Chapter 8 - RIVER PLANT FOUR
Police surrounded River Plant Four before Daniel arrived.
Ortiz ordered him to stay back.
He ignored her until she physically blocked his path.
"Your son needs you alive."
Daniel hated that she was right.
A drone entered through a broken upper window.
Inside: old machinery, flooded floors, one black SUV.
Thermal imaging found four people.
One small.
Noah.
One woman lying down.
Claire.
Alive.
His sister was alive.
Thirteen months of grief became a pain so sharp he had to sit.
Then the drone feed went black.
Someone shot it.
A speaker outside the plant crackled.
Henry Carter's voice came through.
"Daniel."
"Let Noah go."
"You sound just like me at thirty."
"Don't."
"You always hated that."
"Where is Claire?"
"Still difficult."
Daniel gripped the phone Ortiz handed him.
"What do you want?"
"The ledger."
"I don't have it."
"Claire told you where it is."
"She said under the old river plant."
"Exactly."
Henry believed the Black Ledger was hidden somewhere inside the property.
Claire had refused to reveal the exact location.
He wanted Daniel to find it.
"Noah leaves first."
"No."
"Then we have nothing to discuss."
A child cried inside.
"Noah!"
"Dad!"
The speaker cut.
He had visited as a teenager.
There was an old storm tunnel beneath the loading floor.
His father used to say it was sealed.
Maybe Claire remembered too.
Daniel told Ortiz.
SWAT entered through the tunnel.
Gunfire erupted inside.
"Where's Aunt Claire?"
Noah sobbed.
"Inside."
"Grandpa?"
"He said he's not Grandpa anymore."
Then Noah pulled something from his pocket.
A small brass key.
"Aunt Claire gave me this."
"What is it?"
"She said tell you: Dad's first lie."
Dad's first lie.
Henry's first major project had been Carter River One.
The foundation office at River Plant Four held old records from that project.
Mara examined the key.
"Safe deposit?"
"No."
It was a key to the mechanical drawer inside Henry's old drafting desk.
The desk was still in the plant's executive office.
"The ledger isn't under the building."
May you like
He pointed up.
"It's inside my father's desk."
