Chapter 6 - DON'T COME ALONE
Arthur didn't go alone. He handed the photograph to Officer Moreno and waited while she traced the sender. “You did the right thing,” she said. “A ransom note isn't a set of instructions.”
The number was disposable, but the image showed a distinctive orange forklift and part of a sign: CEDAR. Moreno recognized an abandoned freight depot on Cedar Springs Road. A team checked it while Arthur sat in an interview room, staring at his hands.
His phone rang. Evelyn.
“Arthur, please tell me where you are.”
“With the police. Daniel Navarro may be in danger.”
The silence lasted too long.
“Grandmother?”
“Daniel found something in the escrow records. He was going to give it to me before Diana arrived.”
“What was it?”
“A deposit that didn't belong there. Money returned by a company we'd never heard of.”
Moreno entered before Arthur could ask another question. Her officers had found Daniel, alive, in an unlocked office at the depot. He was shaken and thirsty but not seriously injured. The photograph had been staged. Someone wanted Arthur frightened enough to break the rules.
Daniel refused a hospital ride. He agreed to speak with Arthur only with Moreno present.
“I was trying to reach Evelyn,” Daniel said. “I pulled a copy of the escrow ledger from a public bankruptcy file. One entry says eleven families were paid. They weren't.”
“Who changed it?” Arthur asked.
Daniel laid a torn deposit slip on the table. The account holder was MERIDIAN CONSULTING GROUP. At the bottom sat the initials R.P.
“I thought Roland Pike was dead,” Arthur said.
“He isn't,” Daniel answered. “And he knows who my mother is.”
Moreno's phone rang. She stepped into the hallway and returned with a new expression.
May you like
“Mr. Sterling, we need to get you home. Someone just set a fire outside your grandmother's study.”
