Chapter 9 - The Fire
Police arrived before the last papers burned.
Not because Ryan called them.
Elise did.
She met officers at the front door with her hands shaking and told them Victoria was destroying documents.
For the first time, I felt sorry for her.
She had helped betray me.
But now she was standing inside the same machine.
Detective Lena Ortiz called me at midnight.
“We recovered partially burned records.”
“Anything useful?”
“One page references a wire transfer two days before your father’s death.”
“To who?”
“A company called Westbridge Safety Consulting.”
Samuel cursed under his breath.
I turned.
“You know it?”
“It was a shell vendor.”
Detective Ortiz continued.
“The company account was closed eleven years ago. But one authorized signer is still alive.”
“Who?”
“Caleb Mercer.”
Nina requested an emergency preservation order on all Carter and Vance business records.
At 1:12 a.m., the judge signed it.
At 1:30, Ryan called from an unknown number.
I answered before Nina could stop me.
“Madeline, listen carefully.”
“No.”
“Caleb is dangerous.”
“So is your mother.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
His voice dropped.
“My father knew about the payments.”
Ryan’s father, George Vance, had died six years earlier.
“Knew what?”
“Everything.”
I gripped the phone.
“Did you?”
“I knew there were problems. I didn’t know what they did to Thomas.”
“What did they do?”
A door slammed on his end.
Ryan whispered, “I found something after Dad died. I should have given it to you.”
“What?”
“A key.”
“To what?”
He breathed once.
“Your father’s deposit box.”
Then a man’s voice spoke behind him.
“Ryan?”
Ryan stopped.
The line went dead.
I looked at Samuel.
“Who was that?”
May you like
He had gone pale again.
“Caleb Mercer.”
