Chapter 9 - Inside the Truck
The police impound lot opened at six the next morning.
Willow arrived with Naomi and a detective.
Michael remained in the hospital.
The black Ford sat beneath fluorescent lights.
Its front bumper was crushed.
The windshield was cracked.
To Willow, it looked like childhood.
Michael had driven her to school in that truck.
Taught her to change a tire beside it.
Picked her up after her first heartbreak in it.
She walked around the vehicle slowly.
The brass key did not fit the glove compartment.
It did not fit the toolbox.
Then Willow remembered something.
When she was nine, she had asked why the passenger-side floor had a strange metal plate beneath the carpet.
Michael had said it covered an old repair.
Willow pulled back the carpet.
There it was.
A tiny brass lock.
Her hands started shaking.
The key turned.
Beneath the plate was a sealed steel container.
Naomi whispered, “Oh my God.”
Inside were documents wrapped in oilcloth.
Original incorporation papers.
Original share certificates.
A handwritten partnership ledger.
And Catherine Donovan’s trust.
Naomi inspected the signatures.
“If these authenticate, Willow…”
She stopped.
Willow touched her mother’s handwriting.
Then she found something else.
A cassette tape.
Written across it in blue ink were four words.
IF RICHARD DENIES EVERYTHING.
Willow looked at Naomi.
“Can we play this?”
Not there.
Not yet.
They took the tape to a secure office.
An hour later, Catherine Donovan’s voice filled the room.
Willow had not heard her mother’s voice in twenty-six years.
She began crying before Catherine finished the first sentence.
“My name is Catherine Donovan.”
“If you are listening to this, Richard Sterling has probably denied our agreement.”
Catherine described shell companies.
Secret transfers.
False invoices.
Then she said something unexpected.
“Richard believes I discovered only the money.”
“He is wrong.”
Willow wiped her eyes.
“I also discovered why his original investor disappeared.”
Naomi sat forward.
The tape hissed.
Catherine continued.
“If Richard ever threatens Michael or Willow, the complete ledger must go to the authorities.”
Willow looked at Naomi.
“What original investor?”
Naomi pulled out the incorporation document.
The missing two-percent owner.
Name.
Edward Sterling.
Richard’s older brother.
Willow stared at it.
Richard had always claimed Edward died overseas before the company became successful.
Catherine’s recording continued.
“Edward Sterling did not abandon the company.”
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“He discovered Richard was stealing.”
“And three days later, Edward vanished.”
