Chapter 40 - The Message Without a Sender
Just before midnight, Margaret's encrypted laptop emitted a quiet alert.
An anonymous file had arrived through a secure reporting channel.
No sender.
No identifying information.
Only a short message.
> You are asking the right questions.
> You're just asking them twenty years too late.
Attached was a scanned photograph.
It showed the Executive Leadership Forum from another angle.
This image was much clearer than the one recovered from headquarters.
Charles Whitmore stood near the center.
Samuel Pierce appeared several rows behind him.
Harold Bennett was speaking with another attendee.
And in the front row sat the unidentified woman linked to the initials "E. K."
For the first time, her conference badge was almost readable.
Margaret enlarged the image repeatedly.
The first name remained blurred.
But the surname began to emerge.
...ensington
Not enough to identify her.
Enough to narrow the search.
The legal counsel looked over Margaret's shoulder.
"Do we tell Arthur now?"
Margaret saved the image into the evidence archive.
"Not until we verify it."
She looked again at the anonymous message.
Whoever had sent the photograph clearly knew details that had remained hidden for decades.
Which meant one possibility had become impossible to ignore.
Someone with firsthand knowledge of the original events was still alive.
May you like
Someone had been silently following the investigation from the beginning.
And for reasons still unknown, that person had just decided Margaret Hale was finally ready to receive the next piece of the truth.
