Chapter 13 - VANESSA’S DEBT
Elena followed her.
Of course she did.
Vanessa had left three clues without realizing it.
A bloodstain on the hospital loading dock.
A stolen sedan caught on traffic cameras.
And a call placed to Samuel Price’s old accountant.
The accountant lived in Brooklyn.
By the time Elena, Daniel, and Ruiz arrived, the apartment door was open.
Inside, Vanessa sat at the kitchen table.
The accountant sat across from her.
Terrified.
Vanessa looked up.
“You have got to stop following people who try to kill you.”
Elena stared at her bandaged shoulder.
“You escaped a hospital after getting shot.”
“I hate hospital food.”
Ruiz reached for his handcuffs.
Vanessa raised one finger.
“Before you arrest me again, you might want this.”
She slid a laptop across the table.
On screen were the missing transfers.
One point eight billion dollars.
Ruiz stared.
“You found it?”
“Samuel kept an emergency access key.”
“Where?”
Vanessa smiled.
“Some secrets should remain romantic.”
Elena frowned.
“I don’t want to know.”
“Good choice.”
Ruiz examined the accounts.
“The money hasn’t moved.”
“No.”
“Can you return it?”
“Most of it.”
Daniel caught the wording.
“Most?”
Vanessa’s expression changed.
“Forty million is gone.”
“To where?”
“I don’t know.”
The accountant began shaking.
Vanessa looked at him.
“He does.”
Ruiz sat opposite the man.
“Start talking.”
The accountant swallowed.
“Samuel created a separate account years ago.”
“For whom?”
“I never knew.”
Vanessa slammed her hand onto the table.
“You transferred forty million yesterday.”
“Because Samuel ordered me to!”
“Samuel was unconscious yesterday.”
The accountant went silent.
Elena understood.
“Someone else had his authorization.”
The accountant looked terrified.
Ruiz leaned forward.
“Who?”
Finally he whispered:
“Richard Howard.”
Daniel laughed in disbelief.
“My father is dead.”
The accountant shook his head.
“Not Richard Senior.”
Silence.
Daniel stared.
“What?”
The accountant swallowed.
“Richard Howard Junior.”
Daniel’s face emptied.
“I don’t have a brother.”
Vanessa looked at him.
“Apparently you do.”
The investigation moved quickly.
Richard Howard had fathered another child before marrying Margaret.
A son.
Michael.
Margaret had known.
Daniel had not.
Michael had grown up under his mother’s surname.
Michael Kane.
Elena recognized the name.
“Howard Holdings board.”
Daniel stared at her.
Michael Kane had served on the board for eleven years.
He had sat across from Daniel at every quarterly meeting.
He had attended their wedding.
He had sent flowers when Elena announced her pregnancy.
And according to Richard’s letter:
Trust no one on the board.
Daniel sat down.
“My father put his own son on the board without telling me.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“Your family desperately needed group therapy.”
Nobody disagreed.
Ruiz pulled Michael’s records.
Forty-seven.
Investment banker.
Divorced.
No children.
And missing since the previous night.
Then Daniel remembered something.
“The fire.”
Everyone looked at him.
“The masked man.”
“Thomas said Margaret called him because someone was destroying the mansion.”
Elena understood.
“Michael.”
Ruiz nodded.
“He could’ve taken the server.”
“And returned it before setting the fire.”
Vanessa frowned.
“Why?”
“To destroy specific files.”
Elena looked at the recovered footage.
“What files never came back?”
The technicians compared indexes.
One folder was missing completely.
RICHARD PRIVATE.
Daniel whispered:
“Michael wasn’t protecting Margaret.”
“He was protecting himself.”
Vanessa turned toward the accountant.
“Where did he send the forty million?”
The accountant finally answered.
“Cayman Islands.”
“That’s not useful.”
“There was a reference code.”
“What code?”
The man wrote it down.
Daniel recognized it immediately.
“Those are coordinates.”
Ruiz entered them.
A location appeared.
Upstate New York.
Daniel stared.
“That’s my father’s hunting lodge.”
Three hours later, police surrounded the lodge.
Nobody inside.
But beneath the floorboards, they found hard drives.
Dozens.
Financial records.
Videos.
Blackmail files.
Richard Howard had apparently collected leverage on business partners, politicians, attorneys, and members of his own family.
One file was labeled MICHAEL.
Ruiz opened it.
Video filled the screen.
Michael Kane sat across from Richard.
The timestamp was two weeks before Richard died.
Michael spoke first.
“You promised me control.”
Richard answered.
“I promised you a seat.”
“I’m your son.”
“So is Daniel.”
“He got everything.”
Richard looked exhausted.
“Because you frighten me.”
Michael smiled.
“You should be frightened.”
The recording ended.
Another file began automatically.
This one showed Richard lying in his hospital bed.
Michael stood beside him.
“You changed the trust.”
“Yes.”
“To Elena’s baby.”
“Yes.”
“Change it back.”
“No.”
Michael leaned closer.
“Then you won’t live long enough to regret it.”
The video ended.
Daniel stared at the black screen.
“My father didn’t die from cancer.”
Ruiz looked at him.
“We need the medical records.”
Vanessa whispered:
“Michael killed him.”
Then Elena heard something outside.
A twig snapping.
Ruiz reached for his gun.
The window shattered.
A bullet tore through the room.
Everyone dropped.
A second shot hit the wall above Elena.
Daniel covered her.
Ruiz shouted into his radio.
“Shooter in the woods!”
Officers ran outside.
Vanessa crawled toward the broken window.
She saw movement.
A man running between the trees.
“Michael!”
She jumped up.
Elena grabbed her coat.
“Don’t.”
Vanessa looked back.
“This man murdered Richard.”
“That doesn’t mean you chase someone with a rifle.”
Vanessa gave her a humorless smile.
“You’re getting annoyingly reasonable.”
Then she ran.
Elena swore.
Daniel stared at her.
“You’re not following.”
Elena looked toward the forest.
“No.”
A beat.
“We’re driving around.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Of course we are.”
They reached the road as Vanessa emerged from the trees.
Alone.
Ruiz ran toward her.
“Where is he?”
Vanessa was breathing hard.
“He had a motorcycle.”
“Which direction?”
“South.”
Then she opened her hand.
A phone.
“I got this.”
Elena stared.
“You stole his phone?”
Vanessa smiled.
“He tried to shoot me.”
“I consider us even.”
Ruiz unlocked it using Michael’s fingerprint lifted from the lodge.
One recent message appeared.
It had been sent to Margaret.
YOU FAILED.
NOW I’LL HANDLE ELENA MYSELF.
Daniel read it twice.
Then another message arrived.
A photograph.
Elena and Daniel standing beside their car.
Taken seconds earlier.
Michael was still watching them.
May you like
Below it were five words.
THE BABY NEVER GETS CONTROL.
