Chapter 4 - The Woman in the Security Footage
Declan descended first.
Mave followed despite his protest.
The hidden stairs led to an old storage tunnel beneath the restaurant.
Anna Mercer stood near the far wall.
She was unharmed.
Beside her stood Richard Holloway.
The restaurant owner.
He held no weapon.
He didn't need one.
The locked steel door behind him made his intentions clear enough.
"Mom."
Anna looked at Mave.
"I'm sorry."
Holloway smiled.
"You shouldn't be."
Declan stepped forward.
"Move away from her."
Holloway sighed.
"Patrick's son. Always dramatic."
Declan's expression sharpened.
"You knew my father."
"Very well."
"Did you kill him?"
Anna interrupted.
"No."
Everyone looked at her.
Holloway's smile disappeared.
Anna continued.
"Richard didn't kill Patrick."
"Then who did?" Mave asked.
Her mother looked toward the ledger in Declan's hand.
"The answer is in there."
Holloway moved.
Brutus growled.
He stopped.
"Careful," Mave said.
Holloway stared at her.
"So you're the waitress."
"Apparently."
"You ruined an expensive plan."
"So I've heard."
Holloway laughed softly.
"You really don't understand what you've walked into."
"No. But everyone keeps saying that instead of explaining it, which is becoming irritating."
Even Anna almost smiled.
Declan opened the ledger.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Companies.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Victor Dane.
Declan's face hardened.
"My father's partner."
Holloway nodded.
"And my former employer."
The truth unfolded.
Victor Dane had siphoned money from Patrick's businesses decades earlier.
Anna discovered it.
Patrick prepared to expose him.
Dane arranged circumstances that led to Patrick's fatal crash.
Holloway helped cover the financial trail.
Years later, Holloway bought the Copper Anchor and spent years searching for the original ledger.
"But why now?" Mave asked.
"Because Victor is dying," Holloway said. "And dying men become concerned about what survives them."
Declan looked at the ledger.
"This could destroy his legacy."
"And several people still protecting it."
Anna stepped toward Mave.
Holloway didn't stop her.
Mave embraced her mother.
For a moment, everything else disappeared.
Then she pulled back.
"You lied to me for twenty years."
"I protected you."
"Those aren't always different things."
Anna's eyes filled.
"I know."
Declan closed the ledger.
"We're leaving."
Holloway laughed.
"You think it's that simple?"
"No."
Declan looked toward Evan, who had silently appeared at the stairs.
"I think the police waiting upstairs will make it simpler."
Holloway's smile vanished.
Evan held up his phone.
"Everything down here was recorded."
Holloway stared.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
But Anna shook her head.
"Not enough."
Declan looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because Holloway wasn't the person who ordered tonight."
Silence.
Holloway laughed again.
This time differently.
Almost relieved.
"Finally."
Mave looked at him.
"Who did?"
Holloway said nothing.
Anna did.
"Someone inside Declan's own organization."
Declan became still.
Evan looked at him.
"That's impossible."
"Is it?" Holloway asked.
Declan's gaze moved toward Evan.
Then toward the stairs.
Three security men had accompanied him tonight.
Only Evan was here.
"Where are Mason and Cole?" Declan asked.
Evan checked his phone.
No response.
They returned upstairs.
The restaurant was empty.
Too empty.
Arthur was gone.
So were Declan's two other security men.
The security system had been wiped.
Again.
But one camera had survived.
An old analog unit above the kitchen door.
They pulled the recording.
At 12:03, before Brutus reacted, someone entered through the service corridor.
A woman.
Baseball cap.
Dark coat.
She crouched beside Brutus while Declan's table was temporarily empty.
She touched his collar.
Attached something.
Then disappeared.
Mave leaned toward the monitor.
"Pause."
Evan froze the image.
The woman's face was partially visible in a mirror.
Declan stopped breathing.
Mave noticed.
"You know her."
He didn't answer.
"Declan."
"Her name is Claire."
"Who is she?"
His jaw tightened.
"My sister."
Mave stared.
"You have a sister?"
"Had."
"What does that mean?"
"It means Claire disappeared twelve years ago."
Anna stepped closer to the screen.
"That's not Claire."
Declan looked at her sharply.
"Yes, it is."
"No."
Anna pointed toward the woman's hand.
"Claire Gallagher lost the tip of her left index finger when she was nine."
Declan stared at the image.
The woman had all ten fingers.
Mave felt a chill.
"So somebody wants you to think she's Claire."
"Why?"
No one knew.
Then Mave's phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Her apartment.
Taken from inside.
Another photograph followed.
Her mother's bedroom.
Then a message.
YOU FOUND THE WRONG LEDGER.
Mave showed Declan.
His expression changed.
Another message arrived.
ASK ANNA ABOUT THE SECOND BOOK.
Mave looked at her mother.
Anna went pale.
"Mom?"
Silence.
"What second book?"
Anna sat down.
"The ledger we found proves the theft."
"And?"
"The second one proves why Patrick was really killed."
Declan stepped forward.
"Where is it?"
Anna looked at Mave.
"I don't know."
"Who does?"
Anna's gaze moved toward Brutus.
Mave almost laughed from disbelief.
"Again?"
"Patrick trusted animals more than people."
Declan looked at the old collar.
Then he noticed something inside it.
A strip of paper.
He pulled it free.
Four words.
FOLLOW WHERE CAESAR SLEEPS.
Declan stared.
"My father's house."
They drove before dawn.
The Gallagher house had stood empty for years.
Brutus entered first.
He moved through dusty rooms as if following an old scent buried beneath generations of paint and wood.
Upstairs.
Down a corridor.
Into Patrick's study.
Then Brutus stopped beside the fireplace.
He lay down.
Exactly where Caesar had slept in an old family photograph hanging nearby.
Mave knelt.
She tapped the floor.
Hollow.
Declan removed a loose board.
Beneath it was a steel box.
Inside lay a second ledger.
And a sealed envelope.
DECLAN.
His hands trembled slightly as he opened it.
A letter from his father.
Declan read silently.
His face changed.
"What?"
He handed it to Mave.
One sentence had been underlined.
If anything happens to me, do not trust the man who raises you afterward.
Mave looked up.
"Who raised you?"
Declan didn't answer.
A floorboard creaked in the hallway.
Brutus stood.
Declan turned toward the open study door.
An elderly man appeared.
Perfect suit.
Silver hair.
Walking cane.
Declan whispered one word.
"Uncle."
The old man smiled.
May you like
Then he looked at the second ledger in Mave's hands.
"I've waited twenty years for someone foolish enough to find that."
