Chapter 5 - Locker 417
The brass key belonged to a storage facility called Northlake Secure Archives.
The company had once provided private document lockers for Northlake Insurance employees.
Most of the facility had closed eight years earlier.
A small section remained active because old legal and financial records were still stored there.
Locker 417 had been rented under Andrew’s name.
The rental had been prepaid for ten years.
He had opened it six months before he died.
Detective Cole obtained a warrant before sunset.
I stayed at the hospital with Emma.
Mark joined me shortly after five.
Lily was safe with him.
She had given an initial forensic statement.
Mark could not tell me everything, but he told me one thing.
“She said Vanessa picked up the skillet before Emma touched the food.”
My stomach tightened.
“So Vanessa was already holding it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“They’re still asking questions.”
Mark rubbed his face.
“She also said your mother told Vanessa, ‘Don’t miss your chance this time.’”
I stared at him.
“What chance?”
“I don’t know.”
Neither did the police.
At 6:42 p.m., Detective Cole called.
They had opened locker 417.
Inside were three banker’s boxes.
A laptop.
A digital recorder.
Several sealed envelopes.
And photographs.
Dozens of them.
The photographs showed damaged vehicles, altered accident reports, handwritten claim numbers, and copies of checks.
One picture showed my father standing beside a man I recognized instantly.
Vanessa’s ex-husband, Mark.
The photograph was dated seven years earlier.
I looked across the hospital waiting room.
Mark had gone to get coffee.
“Why is Mark in one of the photographs?”
Cole paused.
“We don’t know yet.”
“When was it taken?”
“Seven years ago.”
“Mark was married to Vanessa then.”
“Yes.”
“What were they doing?”
“Standing outside Northlake’s old records warehouse.”
My pulse accelerated.
“Does Mark know about the locker?”
“We’re going to ask him.”
I hung up just as Mark returned carrying two cups.
He handed one to me.
“What happened?”
I didn’t take it.
“Were you involved with Northlake Insurance?”
His face changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
“Rachel.”
“Answer me.”
He put both coffees down.
“I worked security there for six months.”
“You never told me.”
“You never asked.”
“My husband photographed you outside their records warehouse.”
Mark went completely still.
“Andrew had that picture?”
“Yes.”
He sat down slowly.
Then he whispered something I never expected.
“That means Andrew found me.”
“What does that mean?”
Mark looked toward Emma’s room.
“When Vanessa and I were still married, I discovered your father had been paying her.”
“For what?”
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t ask?”
“I did.”
“She said it was family money.”
His expression hardened.
“I knew she was lying.”
“So you followed her?”
“Yes.”
“One night she met your father at the old Northlake warehouse.”
“What happened?”
“They carried boxes out.”
“What was in them?”
“I never found out.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“Because two days later somebody broke into my apartment.”
I stared at him.
“Vanessa told me it was random.”
Mark shook his head.
“They took only one thing.”
“What?”
“The camera containing the photos I took that night.”
A terrible possibility formed.
“Andrew somehow got copies.”
“Apparently.”
Mark looked toward me.
“There’s something else.”
I waited.
“The day Andrew died, he called me.”
My breath caught.
“You spoke to him?”
“No.”
“He left a voicemail.”
“What did it say?”
Mark’s eyes filled with guilt.
“I deleted it.”
May you like
“Why?”
“Because he said if anything happened to him, I should keep Lily away from Vanessa and your parents.”
