Chapter 13 - WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT
Emily dropped behind a stack of wooden pallets.
A second shot struck the concrete floor near Officer Perez. Sparks flew.
“Upper walkway,” Perez shouted.
David heard footsteps running above them.
Victor released Brandon and disappeared into the darkness.
Richard rushed toward his son.
“Stay down.”
Emergency lights flickered on, filling the warehouse with a dim red glow.
Emily saw a figure crossing the upper level.
Marcus Cole.
He carried the original red ledger beneath one arm and a handgun in the other.
Perez fired toward the railing.
Cole ducked.
Victor shouted from somewhere near the loading doors.
“Marcus, bring me the ledger.”
Cole laughed.
“You were never getting it.”
David understood.
Victor and Cole were no longer partners.
Whatever alliance had existed was collapsing.
Brandon managed to tip his chair sideways. Richard tried to untie him but struggled with the knots.
Emily crawled toward them.
Another shot rang out.
Richard jerked backward.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Patricia screamed his name.
David moved toward him, but Cole fired again.
The bullet struck a steel beam inches from David’s head.
“Stay where you are,” Cole shouted.
David looked up.
“What does the ledger prove?”
“That none of you understand what you inherited.”
“I inherited debts and lies.”
“You inherited control.”
“Of what?”
Cole moved along the walkway.
“A network that has survived for forty years.”
Victor emerged near the loading doors with his knife still in hand.
“You talk too much.”
Cole aimed down at him.
“And you never understood your place.”
Victor threw the knife.
It struck Cole’s forearm.
The gun fell from his hand and clattered onto the floor below.
The red ledger slipped over the railing.
David ran.
Victor ran from the opposite direction.
They reached it at the same moment.
Victor struck David across the face.
David fell against a crate but held onto the ledger.
Victor kicked him in the ribs.
“You should have died quietly.”
David grabbed a loose length of chain and pulled it across Victor’s legs.
Victor crashed to the floor.
Before he could rise, Brandon, still tied to the chair, threw his weight sideways and slammed into him.
The chair shattered.
Brandon collapsed among the broken pieces.
Victor reached for the knife.
Emily kicked it away.
He caught her ankle and pulled her down.
David lunged forward, but Officer Perez reached Victor first and struck his arm with a metal baton.
“Hands behind your back.”
Victor laughed even as she restrained him.
“You think arresting me changes anything?”
Cole descended the emergency stairs and ran toward a side exit.
Noah stepped from behind a forklift and blocked him.
Cole punched him and kept moving.
Melissa appeared at the doorway with two additional officers.
Cole stopped.
Weapons surrounded him.
He slowly raised his hands.
The warehouse finally became quiet.
Paramedics entered minutes later.
Richard’s wound was serious but not fatal. Brandon suffered a concussion, fractured ribs, and a deep cut along his neck. He remained under arrest even as he was transported to the hospital.
Victor and Cole were taken away in separate vehicles.
Before Victor entered the police car, he looked at David.
“The Judge is alive.”
David said nothing.
“He knows you have the ledger now.”
“You said the Judge was Laura’s father.”
Victor smiled.
“Richard said that.”
The car door closed.
At the hospital, Emily sat beside David while a nurse examined the bruise on his face.
“Are you disappointed Brandon survived?” she asked quietly.
David considered the question.
“No.”
“After what he did?”
“Survival gives him time to face it.”
Emily looked toward the trauma room where Brandon was being treated under police guard.
“He saved you.”
“He knocked Victor over.”
“Why?”
“Maybe fear. Maybe instinct. Maybe he finally understood that Victor planned to discard him.”
“Does it matter?”
“Not tonight.”
Patricia remained beside Richard’s operating room. She had placed her wedding ring back on her finger, but not because she had forgiven him.
She said she wanted him to see it when he woke up and understand exactly what his lies had endangered.
Just before sunrise, Detective Perez brought the ledger to David in a sealed evidence bag.
“We photographed every page,” she said. “The district attorney approved returning the original temporarily because it may contain family records unrelated to the case.”
David looked at her.
“Why would they do that?”
Perez lowered her voice.
“Because after Cole’s arrest, we discovered several evidence-room access logs had been altered. Until internal affairs finishes its investigation, I’m not certain the ledger is safer with us.”
Laura’s warning returned to him.
Not the police.
David accepted the bag.
“What happens now?”
“Brandon faces a long list of charges. Victor and Cole face more. The fraudulent transfers can be stopped, and Blue Crest has agreed to suspend recovery while the signatures are investigated.”
“And Patricia’s money?”
“Some of it may be recovered.”
“Some.”
Perez’s expression softened.
“I won’t promise what I can’t guarantee.”
David appreciated that.
When she left, Emily looked through the hospital window at the rising sun.
“Is it over?”
David placed the ledger on his lap.
“No.”
He had survived the poison.
Emily had escaped Brandon’s control.
The house transfer had been stopped.
For one night, that was enough.
May you like
But Laura’s father was supposed to be dead.
And somewhere inside the ledger was the reason everyone needed David to believe that lie.
