Nobody listened.
Daniel did.
He enlarged the image.
"He's right."
The room quieted.
Victor turned.
Daniel froze the video as the disguised man reached toward the control console.
"Look at his right hand."
Evelyn moved closer.
The man's fingers were longer than Victor's.
A small scar visible on Victor's thumb was absent.
His shoulders moved differently.
Then Daniel noticed the wrist.
A silver watch.
Same narrow face.
Same unusual clasp.
Daniel looked at Evelyn.
"Your watch."
She instinctively touched her wrist.
Then removed it.
She opened the clasp.
Daniel enlarged the footage.
The watch was identical.
Evelyn's face changed.
The number.
The flash drive.
The template identifiers.
Her father's watch.
Grant Meridian's incorporation date.
None of it had been random.
Daniel finally understood.
"You weren't supposed to find Victor."
Evelyn whispered, "What?"
"Whoever designed this wanted you to think Victor was the answer."
He looked toward the hallway.
"But Victor was only the disguise."
Evelyn followed his eyes.
A man stood beyond the glass wall.
Gray hair.
Dark suit.
Tall.
Perhaps sixty-five.
He was walking calmly toward the conference room.
Evelyn stopped moving.
The color disappeared from her face.
She whispered one name.
"Marcus."
The door opened.
The man stepped inside.
Six years of death notices, memorial articles, legal settlements, and corporate history seemed to collapse in one second.
Marcus Vale smiled.
"Hello, Evelyn."
Security officers moved immediately.
Marcus raised both hands.
"I didn't come to fight."
Evelyn could barely speak.
"You're dead."
"Legally, for several years."
"You staged it."
"I allowed people to believe what circumstances made convenient."
Victor looked away.
Evelyn saw it.
"You knew."
Victor said nothing.
"You knew he was alive."
Victor finally answered.
"Not at first."
Marcus walked toward the table.
Daniel stepped into his path.
Marcus studied him.
"So you're Daniel Carter."
Daniel did not move.
"You followed my daughter."
"That was unnecessary."
"You photographed her school."
"I said it was unnecessary."
Daniel's voice became colder.
"That's not an answer."
For the first time, Marcus stopped smiling.
"No. It isn't."
He placed a folder on the table.
"Everything you need is here."
Evelyn opened it.
Bank accounts.
Shell corporations.
Remote-access records.
Payments to intermediaries.