Chapter 7 - Twenty-Three Empty Companies
Marcus Vale had been Bastion's closest friend for eighteen years.
That made him either the perfect traitor or the perfect suspect.
Bastion wanted him found.
Beatrice wanted evidence.
“Emotion isn't evidence,” she told him.
“He was standing behind my mother.”
“We saw three frames.”
“It was him.”
“Probably.”
“Probably?”
“That's the word responsible adults use before ruining someone's life.”
Bastion stared at her.
“You enjoy this.”
“Correcting powerful men? Immensely.”
Marcus answered his phone.
He sounded confused.
He was in Manhattan.
Security footage confirmed it.
The image behind Elena had been prerecorded.
Another manufactured truth.
Beatrice examined the twenty-three companies again.
One detail bothered her.
Each had exactly one unusual payment.
Not millions.
Small amounts.
$31.17.
$42.09.
$18.86.
Random.
Except accountants knew random numbers rarely stayed random.
She extracted them.
Converted them.
Coordinates.
Twenty-three locations.
Safe houses.
Elena had left a map.
One coordinate was in Manhattan.
Bastion recognized the address.
His childhood home.
The house where Elena supposedly died.
They went there after midnight.
The property had remained empty for years.
Inside, Beatrice found a hidden safe behind a wall.
Combination?
Twenty-three.
Inside was Alexander Mercer's original ledger.
Paper.
Impossible to hack.
Impossible to alter remotely.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
And one recurring initial.
V.M.
Victor Mercer.
Bastion's cousin.
Beatrice turned the page.
“Here.”
Victor had received payments from a company later connected to Meridian.
Twelve years ago.
Days before Alexander's death.
Bastion's face hardened.
“Victor killed my father.”
“Maybe.”
“You're going to say maybe until somebody confesses, aren't you?”
“Even afterward.”
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
They stopped.
Someone was inside the house.
Bastion drew his weapon.
Beatrice remained behind him.
A figure descended.
Victor.
Unarmed.
“You finally found it,” he said.
Bastion aimed.
“You have ten seconds.”
Victor looked at the ledger.
“I didn't kill Alexander.”
“Eight.”
“I was working for him.”
“Six.”
“Those payments were undercover transfers.”
“Four.”
Victor looked at Beatrice.
“Ask why Alexander left Bastion everything.”
She did.
Victor smiled sadly.
“Because Bastion wasn't supposed to inherit it.”
Silence.
“What?”
Victor pointed toward the ledger.
“Turn to the last page.”
Beatrice did.
A birth certificate had been folded inside.
She opened it.
Bastion Mercer.
Father: Alexander Mercer.
Mother—
Beatrice stopped.
Bastion saw her expression.
“Read it.”
She couldn't.
So he took the document.
His eyes moved to the line.
May you like
The name wasn't Elena.
It was Evelyn Shaw.
