agreed to testify.
David stopped breathing.
Emily's husband.
The man who died in the same crash as Claire.
Both were about to expose Richard Cole.
David picked up his phone.
Before he could call police, his office door opened.
Richard stood there.
May you like
Holding a glass of whiskey.
"You finally found it."
