Chapter 13 - THE FIRST PAYMENT
At sunrise, the house smelled like wet plaster, coffee, and lies.
Federal agents had seized computers. Derek was in custody. Vincent had agreed to talk. Wade was missing.
But Harper could not forget Derek's last words.
Ask Ashford who paid Wade the first time.
She found Gabriel alone in the library.
"What did he mean?"
"My father paid cops."
Harper's stomach sank.
"Wade?"
"Among others."
"You knew?"
"I knew my father had people inside the department. I didn't know Wade kept the arrangement after he died."
Harper laughed bitterly. "That's convenient."
Gabriel's face tightened. "You think I ordered what happened to you?"
"I think powerful men always have a reason why their secrets are different from everyone else's."
He flinched.
Good, she thought. Let it hurt.
Gabriel opened a wall safe and removed a leather ledger.
"This is everything I inherited that I never destroyed. Payments, names, shell companies. Some crimes are mine. Some were my father's."
Harper stared at it.
"Why keep it?"
"Because burning evidence doesn't erase what happened."
"Then give it to Ortiz."
Silence.
That was the moment.
This was the moment Harper decided what kind of man Gabriel Ashford really was.
Then he handed it to her.
"You give it to her."
Harper took it and found Wade's $40,000 payment.
Below it: HARBOR TRANSFER - QUEEN PROPERTY.
Harper stopped.
"Queen?"
Gabriel leaned over the page.
His face changed.
"Your family owned property at the harbor?"
"My mother grew up in East Boston. That's all I know."
Rebecca entered. "Harper, Ortiz pulled Wade's old financials. There's something you need to see."
She placed a photograph on the desk.
It showed Harper's mother, Elena Queen, standing outside a warehouse beside Gabriel's father.
May you like
On the back, someone had written one sentence.
ELENA SAW THE TRANSFER.
