Chapter 12 - The Ledger
The envelope from Union Station contained eleven pages.
Margaret had hidden them inside a safe-deposit box under another name.
Sloan obtained them through a federal warrant.
Jessica received no access at first.
Then Daniel Cho called.
"Your name is in it."
Jessica went to the federal building.
The document was not a confession.
It was a ledger.
Dates.
Transfers.
Initials.
Program codes.
Property addresses.
Some entries stretched back thirty years.
Thomas had apparently reconstructed a financial network connecting municipal redevelopment funds, defense procurement contracts and private investment vehicles.
Hawthorne was one node.
There were dozens more.
Daniel pointed toward a page.
"Here."
Jessica looked.
J.C.
Beside the initials appeared a date.
Jessica's eighteenth birthday.
Then another date.
The date of her Army commissioning.
Then Chloe's birth.
Jessica felt cold.
"What does J.C. mean?"
"We don't know."
"Jessica Carter."
"Possibly."
"Why would my name be in a criminal ledger?"
Daniel flipped the page.
There was another code.
GUARDIAN.
Jessica stared.
"What is that?"
"We're trying to determine."
Sloan entered.
"We found Victoria."
Jessica stood.
"Where?"
"Airport parking garage."
"Alive?"
"Yes."
Victoria had tried to board a private aircraft using someone else's passport.
Authorities detained her.
Inside her suitcase were two hundred thousand dollars in cash.
A laptop.
Three phones.
And a photograph.
Jessica and Chloe at a playground.
Written across the back:
THE CHILD CHANGES EVERYTHING.
Jessica's chest tightened.
"Who wrote it?"
"We don't know."
Victoria requested an attorney.
Then requested a deal.
Her price was immunity.
Sloan refused.
Victoria offered something else.
Thomas Carter's location.
Jessica was taken to an interview room.
Victoria sat behind glass.
No burgundy dress now.
Gray detention clothing.
Hair pulled back.
No diamonds.
But the arrogance remained.
Jessica sat across from her.
"You hit my daughter."
Victoria smiled.
"You didn't come here for an apology."
"No."
"You came for Daddy."
Jessica said nothing.
Victoria leaned forward.
"You spent your whole life thinking our family looked down on you."
"You did."
"Of course."
"Why?"
Victoria laughed softly.
"Because you walked into our house carrying a loaded gun you didn't even know you had."
Jessica waited.
"Your name."
"What about it?"
"Thomas built protections around you."
"Money?"
Victoria smiled.
"Much more than money."
Jessica's patience thinned.
"Where is he?"
"First, I want guarantees."
"You have none."
"Then he stays dead."
Jessica stood.
Victoria's smile faltered.
"You think I need you."
"You do."
"No."
Jessica walked toward the door.
"My father survived twenty-three years without me. He can survive another day."
Victoria called after her.
"He won't."
Jessica stopped.
Victoria's smile returned.
"They found him."
"Who?"
"The people Margaret is afraid of."
Jessica turned.
Victoria leaned toward the glass.
"You have maybe forty-eight hours."
Sloan stepped into the room immediately.
"Location."
Victoria shook her head.
"Immunity."
Jessica walked back.
She placed both palms on the table.
"You slapped a five-year-old because she spilled gravy."
Victoria rolled her eyes.
"Don't start."
"No."
Jessica's voice was almost gentle.
"I need to understand something."
"What?"
"Did you slap Chloe because you're cruel?"
Victoria smiled.
"Probably."
"Or because someone told you to provoke me?"
The smile disappeared.
Sloan looked at Jessica.
Jessica watched Victoria's eyes.
There.
Fear.
Jessica sat.
"The slap wasn't random."
Victoria said nothing.
"You wanted me angry."
Silence.
"You wanted me to activate the package."
Victoria's face had gone pale.
Jessica understood.
The entire Christmas dinner had been manipulated.
Not planned down to the gravy.
But engineered.
Pressure.
Insults.
Chloe seated beside Victoria.
David encouraged to remain passive.
Somebody wanted Jessica to move.
And she had.
"What did my emergency disclosure package trigger?" Jessica asked Sloan.
The agent's face changed.
Preservation orders.
Corporate disclosures.
Automated notifications.
And perhaps something else.
Jessica whispered, "They were waiting for me to open the network."
Victoria closed her eyes.
May you like
Too late.
She had confirmed it.
