Chapter 40 - The Discontinued Paper
Samuel carefully placed the anonymous note inside a protective evidence sleeve.
"The forensic lab checked the paper fibers three different times," he said. "They all reached the same conclusion."
Daniel stared at the aging sheet.
"It was manufactured thirty-one years ago."
"And the ink?"
"Much newer."
Someone had deliberately written a recent message on paper that should have disappeared decades earlier.
Lily leaned closer.
"Why would anyone do that?"
Samuel answered without taking his eyes off the evidence.
"Because they wanted us to notice."
He opened another report.
"The paper came from a small specialty mill that closed almost thirty years ago."
"Any records?"
"Very few."
"But there is one surviving customer list."
Samuel slid the report across the table.
Most names meant nothing to Daniel.
Collectors.
Museums.
Private archives.
Then one entry stopped him.
Carter Restoration Trust
Daniel frowned.
"My family never had a restoration trust."
Samuel nodded slowly.
"Officially..."
"No."
He enlarged the page.
The trust had been registered only six months before Daniel left for his overseas contract.
Its listed address no longer existed.
Its trustees had all been declared deceased.
Yet someone had continued paying annual administrative fees.
Without interruption.
For fifteen years.
Exactly the same fifteen years Daniel had been away.
Lily whispered,
"So someone kept it alive..."
Daniel finished the sentence.
"...while making sure I stayed gone."
As Samuel closed the report, a folded receipt slipped from between the pages.
It wasn't connected to the paper mill.
It was a fuel receipt.
Printed only three days earlier.
The payment card holder's name had been partially erased.
Only the final surname remained visible.
May you like
...Carter.
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