Chapter 8 - Fire in the Archive
Victor’s face looked older than it had that morning on the phone. His hair was gray at the temples, and the hand holding the pistol trembled despite his effort to hide it.
“Put it down,” Maria said.
“I cannot.”
“You already did.”
“You do not understand what they will do.”
Adam stepped in front of Maria. “Who is they?”
Victor aimed at him. “You should have stayed in your palace.”
“I have never been good at staying where people put me.”
A burst of gunfire came from the garage. Samira returned fire through the doorway, forcing the attackers back. Victor flinched and looked toward the sound.
“Maria, get in the car.”
“Did you sell the ledger?”
“No.”
“Did you sign the transfers?”
“Yes.”
The admission landed between them.
“Why?”
Victor lowered the pistol a fraction. “Because your father asked me to move money into a trust. I believed it was for the families of the workers. Rashad found the accounts and threatened your mother. He said the money would disappear unless I helped him reroute it.”
“You told me Dad died because of a design failure.”
“Your father told me to say that.”
“Why would he?”
“Because Elena was being watched. Because you were sixteen. Because the people who caused the collapse had already killed two witnesses.”
Maria wanted to believe him, but the photograph of Victor beside Grant burned in her memory.
“And the third record?”
“I never had it. Your father gave me the ledger, but Grant stole it from my office after the accident.”
Adam’s eyes narrowed. “Then why did Daniel say it was with you?”
“Because he recorded that message before he knew what I had done.”
Behind them, flames rose through the garage windows. The old plans caught fire in seconds.
“We have to go,” Samira shouted.
Victor tossed Maria a key ring. “Your mother kept a storage unit in Cleveland. Unit forty-four. The contract is under her maiden name, Elena Ruiz.”
“Come with us.”
Victor looked at the burning garage. “If I go, they will follow.”
“They already have.”
He stepped toward the SUV. Adam seized his arm.
“You are coming with us.”
Victor pulled free. “You think this is about guilt. It is about leverage. Rashad has documents proving I helped create the Carter Family Trust. If he releases them, every court will call me a conspirator. If I testify, he will kill Maria.”
“If you disappear, he will kill her anyway,” Maria said.
Victor looked at her then, and the fear in his face became something closer to shame.
“Your father loved you more than he loved the truth,” he said. “That was why he lost.”
He climbed into the SUV and drove away before anyone could stop him.
Samira watched the taillights vanish. “We should follow.”
“No,” Maria said. “He wants us to.”
Adam studied her. “How do you know?”
“Because he gave us a key to a storage unit and a reason to chase him. If he wanted us safe, he would have told us where he was going.”
The fire department arrived as dawn colored the sky. Maria watched Daniel’s garage collapse inward, taking the photographs and the model of Blue Gate with it.
Adam stood beside her without touching her.
“I am sorry,” he said.
“Do not apologize for a fire you did not start.”
“I am apologizing for believing the wrong people.”
She looked at him. “Then do something different now.”
“What?”
“Believe me when I say we are going to Cleveland, but not by the road.”
Samira’s phone rang. She listened, then turned pale.
“Leon Voss escaped custody,” she said.
May you like
“How?” Adam asked.
“Someone opened his cell with an official Noor security code.”
