Chapter 11 - THE MAN HE TRUSTED
Christopher called Marcus immediately.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Yvette stared at the photograph.
“Maybe there’s an explanation.”
Christopher wanted one.
Marcus had worked for the Pierce family for fifteen years.
He had protected Christopher.
Protected Emma.
He had taken a bullet hours earlier.
But the photograph did not lie.
Emma watched her father.
“Is Uncle Marcus bad?”
Christopher hated the question.
“I don’t know.”
The flash drive contained dozens of documents.
Yvette opened them on an old laptop they found upstairs.
Payments.
Shell companies.
Names.
Then a folder labeled RACHEL.
Christopher clicked it.
There were audio files.
He played the first.
Rachel’s voice filled the room.
“Marcus, I know Estelle sent you.”
Christopher stopped breathing.
A man answered.
Marcus.
“You need to leave town.”
“Is that a threat?”
“No. It’s me trying to keep you alive.”
Christopher leaned closer.
Rachel spoke again.
“Did Estelle tell you to damage my car?”
Silence.
Then Marcus said, “She told me to scare you.”
Emma covered her mouth.
Christopher’s hands tightened.
The recording continued.
“But I didn’t do it.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because someone else got there before me.”
Christopher looked at Yvette.
Rachel asked, “Who?”
Marcus answered.
“I saw Daniel.”
Christopher exhaled.
Ross.
Then Marcus said something else.
“But Daniel wasn’t working for Estelle that night.”
Christopher frowned.
Rachel’s voice became quieter.
“Then who?”
“I don’t know yet.”
The audio ended.
Yvette clicked the next file.
Marcus again.
“I found the payment.”
Rachel: “From whom?”
Marcus: “Pierce Biomedical.”
Christopher stared at the screen.
Pierce Biomedical was a subsidiary he barely thought about.
His father had founded it.
The company had been shut down after a failed drug trial.
Rachel’s voice sharpened.
“Why would a dead company pay Daniel Ross?”
Marcus answered.
“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
The recording stopped.
Christopher opened the financial file.
A payment of $250,000 had been transferred to Daniel Ross two days before Rachel’s crash.
Authorized by an executive account.
Christopher scrolled down.
The authorization name appeared.
He stared.
“No.”
Yvette leaned over his shoulder.
“What is it?”
Christopher couldn’t speak.
The authorization did not belong to Estelle.
It belonged to Christopher himself.
His digital signature.
His corporate credentials.
Everything.
Emma looked at him.
“Daddy?”
Christopher stared at the screen.
Someone had used his identity to pay the man who may have killed Rachel.
Then headlights swept across the windows.
A car had pulled up outside.
Yvette whispered, “Did anyone know we were coming?”
Christopher shook his head.
May you like
Three men stepped out of the vehicle.
And one of them was holding a shotgun.
