Chapter 8 - VINCENT KANE ON TRIALThe newspapers did exactly what David hoped.
“Where is she?”
Marcus was already issuing orders.
“Car is moving west on Wacker.”
Vincent arrived seconds later.
His face looked carved from stone.
“How did Sterling get near the building?”
“He used a cloned delivery credential.”
Emily grabbed Marcus’s arm.
“What did he say to her?”
“We don’t have audio.”
“Call him.”
Vincent already was.
David answered on the third ring.
“Vincent.”
“Put Rory on.”
David laughed.
“You really do collect strays.”
Emily lunged for the phone.
Vincent switched to speaker.
“David,” she said. “Please.”
“Emily. There’s the woman who started all this.”
“She is four years old.”
“She’s perfectly safe.”
Rory’s voice came faintly through the line.
“Mommy?”
Emily nearly collapsed.
“Baby! I’m here.”
“Mr. Sterling says you forgot your purple paper.”
Emily closed her eyes.
David had lured her with the notebook.
Of course.
Rory believed she was helping.
“Listen to me. You did nothing wrong. I need you to stay very still.”
David interrupted.
“Touching.”
“What do you want?” Vincent asked.
“The Voss files.”
“You know federal investigators have copies.”
“I want Kane’s copies.”
“Why?”
“Because your copies include something the government doesn’t have.”
Vincent looked at Marcus.
“What?”
David chuckled.
“Come on. You’ve always been smart.”
The call ended.
A message arrived.
OLD UNION STATION MAIL DEPOT. 30 MINUTES. COME ALONE WITH THE KANE ARCHIVE.
Emily grabbed Vincent.
“No.”
“I’m not letting him keep her.”
“You’re not going alone.”
Marcus agreed.
“He won’t.”
Vincent studied the location.
The abandoned mail depot sat beside rail yards scheduled for redevelopment.
Kane Logistics owned property nearby.
There were dozens of entrances.
Marcus began coordinating with police.
Emily stepped toward the elevator.
“No.”
She kept walking.
“Emily.”
“That is my daughter.”
“Which is exactly why you can’t go.”
She turned.
“You think because I waitress for a living I don’t understand danger?”
“That is not what I said.”
“You think I’m going to stand here while men decide how to rescue my child?”
Vincent looked at her.
“No.”
He handed her a bulletproof vest.
“I think you’re going to listen to Marcus.”
Twenty-four minutes later, teams surrounded the depot.
Vincent entered through the south door carrying a metal case.
It did not contain the archive.
It contained blank paper.
David stood twenty yards away.
Rory sat on a wooden crate.
She looked frightened but unharmed.
In her hand was the stolen purple-star notebook.
David had recovered it from whoever burglarized Emily’s apartment.
“Mr. Kane!”
Rory started to stand.
David put a hand on her shoulder.
“Stay.”
Vincent stopped.
“You wanted me. You have me.”
“I wanted what your mother hid.”
Vincent understood.
“The trust records?”
David shook his head.
“The ledger.”
“What ledger?”
David’s confidence flickered.
“You really don’t know.”
Vincent said nothing.
David laughed.
“Your mother stole Charles Sterling’s private ledger. Names. Payments. Judges. Aldermen. Union officials. Everything.”
Emily was listening from a surveillance van.
Marcus whispered, “That could explain why Sterling has been panicking.”
David continued.
“My father spent twenty years looking for it. I finally realized Marianne Kane must have left it to you.”
“I don’t have it.”
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
David grabbed Rory’s shoulder harder.
Vincent’s voice changed.
“Take your hand off her.”
Even David reacted.
For a second, the legend of Vincent Kane entered the room.
But Vincent did not move.
He knew one reckless step could endanger Rory.
Then the little girl did something nobody expected.
She looked at David.
“You’re hurting me.”
His grip loosened automatically.
Rory stomped on his foot.
Hard.
David shouted.
She ran.
“Rory!”
Vincent sprinted forward.
David reached inside his jacket.
Police moved.
“Hands!”
David froze under the sudden eruption of red targeting lights.
Vincent reached Rory and pulled her behind him.
David’s hand slowly emerged.
Empty.
He looked around.
Police everywhere.
His shoulders fell.
Then he smiled.
“You still don’t have the ledger.”
Rory tugged Vincent’s coat.
“Yes, he does.”
Everybody looked at her.
“What?” Vincent whispered.
Rory held up the work log.
“The purple paper.”
David’s expression changed instantly.
Rory opened the back cover.
A strip of old paper had been glued inside.
Emily had never noticed it.
Rory had.
“There’s a secret page.”
Vincent carefully peeled it open.
Inside was a tiny brass key and an old storage receipt.
Dated eleven years earlier.
Marianne Kane.
Chicago Central Safe Deposit.
Box 317.
Vincent stared at it.
David’s face collapsed.
He knew.
The ledger was real.
Police handcuffed him.
He began shouting.
“You have no idea what’s in there!”
Vincent held Rory in one arm.
“No.”
He looked at the key.
“But I’m about to.”
By sunrise, a federal judge had authorized the box to be opened with Kane family consent.
Inside they found Marianne’s ledger.
Forty-three names.
Twenty-six years of payments.
Millions of dollars.
And one entry dated only six months earlier.
D. STERLING — PAYMENT AUTHORIZED BY V.K.
Vincent stared at his own initials.
Someone had placed his name inside the corruption ledger.
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Now he wasn’t only a witness.
He was a suspect.
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