Chapter 14 - Walter’s Recording
The flash drive contained dozens of accounting files.
Most were useless.
One folder was password protected.
Erica guessed the password.
Her mother’s birthday.
Inside was an audio recording.
Walter Briggs’s voice filled Samuel’s office.
He sounded frightened.
“If anyone hears this, Marcus has gone too far.”
Samuel sat motionless.
Walter admitted stealing from Hale’s Bakery.
He admitted forging Samuel’s signature.
He admitted letting Daniel take the blame.
Then his voice changed.
“But the motorcycle was Marcus.”
Grace grabbed the edge of the desk.
Walter continued.
“I saw him under Daniel’s bike.”
“He told me he only wanted to scare him.”
“He said Daniel would lose control at low speed.”
“But Daniel nearly died.”
Noah felt sick.
Samuel turned off the recording.
Grace shook her head.
“No.”
“We listen to all of it.”
Walter described years of blackmail.
Marcus had forced him to continue manipulating properties.
Walter eventually created the recording as insurance.
He never used it.
Police took the drive that afternoon.
Marcus was brought in for questioning.
This time, he did not return home immediately.
Investigators found financial records connecting him to the shell companies.
The old attempted property transfer was fraudulent.
The court claim collapsed.
But the investigation into Daniel’s motorcycle incident remained difficult.
Marcus’s lawyer argued Walter was dead and could not be cross-examined.
Grace did not care about revenge.
She wanted the truth acknowledged.
Noah wanted something else.
He wanted his father’s name cleared.
The community already knew Daniel as the man blamed for stealing bakery money.
Samuel changed that.
He placed a framed photograph near the front counter.
It showed Daniel at nineteen.
Underneath, Samuel wrote one sentence.
DANIEL CARTER SAVED THIS BAKERY BEFORE ANY OF US KNEW HOW MUCH IT WOULD MATTER.
Noah stared at it for a long time.
Erica stood beside him.
“I’m sorry.”
He did not respond.
“For the first day.”
Still nothing.
“For making you feel ashamed for being hungry.”
Noah finally looked at her.
“I wasn’t ashamed.”
Erica nodded.
“You shouldn’t have been.”
“That was your mistake.”
“Yes.”
Noah considered her carefully.
Then he said something Daniel might have said.
“Don’t make it twice.”
Erica almost smiled.
“I won’t.”
That evening, Samuel received another phone call from police.
Marcus had been released pending further investigation.
Samuel’s face darkened.
Then Grace looked through the bakery window.
Across the street, Marcus stood beneath a streetlamp.
May you like
He looked directly at Noah.
Then he slowly raised one finger to his lips.
