Chapter 7 - Samuel Had Worked for Thomas
Samuel was seventy-two.
He had maintained the Vale property for nearly thirty years.
When Sarah questioned him, he asked first whether Emily and the baby
were safe.
Then he confessed.
He had sent the warning.
“Why?”
Samuel looked at Emily.
“Because I knew your father.”
Before working for the Vales, Samuel had been Thomas Carter’s
apprentice.
Thomas trusted him.
The night before Thomas disappeared, he gave Samuel a sealed metal case.
He said:
If anything happens, make sure Richard Vale eventually sees this.
Samuel became frightened.
He hid the case instead.
Years later, he finally told Richard.
Richard opened it and discovered the shipping evidence.
By then, records had vanished and witnesses were gone.
Richard began quietly rebuilding the case.
Samuel said Margaret eventually realized Richard knew.
After Richard’s death, she searched everywhere for the evidence.
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But Richard had moved it.
The brass key opened the place where he put it.
