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Michael answered the question himself.
“Arthur has been pushing me to cut corners and shut down the program, but I couldn’t let those kids lose their future.”
Arthur, Michael’s business partner.
One of our oldest friends.
“I know he suspects I’ve been moving funds,” Michael continued. “If anything happens to me, look for the ledger in the garage’s floor safe.”
A cold feeling spread through my body.
My husband leaned closer to the camera.
“You might wonder, but I couldn’t leave this at home. Arthur has keys to the office, access to the shop records, and he’s been inside our house before. If something happened to me, he’d know where you’d look first. But Sarah was out of town.”
That concerned me, but I continued listening.
“Nobody knew her apartment would be empty for days. I figured it was the safest place to hide this until you were ready to see it. If Arthur realizes what I know, he’ll try to bury it.”
Then the video ended, and the screen went black.
Sarah looked at me slowly.
“What do we do?”
I stared at the phone in my hand.
Then I stood up.
“We go to the garage.”
***
Rain was still drizzling when we arrived at my husband‘s auto shop.
Lights glowed inside the office.
Arthur was there.
He looked startled when we walked in.
“Martha? Sarah?” he said carefully. “What are you doing here?”
I stepped closer.
“I need the truth about Michael’s brakes.”
Arthur crossed his arms.
“The investigators have already explained everything.”
“I want your explanation.”
His jaw tightened slightly.
“Michael’s car had maintenance issues,” Arthur claimed.
“That’s not true.”
“He knew the brakes needed more work,” my husband’s business partner continued.
I froze.
“What?”
Arthur rubbed his forehead.
“I told him earlier that week that they weren’t ready yet, but Michael insisted on driving the car, anyway.”
Something felt wrong.
It was all too smooth, maybe even too convenient.
I pulled the old phone from my purse and placed it on the desk. Sarah had already suggested we send a copy of the clip to one of our phones for safekeeping before we left the house, in case we came across Arthur.
Arthur looked confused.
So, I quickly explained the video Michael had made before his death.
That’s when his business partner went completely still.
Just for a second. But I saw it.
His eyes locked onto the phone immediately.
Sarah quietly lifted her own phone and started recording everything.
Arthur noticed instantly, and his expression hardened.
“Stop that!” he snapped at my daughter, but she just stepped slightly back and continued. “Fine, you want to know the truth? Well, Michael wasn’t thinking clearly near the end. He kept pouring money into those scholarships while the business drowned in debt.”
“He was helping students,” Sarah shot back.
“He was bankrupting us!”
Arthur slammed a hand on the desk.
The mask finally cracked.
“Your stupid husband wanted to expose everything to the board,” Arthur continued angrily. “Every debt. Every late payment. Everything!”
I stared at him.
“What were you hiding?”
Arthur looked away.
That silence answered me.
I moved toward Michael’s office.
Arthur immediately jumped up and blocked the doorway.