Chapter 10 - Samuel Crowe
Samuel had been declared missing by his own family fourteen months earlier.
Two months before Adrian died.
I had assumed he ran.
Men around us sometimes did.
Now Claire said he was alive.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
She claimed Samuel waited in Victor’s vehicle during the initial search.
After Roman freed Mia, Victor called Samuel inside.
Claire heard them arguing.
About the foundation.
About Adrian.
About “the list.”
“What list?”
Claire didn’t know.
Diane did.
Northstar kept a handwritten roster of recipients who received off-book payments.
Politicians?
Police?
Criminal crews?
Charities?
Diane couldn’t say.
She only handled invoices.
Adrian and Victor maintained the recipient codes separately.
Mia believed the list explained why Adrian became terrified before his death.
That changed my brother’s final year in my memory.
He had withdrawn from family dinners.
Stopped bringing Harper to gatherings.
Began drinking more.
I had interpreted it as grief after losing friends.
Maybe it was fear.
Luca traced Samuel through financial records supplied to investigators.
His Social Security number had no recent legitimate employment.
But a medical bill from Pennsylvania appeared under an alias linked to his birth date.
Investigators located him.
Alive.
Working at a repair shop.
He agreed to speak through counsel after learning Mia was missing.
Samuel looked at me over video.
“You look like Adrian.”
“I’m not Adrian.”
“Good.”
He explained his disappearance.
Adrian ordered him to vanish.
Why?
Because Samuel had witnessed Victor meeting with people connected to Northstar payments.
Adrian feared Victor would silence him.
“Did Victor kill Adrian?”
Samuel shook his head.
“No.”
That answer came quickly.
“Adrian died of a heart attack. I wasn’t there, but he had heart problems.”
Again, reality refused the dramatic shortcut.
“Then why hide?”
“Because Victor thought I had the recipient list.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Samuel believed Adrian gave it to Mia.
Maybe that was what she retrieved from the warehouse.
“What happened the night Mia vanished?”
Samuel said Victor called him.
“He told me Mia found the old records.”
Samuel came because he feared Victor would harm her.
Not to help Victor.
He stayed in the car initially.
Then Mia returned unexpectedly with Roman.
Victor ordered Samuel to follow her.
“I refused.”
“What did Victor do?”
“He pulled a gun.”
I looked at Claire.
She stared at the floor.
Samuel continued.
“Mia saw it.”
That was why she cut Roman’s dashcam.
Not because she feared digital surveillance alone.
She saw Victor armed and didn’t want her next move recorded where he could access it.
Then Samuel said:
“Mia told me where she was going.”
My pulse jumped.
“Where?”
May you like
“To see the only person Adrian trusted more than you.”
📖 Mia escaped the mansion to seek Adrian’s most trusted confidant, but the name Samuel gave me belonged to a man I had considered my enemy for twenty years. 👇
