Chapter 6 - THE NOTARY WITH THE LION RING
Gerald Pike lived behind iron gates on twenty wooded acres outside the city.
By the time police arrived, the gates were open.
So was the front door.
Nobody answered.
Detective Chen ordered Mark to remain outside.
He ignored her until she threatened to have an officer physically remove him.
Fifteen minutes later, Chen returned.
Gerald was gone.
His bedroom looked recently emptied.
Several suits were missing.
Passport missing.
Medication missing.
One vehicle missing.
It was not a spontaneous departure.
Gerald had planned to run.
Inside his study, investigators found something else.
A shredder filled with strips of legal documents.
Most were impossible to read.
One piece contained three surviving words.
BENNETT FAMILY TRUST.
Another contained Victoria's signature.
Mark felt sick.
"This goes back months."
Chen nodded.
"Probably longer."
Daniel arrived after sunset.
He confirmed that Gerald had notarized several legitimate Bennett documents over the years.
That gave him access to sample signatures, old seals, trust language, and information about the estate structure.
"He knew exactly what a convincing forgery needed to look like," Daniel said.
Mark stared at Gerald's empty driveway.
"Why would he help Victoria?"
"We find Gerald, we ask."
They did not have to wait long for part of the answer.
At eleven that night, Daniel received an encrypted email.
The sender was Gerald Pike.
The subject contained two words.
I'M SORRY.
Attached was an audio recording.
Gerald's voice filled Daniel's office.
"If this message has been delivered, then I have failed to fix what I allowed to happen."
Mark leaned toward the speaker.
Gerald sounded frightened.
"Victoria came to me eleven months ago."
"She said Harold was mentally declining and Mark was manipulating him."
"She showed me medical notes."
"Emails."
"Financial documents."
"I believed enough of it to help her draft an emergency amendment."
Daniel shook his head.
"That's impossible."
Gerald continued.
"Then Samuel Price became involved."
"He knew things Victoria did not."
"Account numbers."
"Transfer dates."
"Private conversations with Harold."
"He convinced me that Mark planned to liquidate the company and remove Sophie from the family."
Mark whispered.
"They made him think I was stealing."
Gerald's recording continued.
"By the time I realized the documents were fabricated, I had already notarized two false instruments."
"Samuel told me that admitting the truth would destroy my reputation and expose me to criminal charges."
"So I stayed silent."
Gerald breathed unevenly.
"That was my cowardice."
"Not theirs."
"There is one original document Samuel desperately wants."
"Harold called it the Founder's Covenant."
Daniel looked sharply at Mark.
Mark had never heard the phrase.
Gerald continued.
"It predates the current trust."
"If activated under certain conditions, it can block any transfer of Bennett Holdings outside Harold's direct bloodline."
Samuel's motive suddenly became clearer.
He could steal money.
He could manipulate Victoria.
But unless he controlled the underlying shares, he could never own the company.
Gerald spoke one final time.
"The covenant is not in Harold's house."
"It is not in his bank box."
"It is somewhere connected to the first Bennett factory."
"Harold told me only one clue."
"The company remembers where the family forgets."
The recording stopped.
Mark looked at Daniel.
"The first factory was demolished twenty years ago."
Daniel shook his head.
"Not all of it."
Mark remembered.
The original administration building still stood beside the river.
Bennett Holdings used it as an archive.
Nobody worked there anymore.
Mark immediately reached for his coat.
Daniel grabbed his arm.
"Wait."
"Samuel knows about the covenant."
"Exactly."
"If Gerald told us, he may have told Samuel."
Mark understood.
Someone could already be at the archive.
They called Detective Chen while racing toward the river.
Six miles away, an alarm began ringing inside the abandoned Bennett administration building.
A motion sensor on the third floor had detected movement.
May you like
Then the security cameras went dark.
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