Chapter 10 - NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE
Daniel had spent twenty-one years building Caldwell Consulting.
It took eleven minutes to throw him out.
Security walked him to the elevator.
Employees stared from glass offices.
Some looked embarrassed.
Others looked away.
Daniel carried one cardboard box.
A framed family photo.
Two notebooks.
A coffee mug his daughter had painted when she was seven.
That was it.
Marcus followed him.
“No hard feelings.”
Daniel turned.
“You had me removed.”
“You forced my hand.”
“You stole from the company.”
Marcus smiled.
“Prove it.”
“I will.”
“Then do it fast.”
The elevator arrived.
Daniel stepped inside.
Marcus held the door.
“Oh, and Daniel?”
“What?”
“Claire should get a lawyer.”
The doors closed.
Daniel wanted to break something.
Instead, he went to Elena.
“We stop playing defense.”
She looked up.
“What are you proposing?”
“We find Alan.”
“The police are looking.”
“Police move through procedures.”
“And you move through anger.”
“I know where he might go.”
Claire frowned.
“Where?”
Daniel looked at her.
“My father owned a storage warehouse outside Joliet.”
“What does that have to do with Alan?”
“Alan handled the purchase.”
They drove there after dark.
The building looked abandoned.
Old brick.
Broken windows.
One security light.
Elena brought a retired federal agent named Cole to accompany them.
Inside, they found rows of storage cages.
Daniel used the key from his father’s lake house box on a locked office.
It opened.
Claire stared at him.
“That key opens two locks?”
“No.”
Daniel looked at the mechanism.
“Someone replaced this lock.”
Inside were stacks of banker’s boxes.
Elena opened one.
Sterling Financial records.
Off-book agreements.
Commission schedules.
Fake consulting contracts.
Cole whistled.
“This is not seven million.”
“How much?” Daniel asked.
Elena turned pages.
“Potentially more than sixty million.”
Claire sat down.
Daniel stared.
“This has been going on for years.”
Then they found the audio files.
Old digital recorder.
Daniel pressed play.
Alan’s voice.
“You move Caldwell funds through Northline. Sterling matches on the back end.”
Marcus answered.
“What does that get me?”
“Ownership.”
“How much?”
“Enough that when Daniel realizes what happened, he won’t be able to stop you.”
Daniel’s face went cold.
Then his father’s voice appeared.
“You two are done.”
Daniel stopped the recording.
Nobody moved.
Claire whispered.
“Your father caught them.”
Elena looked at another file.
Then footsteps echoed outside.
Cole raised his hand.
“Quiet.”
A metal door slammed.
Daniel smelled something.
Gasoline.
Elena’s eyes widened.
“Everybody out.”
A flame rolled beneath the office door.
Claire screamed.
Cole kicked the door.
It wouldn’t open.
“Locked from outside!”
Smoke filled the room.
Daniel grabbed a chair and smashed the window.
Elena started throwing boxes through the opening.
“Save the records!”
Claire coughed.
“Forget the records!”
Fire climbed the wall.
Daniel pushed Claire toward the window.
She climbed out.
Elena followed.
Cole jumped next.
Daniel grabbed the recorder.
Then the ceiling cracked.
A burning beam crashed between him and the window.
“DANIEL!”
He turned.
Through the smoke, someone was standing in the hallway.
May you like
Watching him burn.
Marcus.
