Chapter 4 - A Mother’s Bargain
Daniel gripped the phone.
“What are you talking about?”
Evelyn’s breathing sounded ragged.
“Is Emily with you?”
Daniel looked at his sister, who was holding Lily against her side.
“Yes.”
“Put me on speaker.”
He did.
Evelyn spoke with a tremor Daniel had never heard in her voice.
“Emily, take the girls and leave the house.”
“Mom, what’s happening?”
“You need to go somewhere no one knows.”
“Why?”
“Because Margaret made a deal.”
Emily looked toward the open window.
“What kind of deal?”
Evelyn was silent for several seconds.
“The kind people make when they believe fear excuses betrayal.”
Daniel interrupted.
“You’re one to talk. Rose says you married Dad because Harrow ordered you to.”
Emily stared at him.
“What?”
Evelyn inhaled sharply.
“You spoke to Rose.”
“She came here.”
“Did you give her the keys?”
“No.”
“Thank God.”
“Stop giving orders and tell us the truth.”
A car horn sounded faintly through Evelyn’s phone.
She was driving.
“Meet me at St. Matthew’s Church,” she said. “The old chapel behind the cemetery.”
Daniel glanced at Mark.
“How do we know you aren’t bringing someone with you?”
“You don’t.”
“Then give me one reason to come.”
“Because I know where Margaret is taking the watch.”
The call ended.
Twenty minutes later, Daniel, Emily, Mark and the children left through the neighboring yard. One police officer remained at the house while another promised to search for Margaret’s car.
Daniel did not tell them about the ledger. He no longer knew which authorities could be trusted.
The old chapel stood beyond a row of bare oak trees, separated from the main church by a crumbling stone wall. Evelyn’s sedan waited beside the cemetery.
Daniel parked several spaces away.
“Stay in the car,” he told Emily.
“No.”
“The children—”
“Are sleeping. Mark will stay with them.”
Mark nodded.
Emily stepped out before Daniel could argue.
Their mother stood inside the chapel beneath a wooden cross. She wore a gray coat over a nightgown, as if she had left home without changing. Her hair was uncombed. Her face looked twenty years older than it had at Edward’s funeral.
Daniel shut the chapel door.
“Where is Margaret?”
“On her way to the Langford Hotel.”
“Who is she meeting?”
“A man named Victor Sloane.”
The name meant nothing to Daniel.
Emily frowned.
“Who is he?”
“The last surviving partner from the Harrow organization.”
Evelyn sat in a pew.
“Victor controls the companies Edward used to move money. He also owns half the judges, inspectors and politicians named in that ledger.”
“Then we call the FBI,” Daniel said.
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
Evelyn reached into her coat and removed a flash drive.
“Edward left a partial copy of the records in our safe. After his death, I sent it anonymously to three agencies. Two never responded. The third sent an investigator to my house.”
“What happened?”
“He asked where the original ledger was.”
“That’s his job.”
“Then he told Victor that I had contacted them.”
Emily sank into the opposite pew.
“How do you know?”
“Victor called me ten minutes after the investigator left.”
Daniel looked at the flash drive.
“Rose mentioned a prosecutor named Lena Ortiz.”
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed.
“Rose has been using Lena for years.”
“Using her how?”
“Feeding her enough information to destroy competitors while protecting herself.”
“You expect us to believe that?”
“I expect you to question everyone.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Did you marry Dad because Harrow told you to?”
Evelyn stared at the altar.
“Yes.”
Emily covered her mouth.
Daniel had imagined his mother denying it. Her admission unsettled him more.
“Why?”
“After Rose disappeared, Edward became reckless. He was going to expose everything. Harrow needed someone close to him.”
“So you volunteered?”
“They threatened Rose.”
Daniel froze.
“You thought she was dead.”
“That was the story they wanted Edward to believe. I knew she was alive because they showed me a photograph of her at the farmhouse.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled with tears.
“They said they would kill her unless I convinced Edward to stop looking.”
“And marriage was part of that?”
“At first, I only watched him. Then he began depending on me. We were both grieving Rose, though neither of us could speak her name.”
“Did you love him?”
“Eventually.”
The word sounded like another betrayal.
Emily shook her head.
“You let us believe you had a normal marriage.”
“I gave you the safest childhood I could.”
“Built on lies.”
“Built on survival.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Where is the ledger?”
Evelyn looked toward a stained-glass window.
“Your father divided it.”
“What does that mean?”
“The physical book contains the transactions, but the names are encoded. The watch deciphers them. The brass keys open a deposit box containing supporting documents.”
Daniel glanced at the ring in his hand.
“Which bank?”
“Not a bank. Union Station.”
Emily frowned.
“There are lockers beneath the old terminal.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Locker 317.”
Daniel’s father had taken him to Union Station every December to see the holiday lights. The idea that criminal records had been hidden beneath the building made those memories feel contaminated.
“Where is the physical ledger?” he asked.
Evelyn looked at Emily.
“Inside this chapel.”
They followed her to a narrow door behind the altar. A staircase descended into a storage room filled with broken chairs and holiday decorations.
Evelyn removed a loose brick from the far wall.
Behind it sat a black leather book.
Daniel reached toward it.
“Don’t.”
His mother caught his wrist.
“The moment we move it, Victor will know.”
“How?”
“Edward placed a tracker inside the binding.”
“Why would he do that?”
“So no one could steal it without revealing where they took it.”
Daniel almost admired the strategy.
“Then we remove the tracker.”
“It’s embedded beneath the spine.”
Emily studied the ledger.
“We could use it as bait.”
Evelyn looked at her daughter.
“That’s what your father intended.”
A noise came from upstairs.
The chapel door creaked open.
Daniel motioned for everyone to remain silent.
Footsteps crossed the wooden floor.
Slow.
Deliberate.
A man’s voice called down the stairs.
“Evelyn?”
Her face turned white.
Victor Sloane appeared at the top of the staircase.
He was tall, silver-haired and dressed in a dark wool coat. He looked more like a retired senator than a criminal.
Margaret stood beside him.
The missing pocket watch hung from her trembling hand.
Victor smiled.
“What a touching family reunion.”
Behind him, two men entered the chapel and locked the door.
Daniel shifted in front of Emily.
Victor noticed the brass keys.
“There they are.”
Margaret would not meet Emily’s eyes.
“Mom,” Emily whispered. “How could you?”
Margaret began crying.
“I had no choice.”
Victor placed one hand gently on her shoulder.
“There is always a choice. Margaret simply chose to protect her son.”
Mark’s voice shouted from outside.
“Emily!”
A gunshot exploded above them.
Margaret screamed.
Emily ran toward the stairs, but Daniel caught her.
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“Bring me the ledger,” he said, “or the next bullet goes through your husband instead of his car.”
Daniel stared at the black book hidden behind the wall.
Then at the watch in Margaret’s hand.
The ledger, the cipher and the keys were finally in the same place.
So were nearly all the people who had lied to him.
He slowly lifted the book.
Victor smiled again.
“Good.”
Daniel held it against his chest.
“You want the ledger?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell your men to bring Mark inside.”
Victor’s expression cooled.
“You are in no position to negotiate.”
Daniel pressed his thumb beneath the loose edge of the leather binding.
He had noticed something Evelyn had missed.
A thin wire.
A tiny red light.
Not only a tracker.
A transmitter.
His father had not designed the ledger merely to be followed.
He had designed it to record whoever came to claim it.
Daniel looked Victor directly in the eyes.
“Maybe not.”
Then he tore the transmitter from the spine and crushed it beneath his shoe.
May you like
Victor’s face changed.
For the first time, the powerful man looked afraid.
