Chapter 9 - The Library Basement
Police reached the library in six minutes.
Daniel arrived in four.
He ignored Ruiz’s furious phone call until he parked.
Then he answered.
“Stay in the car.”
“I’m already here.”
“That was not permission to get out.”
“I know.”
“Daniel.”
“I’ll stay outside.”
For once, he kept the promise.
Officers entered through three access points.
The library’s glass facade looked peaceful beneath the streetlights.
Inside, darkness filled the reading rooms.
Daniel saw the bronze plaque in the garden.
Rebecca smiled from the engraved photograph.
Lady in blue.
Five years earlier, Julia had hidden something in a place connected to Rebecca.
Perhaps the original ledger.
Perhaps enough evidence to expose Grant’s fraud.
And Maya had remembered the clues.
At 10:43, Ruiz arrived.
She looked ready to kill Daniel herself.
Before she could speak, a noise came from inside.
Glass shattered.
Officers shouted.
Daniel stepped forward.
Ruiz blocked him.
“No.”
A figure appeared at the second-floor window.
Maya.
Daniel recognized the yellow dress beneath Ethan’s navy hoodie.
Grant stood behind her.
His arm was around her shoulders.
Something metallic glinted in his hand.
Daniel’s stomach dropped.
The officers below moved back.
Grant shouted through the broken window.
“Carter.”
Daniel froze.
Grant knew he was there.
Ruiz swore quietly.
Grant shouted again.
“You wanted to help?”
“Come help.”
Ruiz grabbed Daniel’s arm.
“You are not going inside.”
Grant pressed Maya closer.
She winced.
“I only want Carter.”
Daniel stared upward.
Maya saw him.
Her face was streaked with tears.
But she shook her head.
Tiny.
Almost invisible.
No.
She did not want him to come.
Daniel understood.
Grant wanted leverage.
Maybe Daniel knew something Grant needed.
Maybe he believed Rebecca told Daniel about the records.
Ruiz spoke into her radio.
A negotiator was two minutes away.
Grant shouted.
“Two minutes.”
“If he doesn’t come inside, I leave with her.”
No one believed Grant intended to simply walk out.
Daniel’s mind shifted into the cold analytical mode that had built his company.
He looked at the building.
Second-floor east window.
Main stairs.
Rear stairwell.
Freight elevator.
Basement access.
Grant had entered through the side.
Why move Maya upstairs?
Because he had retrieved something from downstairs.
He wanted an exit.
The second-floor corridor connected to the parking structure next door through an old enclosed walkway.
Daniel knew because his company had once evaluated the building for renovation.
“Ruiz.”
“What?”
“There’s a bridge.”
She frowned.
“Behind the east stacks.”
“Second floor.”
“It connects to the parking garage.”
Her expression changed.
She radioed officers.
Seconds later, movement erupted behind the building.
Grant disappeared from the window.
Maya vanished with him.
Daniel’s pulse exploded.
Officers rushed toward the garage.
Then Daniel heard tires.
A black SUV burst from the rear exit.
Police vehicles followed.
Ruiz ran to her car.
Daniel moved toward his.
She pointed at him.
“No.”
“That’s Maya.”
“And those are police.”
She got in and sped away.
Daniel stood alone beneath Rebecca’s plaque.
For the first time in days, he obeyed.
Twenty minutes later, Ruiz called.
They had lost the SUV.
Grant had abandoned it beneath an overpass.
Maya was gone.
But inside the vehicle police found a metal box.
Empty.
Grant had found Julia’s hiding place.
Whatever had been inside was now with him.
The next morning, investigators reviewed security footage from the library.
Maya had entered alone.
Grant followed three minutes later.
She opened the basement cabinet.
Removed Rebecca’s old time-capsule container.
Inside was a black notebook.
A ledger.
Julia’s ledger.
Grant took it.
But the footage showed something else.
Before Grant arrived, Maya tore three pages from the notebook.
She folded them.
Then hid them somewhere off camera.
Grant never saw.
Police searched the basement.
Nothing.
Daniel watched the footage repeatedly.
Maya opened the ledger.
Looked toward the security camera.
Then walked left.
She returned eight seconds later without the pages.
“Left leads to the children’s archive,” Daniel said.
Officers searched it.
Nothing.
Ethan arrived later.
Daniel showed him the footage.
He watched once.
Then asked to see it again.
On the third viewing, he pointed.
“She touched her hoodie.”
“What?”
“Before she went left.”
Daniel rewound.
Maya indeed touched Ethan’s navy hoodie.
Ethan looked at Daniel.
“The pocket is ripped inside.”
Daniel remembered.
Rosa had complained about it.
“There’s a hole between the lining and the fabric.”
Police recovered the hoodie after finding Grant’s abandoned SUV.
It had been tossed into the cargo area.
Ruiz carefully cut open the lining.
Three folded ledger pages fell onto the table.
The first listed company names.
The second listed insurance claims.
The third contained dates, amounts, and initials.
One set of initials appeared more than twenty times.
G.M.
Grant Mercer.
Another appeared nine times.
W.M.
Wade Mercer.
Then Daniel saw a third.
D.C.
His own initials.
Beside them was a payment.
$425,000.
Ethan looked at his father.
Ruiz did too.
Daniel stared at the page.
“I never received that money.”
Ruiz’s expression remained unreadable.
But the story had changed again.
May you like
Grant was not the only person the ledger could destroy.
Someone had used Daniel Carter’s name.
