Chapter 9 - Drawer Twenty-Two
Smoke still rolled from the loading bay when we arrived in Cicero.
Fire crews had contained the blaze to one storage wing.
Building seventeen smelled like wet paper and burned plastic.
"Row four," Dad said.
We moved past firefighters until a captain stopped us.
"Area's restricted."
Tessa showed credentials from Whitmore security and explained there might be evidence tied to an active investigation.
Ten minutes later, escorted by a firefighter, we reached cabinet nine.
Drawer twenty-two was blackened but intact.
Inside was a metal document box.
The lock had melted.
Renee pried it open with a screwdriver.
The first file contained payments from Whitmore Holdings to Marcus Reed between 2009 and 2014.
The second contained the original Joliet safety complaints.
The third was labeled ROSE.
My hands stopped.
Inside was a sealed envelope in my mother's handwriting.
MARA - ONLY WHEN THE TRUTH CAN NO LONGER BE AVOIDED.
I looked at Dad.
"You knew this existed."
He nodded once.
I opened it.
My mother's letter was six pages.
She wrote that she loved my father, but love had become the excuse he used to protect the company from consequences.
She wrote that Marcus Reed had become dangerous because Elliot kept feeding him secrets and money.
Then I reached the final paragraph.
If anything happens to Adrian Vale, it will not be the first time Marcus has silenced an investigator.
Adrian had been twenty-nine when my mother died.
He had not worked for us then.
I looked up.
"What investigator?"
Dad's mouth opened.
A firefighter shouted from the next aisle.
Tessa ran toward the sound.
Behind a stack of collapsed archive boxes was a man in a maintenance uniform trying to climb through a broken window.
Tessa pulled him down.
A burner phone fell from his pocket.
The most recent text on the screen had been sent twelve minutes earlier.
BURN DRAWER 22. REED WANTS NO SURVIVORS IN THE PAPER TRAIL.
May you like
The sender's number was saved under one name.
DANIEL.
