Chapter 4 - THE DEAD GIRL
"You died."
Barrett whispered the words.
Evelyn smiled without warmth.
"Apparently I was bad at it."
Kendrick looked between them.
"Someone explain."
Barrett recovered quickly.
"Daniel Mercer betrayed this family."
Evelyn lunged toward him.
Kendrick caught her arm.
"Don't."
"He murdered my father."
Barrett scoffed.
"Your father stole eight million dollars from the syndicate and disappeared."
"My father never stole anything."
"That's not what the evidence showed."
"The evidence you created?"
Barrett's jaw tightened.
Kendrick turned toward him.
"What is she talking about?"
Barrett shook his head.
"She's lying."
Evelyn laughed.
Six years of anger cracked through it.
"My father kept your books for nineteen years. He knew every account, every shell company, every politician your family paid."
She looked at Kendrick.
"Then he found something he wasn't supposed to find."
"What?"
"Money disappearing."
"How much?"
"Almost forty million over three years."
Kendrick's expression changed.
Barrett interrupted.
"This is nonsense."
Evelyn continued.
"My father traced it to companies controlled by somebody inside the Ashford organization."
Her eyes shifted toward Barrett.
"Three days later our house burned down."
Kendrick said nothing.
"The papers reported four bodies," Evelyn continued. "My parents. My brother. Me."
"But you survived."
"I wasn't home."
"Where were you?"
"Hospital."
She pulled back her sleeve.
The scar Kendrick had noticed ran farther than he'd realized.
"My brother called me after the first explosion."
Her voice cracked.
"I drove home. Somebody shot at my car before I reached the property. I crashed."
Kendrick's anger became very still.
"Who?"
"I never saw his face."
Barrett laughed.
"Convenient."
Evelyn reached into her shoe.
Three guns immediately pointed at her.
"Easy," Kendrick said.
She slowly removed a tiny folded photograph.
It was burned around the edges.
She handed it to Kendrick.
The photograph showed Daniel Mercer standing beside Barrett outside a warehouse.
On the back, Daniel had written:
B knows. If anything happens, don't trust the family story.
Kendrick looked at his uncle.
Barrett's face hardened.
"A photograph proves nothing."
"No," Evelyn said.
"But this might."
She pulled the locket apart.
Hidden inside the backing was a tiny brass key.
Barrett moved.
Just half a step.
Titan growled.
Kendrick noticed.
"What's the key open?"
Evelyn stared at Barrett.
"I don't know."
"You've had it six years."
"My father mailed the locket to me two days before he died. There was no explanation."
"Then why come here?"
"Because three months ago, I found an old bank statement in a storage unit registered under my mother's maiden name."
She looked at Kendrick.
"One payment listed a location."
"Where?"
"Your building."
Barrett's face changed again.
"The eighty-sixth floor."
Kendrick went still.
That floor had been sealed for years.
It contained old syndicate archives dating back to his grandfather.
Only four people had unrestricted access.
Kendrick.
His security chief.
His late father.
And Barrett.
Evelyn looked around at the guards.
"I got hired tonight because I needed ten minutes near the service elevator."
"So this whole thing was an infiltration."
"Yes."
"You lied your way into my home."
"Yes."
"You used a false identity."
"Yes."
"You planned to break into restricted archives."
"Yes."
Barrett smiled.
"There. She admits it."
Evelyn looked at Kendrick.
"I didn't know Penny would recognize me."
His anger sharpened.
"You saved her three years ago and never told me."
"I had reasons."
"Give me one."
"The men who killed Celeste were looking for me too."
Kendrick froze.
"What did you say?"
Evelyn took a breath.
"The night your wife's car was attacked, I wasn't driving by accidentally."
She looked toward Penny.
"I was following the man who ordered it."
Kendrick's face became lethal.
"Who?"
Before Evelyn could answer, the captured gunman on the floor began convulsing.
The guards rushed toward him.
Foam appeared at his mouth.
"Poison!" somebody shouted.
Seconds later, he stopped moving.
Kendrick turned toward Barrett.
Barrett stared back.
Then Kendrick looked at the dead attacker.
There would be no interrogation.
No confession.
Someone had silenced him.
May you like
And whoever had done it was still inside the building.
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