Chapter 14 - The Safe Behind the Painting
The investigator entered Jasper’s office with a locksmith and two independent witnesses.
A landscape painting hung behind the desk.
Priscilla had described the safe hidden behind it.
But when they removed the painting, the wall was empty.
Fresh plaster covered the space where the safe had once been.
Jasper had moved it.
The investigator searched the room.
The desk drawers were cleared.
The scanning tablet was gone.
So were the original loan records.
Naomi called Hailey.
“He may have taken everything before the hospital discharge.”
Hailey thought back.
Two nights before Toby was born, Jasper had spent hours in the garage.
When Hailey asked what he was doing, he said he was reorganizing storage.
The house had a climate-controlled wine cellar beneath the garage.
Jasper rarely allowed staff inside.
The investigator moved downstairs.
Behind a rack of expensive wine, they found scrape marks on the concrete floor.
A steel cabinet had recently been dragged aside.
Behind it was a second safe.
Larger.
Heavier.
Still locked.
The locksmith began drilling.
At the same time, Jasper drove toward the house in a rented sedan.
He knew the administrator account had been accessed.
He knew the office had been searched.
He called Gillian.
“Did you tell anyone about the cellar?”
“No.”
“Priscilla?”
“She knows nothing.”
Jasper ended the call.
He underestimated his sister.
Priscilla had followed him downstairs many times and watched him enter the code.
She had already given it to Naomi.
The investigator stopped drilling and entered six digits.
Toby’s birth date.
The safe opened.
Inside were copied signatures.
Bank records.
A second phone.
Letters from Charles addressed to Hailey.
And a black flash drive labeled FAMILY.
The drive contained recordings from hidden cameras throughout the house.
Bedroom.
Nursery.
Kitchen.
Hailey’s private dressing room.
Jasper had recorded her for years.
Some clips showed her crying after arguments.
Others showed Gillian provoking her, then leaving the room before Hailey broke down.
One showed Jasper standing outside the nursery while Hailey suffered a panic attack.
Instead of helping, he recorded through the doorway.
Then he emailed the clip to a custody attorney with the note:
COULD THIS SUPPORT AN INSTABILITY CLAIM?
Hailey watched only ten seconds before closing the laptop.
She felt sick.
“He was building a case before Toby was born.”
Naomi nodded.
“Possibly before you became pregnant.”
The safe also contained documents for a separate apartment rented under Jasper’s company.
Inside were photographs of him with another woman.
Not Courtney.
Someone Hailey had never seen.
The records showed Jasper had been paying her for information about Westfield Logistics.
The affair was not only personal.
It was corporate espionage.
Outside the house, Jasper’s rented car turned onto the street.
The investigator saw it through the window.
He called security.
Jasper parked two houses away and approached through the backyard.
He entered using a hidden key.
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Then he heard voices coming from the cellar.
👉 Jasper reached the safe before the evidence could be removed—but Hailey had placed one person there he never expected to confront.
