Chapter 13 - THE PUBLIC HEARING
The state committee scheduled an emergency hearing the next morning.
Senator Vale expected to remove me as trustee.
Instead, I arrived with Detective Ortiz, federal agents, Marcus Reed, Sophie’s doctor, and Grant in custody.
The hearing chamber was packed.
Vale sat beneath the state seal, calm and polished.
“Mrs. Bennett,” he began, “this committee is concerned about your judgment during a public crisis.”
“My judgment preserved the video of my husband assaulting our daughter.”
“An unfortunate family incident.”
“A crime.”
He frowned. “Your aggressive lockdown caused panic and property damage.”
“The lockdown trapped the man your associates hired to steal the trust ledger.”
A murmur moved through the room.
Vale struck his gavel. “Unsupported accusation.”
I displayed the recovered footage of Rusk entering with false credentials. Then the transfer order for Sophie appeared on every screen.
Vale’s attorney stood. “That document is fabricated.”
The hospital administrator testified that the order entered through the state emergency network using credentials assigned to Vale’s chief of staff.
Then Marcus presented recovered video from Henry’s final night.
The image was damaged, but clear enough.
Vale entered Henry’s office.
Vale placed a blue bottle beside the tea.
Vale threatened him.
When the clip ended, the chamber erupted.
Vale did not move.
“You cannot prove what was in that bottle,” he said.
“No,” I answered. “But we can prove you lied about being there.”
Agent Price stepped forward with a warrant.
Vale smiled coldly. “You think this ends with me?”
“No. I think it starts with you.”
Before agents reached him, Victoria stood in the gallery.
She had been brought under guard to testify.
“I will tell you what was in the bottle,” she said.
Everyone turned.
Vale’s face changed.
Victoria looked at me. “I want immunity.”
“You tried to burn a museum with my daughter inside.”
“Then I want protection.”
Vale rose. “Do not say another word.”
Victoria laughed. “You always believed fear made people loyal, Charles.”
She testified that Vale supplied Henry’s medication and instructed her to replace one heart pill with a counterfeit dose. She claimed she did not know it would kill him.
Grant shouted from the witness section, “You killed Dad?”
Victoria’s composure cracked.
“He was going to leave everything to strangers!”
“To Claire,” Grant said.
“To the museum,” I corrected.
Vale lunged across the desk toward Victoria.
Agents tackled him.
The hearing dissolved into shouting.
Then a committee clerk ran to me with a tablet.
“Mrs. Bennett, the foundation servers are deleting themselves.”
A remote command had activated during the hearing.
Every archive, donor record, shipping file, and financial account was being erased.
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The command source was inside the museum.
And according to the access log, it had been issued by Sophie’s tablet.
