Chapter 13 - The Executive Archive
Carter Industries headquarters was nearly empty after midnight.
Ryan, Brooks, and two officers entered through the underground garage.
Thomas gave them the archive code.
It no longer worked.
Someone had changed it.
Security footage showed a man in a maintenance uniform entering the executive floor thirty minutes earlier.
Dr. Harlan.
Ryan watched the screen.
"He's seventy-two. Why is he doing this himself?"
Brooks answered, "Because everyone else is getting arrested."
They found the archive door open.
Inside, rows of fireproof cabinets stood beneath red emergency lights.
One cabinet had been emptied.
The original Mercer-Carter trust file was gone.
A sound came from the stairwell.
Ryan ran.
Harlan was halfway down, carrying a black document case.
"Stop!"
Harlan looked back and almost fell.
Brooks shouted, "Police! Drop the case!"
He kept going.
At the parking level, Thomas stepped from behind a concrete column.
"David."
Harlan stopped.
For the first time, he looked frightened.
Thomas stared at the man who had signed away Anna's life.
"Give me the file."
Harlan laughed bitterly.
"Now you grow a conscience?"
"Too late, but yes."
Harlan opened the case.
Inside were the trust originals and a smaller envelope marked ANNA MERCER - PRIVATE.
Ryan saw his own name written beneath hers.
He moved closer.
Harlan pulled a lighter from his pocket.
"One more step and this disappears."
Brooks raised her weapon.
"Don't."
Harlan's hand shook.
Thomas said quietly, "David, Margaret will bury you before she saves you."
Harlan looked toward the exit.
That hesitation was enough.
Ryan knocked the lighter away.
Officers took Harlan to the ground.
The envelope survived.
Inside was a single notarized statement signed twenty-six years earlier.
Anna had named the person she feared most.
May you like
It wasn't Margaret.
It was Thomas Carter's father.
