Chapter 11 - THE DETECTIVE IN THE LEDGER
Emily enlarged the image.
The entry was dated twenty-two years earlier.
M. Cole - courier payment - 4,000.
A second entry appeared six months later.
M. Cole - Samuel vehicle schedule - 2,500.
David stared at the words.
Detective Marcus Cole would have been in his mid-twenties at the time.
Possibly a junior officer.
Possibly not yet a detective.
“We need to leave,” Emily said.
David looked toward the motel window.
An unmarked police car remained parked outside.
Cole had assigned it for their protection.
Or surveillance.
“Don’t react,” David whispered.
Emily nodded.
They packed without turning on the lights.
David called Melissa from the bathroom with the shower running.
“Do you still have access to the copied company server?”
“Yes.”
“Search for Marcus Cole.”
Typing sounded through the phone.
After a minute, Melissa inhaled sharply.
“There are emails.”
“Between Cole and Brandon?”
“Yes. Cole warned Brandon that the county clerk had flagged the trust document.”
Emily covered her mouth.
“When?”
“Yesterday morning.”
Before David received the clerk’s call.
“Send everything to three different addresses,” David said. “Then contact Officer Perez directly. Do not call the department’s main line.”
“What’s happening?”
“Cole may be working with Victor.”
A knock came at the motel door.
“Mr. Whitaker?” Cole called.
David ended the call.
Emily whispered, “What do we do?”
David looked at the adjoining door connecting their room to Patricia’s.
He opened it quietly.
Patricia was awake, sitting on the bed.
Richard was not there.
“Where is he?” David asked.
“He called thirty minutes ago and asked me to meet him outside. I refused.”
“Did he say where he was going?”
“No.”
Cole knocked again.
“David, we need to move you.”
David opened the main door but left the security chain attached.
“Why?”
“We intercepted a message suggesting Victor knows you’re here.”
“Where are we going?”
“A secure location.”
“Which one?”
“I’ll explain in the car.”
David looked at the two officers behind him. Neither was Officer Perez.
“Give us five minutes.”
Cole’s jaw tightened.
“We leave now.”
Emily appeared behind David wearing her medical uniform beneath a jacket. She had changed into it deliberately, knowing hospital staff were trained to notice details.
She saw a dark stain on Cole’s cuff.
Not blood.
Red leather dye.
The ledger had been old and brittle. The cover had left the same stain on David’s fingers when he opened it.
Cole had handled it recently.
David noticed her looking.
He closed the door.
Cole shoved his arm through the gap before it shut.
The security chain snapped.
He forced his way into the room.
Patricia screamed.
One of the officers remained in the hallway. The other looked startled.
“Detective?”
Cole drew his weapon.
“Everyone stays calm.”
The younger officer stared at him.
“Sir, what are you doing?”
“Securing evidence.”
“You broke the door.”
Cole pointed the gun toward David.
“Where are the photographs?”
Emily stepped backward.
“What photographs?”
“The ledger.”
David’s voice was steady.
“You already have the original.”
“I need every copy.”
The younger officer slowly reached for his radio.
Cole swung the gun toward him.
“Don’t.”
A voice came from the hallway.
“Drop it, Marcus.”
Officer Perez stood behind the second officer with her weapon raised.
Melissa was beside her.
Cole looked from Perez to David.
“You have no idea what that ledger will destroy.”
“That’s usually why people keep records,” David said.
Cole’s face twisted.
“You think Laura was protecting you? She was protecting herself.”
David felt the words strike him.
“What does that mean?”
Cole backed toward the window.
“Ask Richard.”
He fired once into the ceiling.
Everyone ducked.
Cole threw himself through the open window and disappeared into the darkness.
Perez ran after him.
David rushed to the window, but a black sedan was already speeding out of the motel parking lot.
Emily stared after it.
Patricia sank onto the bed.
Then David’s phone rang.
Richard was calling.
David answered.
A weak voice came through the speaker.
“David, I’m at the old Whitaker site.”
“Why?”
“Victor has Brandon.”
Emily looked at her father.
May you like
Richard began to cry.
“He says he’ll kill my son unless I bring him the ledger.”
