Chapter 5 - THE BROTHERThe meeting with the Vance attorneys began at nine the next morning in a glass conference room on the forty-second floor of Vance Meridian Tower.
Nothing about it looked important enough to die for.
That was probably why Marcus had chosen it.
Benjamin parked two blocks away.
“You stay in the car,” he told Natalie.
She stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because if something happens, one of us needs to leave.”
“I hate that sentence.”
“So do I.”
I touched her arm.
“He’s right.”
She looked at me.
“If you’re not back in fifteen minutes, I’m calling the police.”
Benjamin frowned.
“Call the number I gave you first.”
“The mysterious former auditor hotline?”
“The federal agent whose number I gave you.”
Natalie blinked.
“You know a federal agent?”
“I know someone who might still be trustworthy.”
That did not make me feel better.
Benjamin and I entered through the side gate.
Unit 318 was on the third floor.
The corridor smelled like dust and cold concrete.
Marcus’s access code opened the outer building door.
The unit itself required a key.
I found one taped beneath the railing exactly where the drive instructions said it would be.
Benjamin whispered, “Marcus loved low-tech solutions.”
“He said technology fails at the exact moment you need it most.”
We reached Unit 318.
I inserted the key.
The lock turned.
Benjamin put one hand against the metal door.
“Wait.”
“What?”
He pointed to the floor.
A thin piece of clear tape stretched from the bottom of the door to the concrete.
Broken.
Someone had opened it after Marcus placed it there.
Benjamin pulled me back.
We listened.
Nothing.
He carefully lifted the door.
The storage unit was dark.
Boxes lined the walls.
A folding table stood in the middle.
And beneath it—
a shoe.
I stopped breathing.
Benjamin switched on his flashlight.
A woman was lying on the floor.
“Lena?”
He rushed inside.
Dr. Lena Cho was alive.
Barely.
Her wrists were tied with plastic restraints.
Dried blood covered one side of her face.
Tape had been wrapped across her mouth.
Benjamin cut it loose.
Lena gasped.
“Don’t—”
“We’re helping you.”
Her eyes found me.
Instant terror crossed her face.
“Harper?”
“Yes.”
She tried to sit.
“Get out.”
“What happened?”
“They know.”
“Who?”
She grabbed my coat with surprising strength.
“Derek.”
My stomach dropped.
Benjamin froze.
“You saw him?”
Lena shook her head.
“No. Not him.”
“Then why Derek?”
She struggled for breath.
“They used his credentials.”
The same thing they had done to Marcus.
Benjamin checked her pulse.
“We need a hospital.”
“No hospital.”
“You may have a concussion.”
“They’ll find me.”
“We can use a private clinic.”
Lena looked at me.
“Do you have the drive?”
I hesitated.
Her eyes sharpened.
“Marcus gave it to you.”
“How do I know I can trust you?”
Despite her injuries, Lena gave a faint smile.
“Good.”
She reached inside her torn jacket.
Benjamin tensed.
She pulled out a small brass key.
“Because Marcus told you to ask me about the blue envelope.”
I stared at her.
Marcus’s video contained no mention of a blue envelope.
“He didn’t.”
Lena’s expression changed.
“Then he recorded the video before we discovered it.”
“What is it?”
She looked toward the open corridor.
“We have to leave.”
Benjamin helped her stand.
The lights went out.
Complete darkness.
Then we heard the elevator bell.
Someone had arrived on the third floor.
Benjamin whispered, “Back exit?”
Lena pointed weakly.
“Service stairwell.”
We moved between the units.
Footsteps entered the corridor.
Two sets.
Maybe three.
A man called, “Dr. Cho?”
Lena gripped my arm.
Benjamin led us through a fire door.
An alarm should have sounded.
It didn’t.
Someone had disabled it.
We hurried downstairs.
On the second landing, a figure appeared below.
Benjamin shoved me backward.
The man raised something.
A gun.
“Run!”
The sound exploded through the stairwell.
Concrete shattered beside my head.
We ran upward instead.
Another shot.
Lena stumbled.
I caught her.
“Roof,” Benjamin shouted.
We reached the top floor.
A maintenance ladder led to a roof hatch.
Benjamin pushed Lena up.
I followed.
Cold rain struck my face as I climbed outside.
The roof was flat, surrounded by a low concrete wall.
No escape.
Then headlights appeared below.
Natalie’s Subaru came flying around the corner.
She leaned on the horn.
The gunmen looked down.
That distraction gave Benjamin enough time to grab a loose steel pipe from beside an air-conditioning unit.
The first man climbed through the hatch.
Benjamin hit his wrist.
The gun fell.
I kicked it across the roof.
The second man began climbing.
Lena whispered, “There.”
An adjacent warehouse roof sat six feet away.
Too far to step.
Close enough to jump.
Benjamin looked at me.
“No.”
I looked at the armed men.
“Yes.”
Lena jumped first.
She landed hard, screaming.
I went next.
For one horrifying second, there was nothing under my feet.
Then I struck gravel and rolled.
Benjamin followed.
We ran to the warehouse fire stairs and reached the street as Natalie pulled alongside us.
“Get in!”
We did.
She drove before the doors were fully closed.
The black SUV from the apartment appeared behind us minutes later.
Natalie looked in the mirror.
“You people have extremely stressful lives.”
“Drive,” Benjamin said.
“I am driving!”
Lena slumped against the seat.
I held pressure against the cut on her head.
“Tell me about the blue envelope.”
She opened her eyes.
“Marcus found it in William Vance’s personal archive.”
“His father?”
“Yes.”
“What was inside?”
“A letter.”
“From whom?”
Lena looked directly at me.
“Evelyn.”
I went still.
“His mother?”
“Written twenty-seven years ago.”
“What did it say?”
Lena swallowed.
“It wasn’t addressed to William.”
“Who was it addressed to?”
“Leonard.”
Natalie’s eyes widened in the mirror.
I felt sick before Lena even explained.
“Evelyn and Leonard were having an affair.”
My mind rejected the words.
William’s brother.
Marcus’s uncle.
“That doesn’t prove financial crimes.”
“No,” Lena said. “But the rest does.”
“What rest?”
“William discovered that money had begun disappearing from a family investment company long before Vance Meridian became public.”
“How long?”
“Twenty-eight years.”
Before Marcus and Derek were adults.
Before Marcus could possibly have done anything.
Lena continued.
“William confronted Leonard. According to notes we found, Leonard claimed Evelyn knew everything.”
I stared out the window.
“Why didn’t William expose them?”
“Because he learned something else.”
“What?”
Lena hesitated.
“Derek may not have been William’s son.”
Silence.
Natalie missed a turn.
Benjamin cursed under his breath.
I could barely process it.
“Leonard is Derek’s father?”
“We don’t know. But William apparently believed it.”
“That still doesn’t explain why Marcus was killed.”
Lena reached into her jacket again.
This time she removed a tiny memory card.
“Because of this.”
“What’s on it?”
“William recorded conversations.”
“With Evelyn?”
“With Leonard.”
“Where did you get that?”
“I found a reference to the recordings in his notes. Marcus found the safe deposit box.”
My heartbeat accelerated.
“And the recordings prove the theft?”
“They prove Leonard and Evelyn created the original shell companies.”
There it was.
Not suspicion.
Not inference.
Evidence.
“Why didn’t Marcus go public?”
“Because one recording mentioned Gordon Price’s father, who was a prosecutor at the time. Another mentioned a judge. Marcus realized the network was larger than the company.”
Benjamin turned around.
“And the card?”
“Copies.”
“Where are the originals?”
Lena’s eyes closed.
“I hid them.”
“Where?”
She opened her eyes again.
“In the last place a Vance would willingly enter.”
We waited.
She almost smiled.
“A public library.”
Even Benjamin laughed.
Then Lena became serious.
“But there’s something worse.”
My pulse quickened.
“Of course there is.”
“The financial crimes aren’t what got Marcus killed.”
“What did?”
Lena looked at the drive in my hand.
“He found a current project.”
“What kind of project?”
“A redevelopment fund called Northstar.”
I knew Northstar.
Marcus had spoken about it constantly.
It was supposed to rebuild schools, transit lines and affordable housing across several cities.
The company had announced a four-billion-dollar investment.
“What about it?”
“Almost eight hundred million dollars allocated to Northstar doesn’t exist.”
I stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
“On paper, it exists.”
“But?”
“It was diverted.”
“Where?”
“To companies controlled through anonymous trusts.”
“By Evelyn and Leonard?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
Lena’s face hardened.
“We traced one beneficiary.”
“Who?”
She looked at Benjamin.
Then at me.
“Derek.”
My chest tightened.
Marcus’s younger brother.
The man drinking his scotch two days after his death.
The man who had thrown my clothes into the rain.
Lena continued.
“And Marcus had scheduled a private meeting with Derek the night he died.”
I felt cold all over.
“Did Derek know what Marcus had found?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
May you like
Lena looked away.
“Because Marcus told him.”
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