Darren’s Second Phone
Chapter 06 - Darren’s Second Phone
Darren Pike’s abandoned car was found beneath an airport parking garage.
The trunk contained clothing, cash, and a black security jacket matching the sleeve visible in the earliest livestream frames. His primary phone had been smashed.
His second phone was hidden inside the spare tire.
Detective Chen’s team recovered partial messages.
Darren coordinated camera outages at twelve Ward & Vale events. Julian Ross provided inventory schedules. A shipping broker moved “repaired display pieces” to Aster Foundation warehouses. Conrad’s office approved every insurance filing.
The messages also mentioned a courier called Finch.
Marisol recognized the name.
Eli Finch had worked as an apprentice jeweler under Elias Vale. He disappeared after Nora’s termination. The official record said he stole tools and fled.
Nora’s letters said Finch helped her compare serial numbers.
Police traced him to a small watch-repair shop in Philadelphia.
He had lived under a different surname for fourteen years.
Finch admitted manufacturing replicas, but said Conrad forced him through threats against his family. Early swaps involved insured pieces from private clients. Later, Conrad expanded into charity auctions because donors rarely examined jewels after public display.
“What happened to the originals?” Chen asked.
“Private buyers. Free ports. Sometimes they were broken apart.”
“The Solstice?”
Finch shook his head.
“That one was different.”
Elias Vale had built a mechanical lock beneath the center stone. The yellow diamond functioned as a physical key to the founder’s archive. Removing it incorrectly would crack a microscopic inscription and invalidate the trust records inside.
Conrad needed the stone intact.
Finch showed investigators a prototype setting. Hidden beneath the diamond was a small sunburst pattern with thirty-one points. Each point corresponded to a number.
A vault combination.
The Founder’s Trust controlled Helena’s shares, Elias’s legacy stake, and twenty percent held for employees. If the archive proved Conrad participated in theft, his voting rights could transfer to the employee trust.
“Why would Elias create that?” Helena asked.
Finch looked at her.
“Because he knew what happened to Nora.”
The answer struck harder than Helena expected.
Elias had told everyone Nora was guilty.
He had also quietly built a system designed for the day the truth emerged.
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The co-founder had not been ignorant.
He had been afraid.
