Chapter 4 The Photographs
Victor Hayes led Adrian out of the main office and toward a quieter wing of the building.
The conversations and ringing telephones gradually faded behind them.
"We don't come down here very often," Victor said as they approached a pair of heavy double doors.
"Most departments have gone digital. These days, the archives are mainly used for legal requests or company history."
Victor pushed the doors open.
The room beyond was larger than Adrian expected.
Tall shelves stretched from one end of the room to the other, filled with neatly labelled boxes, leather-bound ledgers and rows of carefully preserved photo albums. The faint scent of old paper lingered in the air.
A woman stood on a small ladder, sliding a storage box onto the highest shelf.
She climbed down with surprising ease before turning to face them.
She looked to be in her early sixties, dressed in a navy cardigan over a white blouse. A pair of reading glasses rested on a chain around her neck.
"Victor," she said warmly. "You rarely come to visit."
"I wish it were under better circumstances."
The smile left her face.
"I heard about Daniel."
Victor nodded.
"This is Detective Adrian Cross."
She extended her hand.
"Evelyn Brooks. Corporate Archivist."
Adrian shook it.
"Daniel was a good man."
"You knew him well?"
She smiled faintly.
"Only during the last couple of weeks."
Adrian noticed the wording immediately.
"Only the last couple of weeks?"
Evelyn nodded.
"Before then, I doubt he'd visited this room more than once."
Victor looked surprised.
"He never mentioned coming down here."
"He became a regular," Evelyn said. "Sometimes twice a day."
Adrian exchanged a brief glance with Victor.
"What was he looking for?"
"Old annual reports at first."
She walked between the shelves, her fingers brushing lightly across the labels until she stopped beside a cabinet.
"He said he was helping with the company's seventy-fifth anniversary exhibition."
Victor folded his arms.
"That part is true. We asked several departments to help gather historical material."
Evelyn opened the cabinet.
"Daniel wanted annual reports, donation records and board meeting summaries."
"So he was checking historical finances?" Adrian asked.
"At first."
She pulled out a thick folder and laid it gently on a wooden table.
"That changed after his second visit."
Adrian looked up.
"What changed?"
Evelyn hesitated.
"The questions."
"What do you mean?"
"The first day, he asked where we kept the financial records."
She opened the folder and smiled to herself, remembering.
"The second day, he asked where we kept the photographs."
Victor frowned.
"Photographs?"
"I asked him the same thing."
Evelyn walked to another shelf and carefully removed a large archival album.
"It wasn't unusual for employees working on anniversary projects to request old photographs."
She placed the album beside the folder.
"What surprised me was what Daniel said next."
Adrian waited.
"He told me he wasn't looking for memories."
The room fell silent.
"He said he was looking for a discrepancy."
Adrian glanced at the folder lying open on the table.
"A discrepancy in the accounts?"
Evelyn slowly shook her head.
Her eyes settled on the weathered photo album beneath her hand.
"No, Detective."
She rested her palm on its worn leather cover.
"It was in the people."
Evelyn carefully opened the album.
The thick pages crackled softly beneath her fingertips.
Black and white photographs filled the first few pages, each protected by a thin sheet of transparent paper.
Company founders.
Groundbreaking ceremonies.
Retirement dinners.
Christmas parties.
Each photograph was neatly dated, with every person identified beneath the image.
"Our records go back almost to the company's beginning," Evelyn said. "We've always taken pride in preserving our history."
She turned another page.
"The anniversary committee borrowed several of these albums last month. Daniel spent hours going through them."
Adrian stepped closer.
"What exactly was he looking for?"
"He never told me."
She smiled to herself.
"At first, I assumed he was trying to identify former executives for the exhibition."
"And then?"
"He started asking for photographs from very specific years."
"Which years?"
She thought for a moment.
"1989. 1996. 2003. 2010."
Victor frowned.
"That's an odd selection."
"So I asked him why."
Evelyn gently turned another page.
"He said he was following a pattern."
"I asked him what pattern,"
"He smiled and told me he wouldn't say anything until he was certain."
"Did he seem frightened?" Adrian asked.
She shook her head.
"No. Excited. Like someone who believed he had stumbled onto something important."
Adrian remained silent.
Patterns mattered.
People lied.
Patterns rarely did.
Evelyn stopped at a large colour photograph taken during a charity presentation.
Nearly forty employees stood together outside the company's headquarters, smiling towards the camera.
A brass plaque beneath the photograph read:
Annual Community Trust Donation
1989
Evelyn pointed to the front row.
"This was the first photograph Daniel asked for."
Adrian studied every face.
Nothing stood out.
Everyone looked exactly where the camera expected them to look.
"What am I supposed to see?" he asked.
"I don't know."
Evelyn's answer was immediate.
"Daniel never explained it."
She reached for another album and opened it beside the first.
"This one is from 1996."
Another charity ceremony.
Another group photograph.
Another collection of smiling faces.
Adrian leaned over the table, comparing both images.
He slid both albums closer until they touched.
He ignored the captions and studied the faces one by one.
Different people.
Different season.
Different backdrop.
Even the landscaping outside the headquarters had changed.
A tree visible in the first photograph had disappeared in the second.
New windows had been added to the building.
The company logo had been redesigned.
Everything had changed.
Then something caught his attention. One Man.
Near the edge of both photographs stood the same man.
He wasn't posing.
He wasn't smiling.
He simply stood there with his hands folded behind his back.
Adrian looked from one photograph to the other.
The man's face hadn't changed.
Not even slightly.
He looked about thirty.
The same haircut.
The same expression.
Even the dark coat appeared identical.
Victor let out a quiet laugh.
"That's impossible."
Adrian didn't answer.
He pulled the second album closer.
"There are more, right?"
Without a word, Evelyn reached for a third album and placed it on the table.
The worn leather album settled with a soft thud. It's faded cover and frayed corners spoke of decades of careful handling, preserv
ing moments the company believed were too important to lose.
Her expression had changed.
She wasn't frightened.
She looked tired.
"As I said," she murmured.
"I thought Daniel was searching for old photographs."
She rested a hand on the final album.
"I don't think that's what he found."
