Chapter 5 - The Dead Accountant’s Ledger
Clara went inside.
Naturally.
Daniel was tied to a chair in the dining room.
Ryan stood behind him.
But Ryan wasn’t holding the gun.
Nora Bell was.
Clara stopped.
Arthur, hidden outside, could hear everything through Clara’s earpiece.
Nora smiled.
“I’m sorry.”
Clara’s heart sank.
“You came to Arthur bleeding.”
“Stage blood.”
“Marcus?”
“Real blood.”
Daniel glared at Nora.
“She killed him.”
Nora shrugged.
“Marcus became sentimental.”
Clara understood.
The six custodians had not merely been guardians.
Nora had been identifying them.
Eliminating them.
“Are you the Broker?”
Nora laughed.
“No.”
Ryan’s expression tightened.
Even he looked afraid.
“Then who?”
Nora stepped closer.
“The Broker wants what Evelyn hid.”
“I don’t have it.”
“You are it.”
Clara frowned.
Daniel shouted, “Don’t tell her anything!”
Nora struck him.
Clara lunged.
Ryan caught her.
That was his mistake.
Clara drove her heel into his knee and slammed her forehead into his nose.
He fell screaming.
Arthur entered seconds later.
Dominic followed.
Nora fired.
Arthur returned fire.
The bullet knocked Nora’s gun away.
Dominic restrained her.
Clara freed Daniel.
For several seconds the twins simply stared at each other.
Then Clara hit him.
Daniel blinked.
“That’s fair.”
She hugged him so hard he groaned.
“That’s also fair.”
Daniel explained everything.
Their mother had discovered a master ledger identifying every person connected to the trafficking network.
Not just criminals.
Judges.
Police.
Executives.
Politicians.
Men powerful enough to erase investigations.
Evelyn encrypted the ledger.
The key was divided.
Daniel had one part.
Clara unknowingly carried another.
Arthur’s father had possessed the third.
“Where is it now?” Arthur asked.
Daniel looked at him.
“Your pillow.”
Silence.
The crimson package.
Arthur produced the brass key.
Daniel nodded.
“That opens your father’s private archive.”
Arthur’s expression darkened.
His father had been dead twelve years.
But apparently he had left ghosts everywhere.
Nora suddenly laughed.
“You’re too late.”
Arthur turned.
“The archive is empty.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the Broker emptied it last night.”
Arthur stared at her.
Only someone with extraordinary access could enter the Kingsley archive.
Dominic stepped closer.
“Name him.”
Nora smiled.
“Why spoil the surprise?”
Arthur’s phone buzzed.
Security alert.
His private archive had just opened.
Not last night.
Now.
Someone was inside.
They raced back to the penthouse.
Arthur led them through a hidden elevator to a secure room beneath the building.
The vault door stood open.
Inside, shelves had been stripped bare.
One object remained.
A ledger.
Clara approached it.
Daniel grabbed her.
“Wait.”
A wire.
Bomb.
Arthur disarmed the crude trigger.
The ledger was fake.
Inside its cover was a phone.
It rang.
Arthur answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
“You finally found your family, Arthur.”
Arthur’s face hardened.
“Who are you?”
“You know.”
“No.”
A soft laugh.
“Ask Dominic what happened on October sixth, twenty years ago.”
Arthur looked at Dominic.
Dominic went pale.
“What happened?” Clara asked.
Dominic said nothing.
Arthur raised his pistol.
“Answer her.”
Dominic swallowed.
“Your father ordered a house burned.”
Arthur’s expression froze.
“Whose?”
“Evelyn Vance’s.”
Clara stopped breathing.
Dominic continued.
“I was there.”
Daniel lunged at him.
Arthur stopped him.
“You killed our mother!” Daniel shouted.
“No.”
Dominic’s voice cracked.
“I saved her.”
Silence.
Clara stared.
“What?”
Dominic looked twenty years older.
“I pulled Evelyn out before the fire reached the second floor.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No. But Arthur’s father believed she died. That kept her alive.”
Arthur lowered his weapon slightly.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because she made me swear.”
Arthur’s phone spoke again.
The Broker had never disconnected.
“How touching.”
Everyone froze.
The distorted voice continued.
“Dominic always was sentimental.”
Arthur stared at the phone.
“Show yourself.”
“With pleasure.”
A monitor inside the vault turned on.
A live camera showed Arthur’s penthouse bedroom.
A man stood beside the ruined pillow.
Gray hair.
Expensive suit.
Familiar eyes.
Arthur dropped the phone.
Daniel whispered, “That’s impossible.”
Clara looked at Arthur.
“Who is he?”
Arthur’s voice was almost inaudible.
“My father.”
The dead man smiled into the camera.
Then he reached toward someone standing just outside the frame.
“Come here, Evelyn.”
May you like
A woman stepped into view.
Clara recognized her mother immediately.
