Chapter 9 - NORTH QUAY
The sign behind the man read NORTH QUAY MARINA.
I showed the screen to David. He nodded once and quietly passed the location to the dispatcher on his phone.
“Let me hear my son,” I told the man.
“You can hear him.”
“I want to know he’s all right.”
“He’s all right if you cooperate.”
Leo cried harder. I gripped the edge of the gate to keep my voice level.
“What do you want?”
“The three million you blocked. Plus the documents Owen has.”
“Owen’s standing right here.”
“That’s his problem.”
The call ended.
Owen went gray. “I don’t know that man.”
Victoria whispered, “I do.”
I turned to her.
“His name is Graham Pike,” she said. “He arranges private loans. He helped fund North Quay.”
“You introduced him to our house,” I said. I remembered a dinner party months ago. Victoria had called Graham a friend of her father’s. He’d spent ten minutes complimenting the security system.
“He came once,” she said. “I didn’t give him access.”
“Then how did he get Leo’s tablet?”
“I don’t know.”
The police arrived. I told them everything, including the marina sign. Officers spoke to security, collected the plate number, and took statements from Teresa and my mother. Teresa insisted on finishing hers before she let anyone examine her head.
I wanted to drive straight to the marina. An officer told me their teams were going there and needed me available if Graham called again.
My mother came outside and took my hand.
“When Leo was born,” she said, “you were scared to hold him. Remember?”
“I remember.”
“Then you learned. You’ve shown up for him every day. Keep showing up now.”
I nodded, unable to speak.
Marcus called. “We found something else. The attempted wire wasn’t the only request made from Leo’s tablet.”
“What else?”
“Someone accessed the archived files from your first project. The Mercer site.”
Owen’s phone and the old email.
Pieces that had seemed separate were coming together.
“Can you see what they downloaded?” I asked.
“Yes. A folder called EAST PLATFORM.”
My chest tightened. That folder held the original inspection records. I had kept them because Alan’s death had changed the way I ran every site afterward.
“Marcus, check the email Owen showed me against those records.”
May you like
A pause. Keys clicked in the background.
Then Marcus said, “Julian, there’s something wrong with the date on that email. The east platform didn’t exist yet.”
