Chapter 4 - THE SECOND DELIVERY
Luis switched off the kitchen lights. Footsteps moved beyond the pantry door.
Damon stepped behind the shelving as a man in a Hart Logistics jacket pushed a hand truck through the corridor. A second man followed with a clipboard.
“Get the blue case,” the first said. “Pike wants it before the vote.”
Ruth covered her mouth. Luis called police from behind the refrigerator, giving their location without announcing himself. When the men reached the freezer, Damon stepped into the doorway.
“Can I help you find something?”
The first man bolted. The second shoved the hand truck toward Damon and raced after him. Luis pursued only as far as the parking lot, where a van peeled away. He photographed its license plate and waited for officers. Damon wasn't interested in a fistfight that might compromise an investigation.
The brass key remained in his pocket. On the truck's discarded clipboard, he found an empty delivery form stamped RECEIVED. The signature block read R. BARLOW, though Ruth had never touched it.
“Pike,” Damon said. “Who is Pike?”
“Owen Pike,” Ruth answered. “Victor's operations consultant. Always smiling. Always asking where the cameras are.”
At the hospital, Daisy was asleep under a fleece blanket. A pediatric nurse said she was mildly dehydrated but otherwise stable. Denise had reached Carmen's sister, Sofia, who was driving in from Fort Worth.
Damon waited in the hall when Jessica arrived, her work bag still on her shoulder.
“I pulled the foundation's schedule,” she said. “Tomorrow's vote isn't just to sell Hope House. The board plans to transfer the entire property to Northshore Development for nine hundred thousand dollars.”
“It's worth six million.”
“More. And guess whose consulting company helped establish Northshore?”
Damon didn't answer.
“Victor Rochefort,” Jessica said. “Through two other entities.”
Then she showed him a second page. The transfer already carried Damon's digital signature.
“I never signed that,” he said.
May you like
Jessica's expression hardened. “Someone wants the sale to look like your idea.”
