Chapter 9 - THE PIERCE ACCOUNTS
Marcus saw her first.
“Mrs. Pierce!”
Christopher spun.
Estelle’s fingers were inches from the pistol when one of the guards kicked it across the floor.
She froze.
Nobody spoke.
Christopher stared at his mother.
“You were going to shoot him.”
Estelle slowly stood.
“No.”
“Everybody saw you.”
“I was removing the weapon.”
Ross started laughing from the floor.
“You always were terrible at losing.”
“Shut up, Daniel.”
Christopher turned back to Ross.
“What accounts?”
Ross looked at Estelle.
She stared at him with pure hatred.
That seemed to make his decision.
“Offshore accounts.”
Christopher frowned.
“Pierce Holdings has offshore accounts.”
“Not like these.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your father ran a slush fund for twenty years. Politicians. Inspectors. Union officials. Lawsuits. Everybody had a price.”
Christopher felt sick.
“My father died twelve years ago.”
“The accounts didn’t.”
He looked at Estelle.
“Your mother kept them running.”
Estelle’s voice was flat.
“You’re listening to a criminal trying to save himself.”
Ross smiled.
“I’m a criminal because your family paid me to be one.”
Christopher pulled him up by the jacket.
“What did Rachel find?”
“A ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“Names. Payments. Dates. Everything.”
Christopher remembered Rachel’s last year.
The paranoia.
The moving apartments.
The sudden fear of being watched.
He had believed it was about Emma.
Maybe it had started that way.
But then she discovered something bigger.
“Where is the ledger?”
Ross shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I’m not.”
“Rachel had it?”
“She made a copy.”
“Where?”
“No idea.”
Christopher stared at him.
Ross leaned closer.
“But I know what she did before she died.”
“What?”
“She mailed something to herself.”
Christopher frowned.
“That makes no sense.”
“Not her apartment. Her old house.”
Yvette stepped closer.
“Rachel’s mother’s house?”
Ross nodded.
Christopher remembered it.
A small blue house in Vermont.
Rachel had spent summers there as a child.
Her mother had died years before.
The house was supposedly empty.
Ross continued.
“Estelle sent people there after the accident.”
Christopher looked at his mother.
“Did you find it?”
Estelle said nothing.
Ross smiled.
“They found nothing.”
A crash echoed upstairs.
Part of the ceiling collapsed.
Fire crews were finally visible beyond the gates.
Christopher looked at Emma.
She stood with Yvette, staring at him.
Too much fear for one child.
He made a decision.
“Marcus, give police everything.”
“Where are you going?”
“Vermont.”
Estelle’s voice stopped him.
“You won’t find anything.”
Christopher turned.
She smiled faintly.
“Because Rachel’s house burned down six years ago.”
Christopher stared at her.
Then Emma spoke.
“No, it didn’t.”
Everyone looked at the child.
Emma wiped tears from her face.
“Mommy took me there.”
Christopher’s heart stopped.
“When?”
May you like
Emma looked at him.
“The week before she died.”
