Chapter 6 - Richard’s Brother Never Died
Daniel Bennett had disappeared after a sailing accident twelve years
earlier.
No body was recovered.
The family held a memorial.
Claire stood beside Richard through months of grief.
Now she learned the grief had been built around a lie.
Daniel survived.
Thomas found him two weeks after the accident.
Daniel had deliberately disappeared because he discovered early Seabrook
transactions and feared being blamed.
Thomas secretly helped him relocate.
Richard learned the truth years later.
Claire stared at her husband.
“You let me comfort you at your brother’s funeral.”
“I didn’t know then.”
“When did you know?”
“Seven years ago.”
Seven years.
Another secret.
Daniel had recently returned after Thomas’s death because Seabrook
activity resumed.
He contacted Vanessa before she joined the company.
That was why she had been hired.
Vanessa had entered the organization partly at Daniel’s urging.
Richard looked at her.
“You told me the board recruited you.”
“They did. Daniel made sure they saw the discrepancies.”
Claire asked the obvious question.
“Where is he?”
Nobody knew.
Then the yacht’s navigation archive revealed a trip Richard had never
disclosed.
Three nights earlier, the yacht traveled to a private dock thirty miles
north.
A dock registered to Daniel Bennett.
Claire looked at Richard.
“You saw him.”
“Yes.”
“What did he give you?”
May you like
Richard stared at the beige handbag.
“The key you’re carrying.”
