Chapter 6
Agent Cole stared at the page.
“That is not my signature.”
Margaret held it away from him.
“Your name is beside twelve payments.”
“I never received money from Meridian.”
Rachel examined the entries.
“The payments began eight years ago.”
“The year my father died,” I said.
Cole looked at me.
“Someone used my name.”
“Your credentials were used to cancel the Providence meeting,” I said. “Your name appears in the ledger. You signed the report.”
“I signed it after Price altered it.”
“And you kept that secret.”
“I reported it internally.”
“To people whose names may also be on this page.”
His anger sounded real.
So did his fear.
Rachel took out an evidence sleeve.
“This page has to be authenticated.”
Margaret refused to release it.
“Thomas told me never to give it to federal authorities unless Elena approved.”
Cole’s jaw tightened.
“People have been kidnapped.”
“Which proves Thomas was right to be careful.”
Ruth was crying too hard to speak.
Caroline was her only child.
The boys were eight and ten.
I crouched in front of her.
“We will bring them home.”
“What if Voss hurts them?”
“He needs the page. That keeps them alive.”
Rachel asked to see the video again.
She studied the wall behind Caroline.
A green stripe crossed the concrete.
Water dripped somewhere nearby.
One boy wore a youth hockey sweatshirt.
The other had no shoes.
“We need to identify the location,” she said.
Cole stepped toward the door.
“I’ll coordinate the search.”
“No,” I said.
He stopped.
“Until we know why your name is there, you do not coordinate anything.”
Pain crossed his face.
“Elena, I have protected you.”
“You also withheld information from me.”
“Because your father’s case was compromised.”
“And now his ledger says you were part of it.”
Rachel quietly took Cole’s weapon.
He surrendered it.
She called her supervisor and reported the conflict.
Two agents arrived to escort him to another room.
Before leaving, Cole turned to me.
“Derek knows more than he has admitted.”
“I know.”
“Do not mistake regret for innocence.”
“I won’t.”
After Cole was removed, Margaret explained the final page.
The listed payments had been routed through a foundation called Harbor Light.
On paper, Harbor Light supported housing for veterans.
In reality, it cleaned money for Meridian.
My father discovered that every fraudulent property transfer passed through the same group of officials.
He wrote down their names before placing Philip into protection.
“Why remove this page?” I asked.
“Because one of the names belonged to someone he trusted,” Margaret said.
“Aaron Cole?”
“He did not know whether Cole was corrupt or framed.”
Ruth wiped her face.
“What does Voss gain by destroying one page? The ledgers still contain the payments.”
“The codes are meaningless without the names,” Margaret said.
My phone rang again.
This time Derek called from federal detention.
Rachel approved the call and recorded it.
“I need to know where Voss took Caroline,” I said.
“I don’t know.”
“Then tell me who does.”
“My mother.”
“She is refusing to cooperate.”
“She will talk to me.”
“You have lied every time you claimed you could help.”
“I can make her talk.”
“How?”
“Tell her Price left her name on the final page but removed his own.”
Margaret looked at the list.
Price’s name was clearly there.
Derek continued.
“My mother believes her brother protected her. If she thinks he betrayed her, she’ll turn on him.”
Rachel arranged an interview.
Diane was brought into a secure room wearing a gray detention uniform.
Without her expensive clothes and perfect makeup, she looked smaller.
But her eyes had not changed.
She smiled when Derek entered.
“My poor boy.”
Derek sat opposite her.
“You knew Dad was alive.”
Diane’s smile faded.
“Who told you that?”
“I saw him.”
“He abandoned you.”
“You tried to kill him.”
“He poisoned you against me.”
“He spent twenty years hiding because of you.”
Diane leaned toward him.
“Everything I did was for us.”
“You ordered me to marry Elena.”
“I told you to get close to her.”
“You told me her father murdered mine.”
“I believed he had.”
“You knew he saved him.”
Diane’s mouth tightened.
Derek placed a photocopy of the final page on the table.
It had been altered before printing.
Daniel Price’s name was gone.
Diane’s remained.
“Uncle Daniel gave Voss the ledgers,” Derek said. “He erased himself and left you exposed.”
For the first time, Diane looked uncertain.
“He would never do that.”
“He paid my bail to use me. Then he shot Dad.”
Diane looked toward the observation glass.
“Where is Philip?”
“Recovering.”
“He asked about you,” Derek said. “He wanted to know whether you were still taking orders from Daniel.”
“I never took orders from my brother.”
“Then prove it.”
“How?”
“Tell us where Voss holds people when he wants leverage.”
Diane leaned back.
“I don’t know.”
Derek stood.
“Then when Voss burns everything, you will be the only Mercer left to blame.”
A guard moved toward him.
Diane slammed both hands on the table.
“Wait.”
Derek sat again.
She looked at the false page.
Then she whispered an address.
“Meridian owns an abandoned pumping station near the Mystic River.”
Rachel immediately sent tactical teams.
Diane grabbed Derek’s sleeve before he could leave.
“Do not trust your uncle.”
“You taught me not to trust anyone.”
“That is why you’re alive.”
“No,” Derek said. “That is why I became you.”
He pulled away.
The pumping station was surrounded within thirty minutes.
Thermal cameras found four people inside.
Caroline and the boys were alive.
Two armed guards watched them.
The rescue team entered through an underground water channel.
One guard surrendered.
The other fired and was wounded in the leg.
Caroline shielded her sons until agents reached them.
Ruth collapsed with relief when Rachel showed us the live video.
But Voss and Price were not there.
The kidnapping had been managed remotely.
Inside the building, agents found shipping containers filled with property records.
Hundreds of original deeds had been stolen and replaced with forgeries.
This was enough to expose Meridian’s scheme.
It was not enough to find the men running it.
Caroline and the boys were taken to a hospital.
Ruth went with them under protection.
Margaret and I remained at the federal building.
Derek was returned to detention.
Diane requested a deal.
She wanted immunity in exchange for testifying against Voss.
Rachel refused.
“She arranged an assault on you, invaded your apartment and took Ruth hostage.”
“She also sent the woman with the syringe.”
“The woman claims Diane ordered her to sedate you, not kill you.”
“That does not make it better.”
“No.”
Margaret examined the page again.
“There is something wrong with these entries.”
“What?”
“The payment beside Cole’s name is dated February eighteenth.”
“Why is that important?”
“Thomas’s accident happened on February seventeenth.”
Cole could not have accepted payment to cover up the crash the day before it occurred.
Unless the payment was for something else.
Rachel brought him back into the room.
He looked at the date.
Then he removed his watch and placed it on the table.
“My daughter was born on February eighteenth.”
I had not known he had a daughter.
“She needed emergency heart surgery,” he continued. “The hospital received an anonymous donation that covered the full cost.”
“You thought it was charity,” Rachel said.
“Yes.”
“Voss made the payment in your name,” Margaret realized. “He created evidence that could be used against you later.”
Cole nodded.
“Price told me a foundation had helped my family. I never knew which one.”
The payment had been a trap.
If Cole exposed Price, the ledger would make him look corrupt.
My father had understood that.
That was why he had neither accused Cole nor trusted him completely.
Rachel returned his weapon.
“I owe you an apology,” I said.
“You owed yourself caution.”
My phone vibrated.
A notification from my home security system appeared.
MOTION DETECTED: STUDY.
The apartment was supposed to be guarded.
I opened the live feed.
No one was visible.
Then my father’s desk moved.
A hand appeared from beneath it.
Someone crawled through the service corridor and stood.
Daniel Price looked directly into the camera.
He held a framed photograph of my father and me.
Price placed it face down.
Then he poured liquid across the desk.
The shine told me it was gasoline.
I called Agent Cole over.
He watched Price strike a match.
“Thomas hid more than evidence in this apartment,” Price said toward the camera. “He hid the truth about Elena’s mother.”
I could barely breathe.
My mother had died when I was two.
At least, that was what my father told me.
Price held up a sealed envelope.
The words FOR ELENA—ABOUT HER MOTHER were written across it.
“Come home alone,” he said. “Or this burns with everything else.”
He dropped the match.
Flames erupted across my father’s desk.
May you like
The feed filled with smoke.
Then the screen went black.
