If this reaches you, then I failed to stop the people responsible. I am sorry that I could not give you the explanation you deserved.
There are things I never told you because I wanted to protect you. I thought that if I kept you away from my work, you would be safe. I now understand that silence can protect the guilty as easily as it can protect the innocent.
The investigation into Donovan Development Group began as a financial inquiry. We believed the problem was a collection of fraudulent contracts and misused public funds. But the deeper we looked, the more we discovered that the money was only one part of the operation.
Victoria continued reading.
The people involved had created a system in which evidence could be altered, witnesses intimidated, and investigations redirected. They used local law enforcement to create fear and federal authority to create legitimacy.
Richard Harlan was not simply protecting Donovan. He was building a network that would allow him to control which investigations survived.
I found evidence that he had ordered the removal of files from an internal inquiry seven years before. I also found evidence that he had arranged for certain witnesses to be discredited.
Victoria paused.
Her father's handwriting became more hurried on the next page.
There is a name you must pay attention to: Thomas Miller. He was assigned to help review security records. Instead, he provided information to Wallace and Harlan. I confronted him, but he denied everything.
I believe Miller knows what happened to the original evidence from the first inquiry. If he is still alive and working with them, he is one of the most dangerous people in the network.
Sarah looked up.
“That confirms Margaret's account.”
Victoria turned to the final page.
The most important document is not the financial ledger. It is the authorization record. Without it, Harlan can claim that Donovan acted independently and that the government officials involved were unaware of the transfers.
I have hidden a copy in a place no one would think to search. The photograph will help you find it.
Victoria removed the photograph.
It showed her father standing outside an old courthouse. Behind him was a stone monument, and beside the monument stood a young woman.
Victoria recognized the woman.
It was her mother.
But there was something strange about the picture. Eleanor was holding a small book, and her left hand rested against a carved stone inscription.
Victoria turned the photograph over.
There was a handwritten address.
It belonged to an old courthouse in a town outside Washington. The building had been closed for renovation nearly a decade earlier.
Sarah studied the image.
“Do you think he hid something there?”
“I think he wanted us to look.”
“Could it be a trap?”
“Everything is a possibility now.”
Sarah nodded.
“We'll arrange a controlled search.”
Victoria placed the photograph beside the letter.
Then she noticed a small mark near the lower corner. It looked like a series of numbers.
She enlarged it using her phone.
There were six digits.
102214.
Sarah frowned.
“Could be a date.”
“October 22, 2014,” Victoria said. “The day he made the recording.”
She looked at the photograph again.
“The courthouse monument. The inscription. The book my mother was holding.”
She turned to Sarah.
“Find out whether the monument has been moved or altered since the building closed.”
Sarah began searching through historical property records.
Within minutes, she found an archived photograph of the courthouse from the previous year. The monument had been removed during renovations and placed in temporary storage.
“Where is it now?” Victoria asked.
Sarah checked the record.
“Municipal maintenance warehouse. Building C.”
Victoria stared at the photograph.
Her father had hidden something inside the monument.
And someone had moved it without knowing what it contained.
“Call the warehouse manager,” she said. “Tell him we need immediate access.”
At Blackwood, Peter Wallace received a message from Thomas Miller.
The old woman is alive. The envelope is gone.
Wallace read it twice.
Then he called Miller.
“You were supposed to retrieve it.”
“I know.”
“Then why is Bennett's daughter still holding it?”
“She arrived before we could finish.”
“You had one job.”
Miller's voice hardened.
“Don't speak to me as if I work for you.”
Wallace laughed.
“You've spent eleven years doing exactly what I tell you.”
“Not anymore.”
There was a long silence.
“What does that mean?” Wallace asked.
“It means I want out.”
Wallace looked toward the window.
“You can't leave.”
“I have enough evidence to bring down Harlan, Donovan, and you.”
“You have nothing.”