Chapter 7
I watched the video twice.
David’s voice was clear.
His face was visible.
“Yes. Grace knew about the transfers.”
The recording ended before he said anything else.
I called the hospital.
David was no longer in his room.
A federal team had taken him into custody based on evidence connecting him to the stolen funds.
Officer Ramirez contacted the investigators.
They agreed to let me speak with David at the federal building.
He sat behind a metal table with his injured arm secured in a sling.
“You told them I knew,” I said.
“No. Maria edited the video.”
“What did you actually say?”
“They asked whether you knew company vendors received transfers. I said yes, because you approve the Rivergate budget. Then I explained you knew nothing about the fake vendors.”
“The second part is missing.”
“She recorded the interview remotely.”
“How?”
“One investigator had a body camera. Federal security believes someone accessed it.”
“Maria?”
“Probably.”
I placed both hands on the table.
“She wants the final key.”
David looked at me.
“Do you have it?”
“Yes.”
“Give it to the investigators.”
“I intend to.”
He relaxed.
Then I continued.
“But first, I’m going to headquarters.”
“No.”
“She believes I’ll bring the real key. We can use that.”
“Grace, she killed your father.”
“And she tried to destroy my daughter.”
“That’s why you should stay away.”
I stared at him.
“You don’t get to tell me how to protect this family.”
He accepted the words.
“You’re right.”
A federal financial-crimes agent named Nora Patel joined us.
She had reviewed the records recovered from the quarry before the original box was stolen.
“We copied every page,” she said. “Maria believes taking the originals protected her, but it didn’t.”
“Then why hasn’t she been arrested?”
“We need to find her.”
“She’ll be at headquarters.”
“Possibly. Or she’ll send someone else.”
Agent Patel examined the twelve-number key.
“The trust requires three physical authorization strings and biometric confirmation from the original administrator.”
“My father is dead.”
“According to Claire, he named a successor administrator.”
“Who?”
Patel looked at me.
“You.”
I laughed once in disbelief.
“I didn’t know the trust existed.”
“Your biometric record may already be in the system. Did your father ever ask you to complete an unusual security scan?”
A memory surfaced.
Six years earlier, Dad insisted I participate in an executive security update.
Fingerprints.
Voice samples.
Retinal scan.
“He told me it was for company access.”
“He was preparing you.”
That explained why Maria had stayed close after his death.
She didn’t merely need the keys.
She needed me.
“She won’t kill me until the trust opens,” I said.
“That gives us an advantage,” Patel replied. “But only a small one.”
At eleven forty-five, I entered Bellamy headquarters carrying a small black case.
The building had been evacuated.
Federal agents watched from hidden positions.
The real key remained with Agent Patel.
Inside my case was a duplicate.
The lobby lights turned on as I crossed the marble floor.
Maria’s voice came through the speakers.
“Place your phone on the desk.”
I obeyed.
“Open the case.”
I showed her the duplicate key.
“Come to the executive elevator.”
The elevator carried me to the twenty-second floor.
My father’s old office waited at the end of the corridor.
Maria stood beside his desk.
She wore a dark suit and held a gun.
The blue music box sat beside a laptop.
“You came alone,” she said.
“You knew I wouldn’t.”
She smiled.
“I know Nora Patel has agents throughout the building. I also know they’re listening through the device sewn into your jacket.”
My stomach tightened.
“Remove it.”
I took out the transmitter and placed it on the desk.
Maria shot it.
The sound exploded through the office.
“You always did trust technology too much,” she said.
“I trusted you.”
“That was more useful.”
“Why did you stay after killing my father?”
Her expression cooled.
“I didn’t kill him.”
“You ordered it.”
“Robert damaged the brakes.”
“He says you did.”
“Robert lies when he breathes.”
“Did you know he planned it?”
Maria didn’t answer.
That was enough.
“You could have warned Dad.”
“Your father was weak. He spent years stealing, then decided confession would make him noble.”
“He tried to return the money.”
“He tried to control it.”
She opened the music box and removed a narrow metal strip.
Claire’s key lay beside it.
“Put your key on the desk.”
I placed the duplicate beside the others.
Maria inserted all three strips into a small reader connected to the laptop.
The screen flashed red.
INVALID AUTHORIZATION.
She looked at me.
“You brought a fake.”
“Yes.”
Maria raised the gun.
“I could shoot you.”
“Then the trust remains locked.”
“You think your biometric access makes you safe?”
“For the next few minutes.”
She came around the desk and pressed the gun against my side.
“Where is the real key?”
“Somewhere you’ll never find it.”
“Your mother has it.”
“No.”
“Rachel?”
“No.”
“Lily?”
I didn’t react.
Maria smiled.
“Children are useful hiding places because adults convince themselves no one will hurt them.”
“If you go near her again, the key will be destroyed.”
Her smile faded.
“You finally learned how this works.”
“You taught me.”
She ordered me toward the private stairwell.
We descended two floors to the restricted archives.
Inside, servers hummed behind glass doors.
“This is where your father created the trust,” Maria said. “He thought hiding stolen money behind promises of repayment would cleanse him.”
“What do you want the money for?”
“I earned it.”
“By murdering people?”
“By building Bellamy Holdings while your father received applause and you inherited everything.”
“You were paid.”
“I was tolerated.”
She opened a secure terminal.
“Your father promised me a third of the company. Then your mother convinced him I was dangerous.”
“My mother disappeared before you became CFO.”
Maria’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
“My mother knew you before she left,” I said.
“She knew what you were doing.”
“Evelyn knew nothing.”
“She discovered you stealing from the false accounts.”
“Robert stole from them.”
“And you stole from Robert.”
Her control cracked.
“I kept that company alive!”
The terminal requested biometric verification.
Maria forced my hand onto a scanner.
I pulled away.
“You still need the key.”
“I’ll obtain it.”
“How?”
She turned the laptop toward me.
A security feed showed Lily sitting in Rachel’s house.
David was beside her.
For one terrified second, I thought Maria had reached them.
Then I realized they were safe.
Police officers stood outside.
“This is a live public camera from across the street,” Maria said. “My people are waiting.”
“How many people do you have left?”
“Enough.”
My phone lay in the lobby.
The transmitter had been destroyed.
But Agent Patel had planned for both failures.
The duplicate key contained a tiny chemical marker.
When Maria inserted it into the reader, it released an invisible compound traceable by a sensor carried by the federal team.
They knew exactly where we were.
I needed to keep Maria occupied.
“You said you didn’t kill my father,” I said. “Prove it.”
She studied me.
“How?”
“Show me who did.”
Maria opened a file on the terminal.
Security footage appeared.
It showed Robert entering my father’s garage the night before the crash.
He carried a tool bag.
Ten minutes later, Maria entered.
She stayed for four minutes.
Then she left with the tool bag.
“You helped him,” I said.
“I removed the tools to protect Robert.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed him.”
“For the trust.”
“For his key.”
“Then you killed my father together.”
Maria stepped closer.
“Robert cut one brake line. I cut the second.”
A red light appeared on the ceiling.
The federal team was recording through the building’s emergency system.
Maria noticed the light.
Her eyes widened.
She fired at the camera.
Alarms sounded.
The archive doors locked automatically.
Agent Patel’s voice came through the intercom.
“Maria Chen, put down the weapon.”
Maria grabbed me and pressed the gun beneath my chin.
“Open the doors!”
“They won’t,” I said.
“Then you die here.”
A second voice came through the speakers.
My mother’s.
“Maria.”
Maria froze.
Evelyn continued.
“You wanted my key for twenty-four years. I have it.”
A camera feed appeared on the terminal.
My mother stood in the lobby holding the real key.
“Release Grace,” she said, “and I’ll give it to you.”
Maria dragged me toward the door.
“Open it!”
The lock released.
She pulled me into the stairwell.
Federal agents waited below.
Maria fired downward.
They took cover.
She forced me upward toward the roof.
When we emerged into the night, a helicopter circled beyond the building.
Maria moved toward the edge.
“You’re coming with me,” she said.
“There’s nowhere to go.”
She smiled.
A second helicopter rose from behind the building.
A rope ladder hung beneath it.
Someone had prepared an escape.
Maria grabbed the ladder with one hand.
Before she could climb, a man leaned from the helicopter.
Ethan.
He looked down at her.
“Where’s my money?”
Maria shouted over the blades.
“Help me!”
“You said the trust would be open.”
“I need the key!”
Ethan looked at me.
Then at the agents entering the roof.
He raised a gun.
Maria screamed at him to fire.
Instead, Ethan pointed the weapon at her.
“You used me.”
Maria’s grip slipped.
She caught the ladder with both hands as the helicopter rose.
I grabbed her wrist.
For a second, she hung above the edge.
Her eyes met mine.
“Help me.”
I could have released her.
Part of me wanted to.
Instead, I tightened my grip.
Agents pulled us both back onto the roof.
The other helicopter turned away.
Ethan disappeared into the night again.
Maria lay in handcuffs, staring at me.
“Why did you save me?”
“Because you’re going to stand in court and hear every charge.”
Her face filled with hatred.
Then Agent Patel checked Maria’s laptop.
The trust had not opened.
May you like
But someone had accessed the system during the confrontation.
One authorization attempt had come from David’s hospital account.
