Chapter 6 - THE DEAD AUDITOR'S LAST MESSAGE
Clara Keterman was found the next morning.
She had been staying with her aunt in western Massachusetts.
She was frightened but unharmed.
Her aunt had helped her avoid contact with people connected to Thornfield.
Investigators arranged for Clara to speak with Naomi Whitcomb in the presence of appropriate support.
Clara described her father's final days.
Howard had discovered that Thornfield's internal accounting records did not match its official financial statements.
He had copied documents.
He had also recorded conversations with senior executives.
But the most important evidence was not in the notebook.
It was in a separate archive.
"My dad called it the second ledger," Clara said.
Naomi leaned forward.
"Where is it?"
Clara shook her head.
"I don't know."
"Did he tell you anything about it?"
Clara hesitated.
"He said it wasn't where anyone would think to look."
Investigators searched Howard's office records.
His home.
His storage unit.
Nothing.
Mave listened to the update and frowned.
"Howard was an auditor."
Rafe looked at her.
"Yes."
"He wouldn't hide financial records in a place without a way to retrieve them."
"What are you thinking?"
Mave considered.
"He'd create a reference."
She opened the notebook.
Page after page contained dates, amounts, and facility codes.
Then she noticed something she'd missed before.
Certain entries included a small handwritten symbol.
A square with a diagonal line.
It appeared beside transactions involving property transfers.
Mave studied the pattern.
Then looked up.
"These aren't accounting marks."
Rafe leaned closer.
"What are they?"
"Location references."
The symbols corresponded to storage identifiers used by a document-archiving company.
The company had maintained Thornfield's historical records for years.
Naomi obtained the necessary legal authorization.
Investigators located an archive box registered under a subsidiary name.
Inside were original documents, correspondence, and digital storage media.
The records appeared to support the notebook's entries.
But the most disturbing discovery was a list of residents whose property had been transferred shortly before their deaths.
Teresa Balandi was on it.
So was Nathaniel Pike.
And dozens of others.
Mave stared at Nathaniel's name.
She remembered his hands.
The way he'd tapped along with old jazz records.
The way he'd asked her to leave the window open because he liked hearing the rain.
She remembered signing the inaccurate death certificate.
Her stomach twisted.
Rafe noticed.
"What is it?"
Mave looked down.
"I signed his certificate."
He waited.
"I knew something was wrong, and I signed anyway."
Rafe said nothing.
She continued.
"I told myself I couldn't prove it. That I was exhausted. That the doctor had already completed the form."
Her voice broke.
"But I knew."
Rafe sat beside her.
"What do you want to do?"
Mave looked at him.
May you like
"Tell the truth."
And for the first time, she understood that exposing Thornfield would also mean admitting her own failure.
