Chapter 17: The Dead Chairman
Julian Ashford had been declared legally dead eighteen years earlier.
His private aircraft disappeared during a flight from Chicago to Toronto. Pieces of wreckage were reportedly found in Lake Michigan, but no bodies were recovered.
Adrian had been seventeen.
Eleanor had taken control of the company after years of legal battles with the Stewardship Council.
Now Julian appeared in a photograph taken two weeks earlier.
Alive.
Standing beside Grace Bennett.
Adrian studied the image in silence.
“Could it be manipulated?” Leah asked.
“Maybe.”
But his voice revealed that he did not believe it.
Daniel searched the Halcyon files for Julian.
There were no photographs.
Only a project name.
JANUS.
The files described Janus as an external advisor with final authority over “legacy containment.”
“What is legacy containment?” Nina asked.
Daniel opened a policy document.
“Identifying survivors. Monitoring descendants. Preventing coordinated legal action.”
Leah looked at the names.
“This has been happening for almost thirty years.”
“And Julian may have been running it,” Adrian said.
Leah called Eleanor.
This time she answered.
“Where are you?” Eleanor asked.
“Safe. Is Grace with you?”
“No.”
“Julian is alive.”
Silence.
Adrian took the phone.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“You told me you believed he was dead.”
“I believed he was dead until five years ago.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“What happened five years ago?”
“A transfer was made from an account only Julian knew existed.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I traced it. The trail ended in Switzerland.”
“You should have told me.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From my father or from the truth?”
Eleanor’s answer was interrupted by a crashing sound.
“Mother?” Adrian said.
A man spoke through the phone.
“Come alone.”
The call ended.
Adrian immediately contacted Eleanor’s security detail.
They had lost communication with her vehicle twelve minutes earlier.
Traffic cameras showed the car leaving downtown and heading west.
Leah examined Eleanor’s notebook again.
Several pages had been written in a code of grammar corrections and punctuation symbols.
Nina noticed that certain words were underlined.
When combined, they formed an address.
A private chapel outside the city.
Daniel entered it into the map.
“That’s close to where Julian’s plane disappeared.”
Adrian stood.
“I’m going.”
“Not alone,” Leah said.
“That’s what they demanded.”
“They also demanded silence from Nora Ellis.”
Leah closed the laptop.
“We know how that ended.”
They drove toward the chapel.
The building stood beside an old cemetery, surrounded by trees.
Eleanor’s vehicle was parked outside.
The driver’s door was open.
There was no blood.
No sign of struggle.
Inside the chapel, candles burned along the aisle.
A man sat in the front pew.
Adrian stopped.
The man slowly stood and turned around.
He had the same eyes as Adrian.
The same shape of the jaw.
The scar across his cheek was real.
“Hello, son,” Julian Ashford said.
Then Leah saw the person seated behind him.
Grace Bennett.
Her hands were free.
May you like
She did not appear frightened.
She looked ashamed.
