Chapter 5 - The Ledger in the Dark
Noah Briggs moved between Sally and the staircase.
Richard descended calmly.
Bethany remained two steps behind him, pale and uncertain. Diane followed last, gripping Sally’s phone so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
“How did you know we were here?” Sally asked.
Richard looked at Briggs’s catering uniform.
“My security team noticed an employee entering a restricted corridor.”
Briggs said, “We are leaving.”
“No,” Richard replied. “You are not.”
“You cannot hold us here.”
“I am not holding anyone. I am protecting confidential company records from thieves.”
Sally pointed toward the cabinet.
“Records hidden in an illegal room.”
“This room predates my company.”
“Then why is your name on half the files?”
Richard’s eyes moved to the red ledger.
“You do not know what that is.”
“You have spent years trying to find it.”
“I spent years trying to destroy it.”
Bethany stared at him.
“You told me the ledger would prove Evelyn stole from you.”
Richard ignored her.
Sally understood then that Bethany had not known the entire plan.
“What is in it?” Bethany asked.
“Nothing that concerns you.”
“You sent me into Sally’s house to find it.”
“I told you to retrieve family documents.”
“You said Sally was hiding evidence that the house belonged to us.”
Richard’s voice sharpened.
“Not now.”
Bethany stepped back.
Diane moved closer to Richard.
“We need to leave before someone notices.”
Briggs lifted his watch.
“Someone already has.”
Richard glanced at him.
Briggs smiled.
“My location is being monitored.”
That was likely another bluff, but Richard believed it long enough for Sally to move.
She pulled the red ledger from the cabinet.
Richard lunged forward.
Briggs blocked him.
The two men struck the desk, knocking the old telephone to the floor. Diane screamed. Bethany pressed herself against the wall.
Sally ran toward the staircase with the ledger against her chest.
Diane grabbed her coat.
The fabric tore.
Sally twisted free and climbed three steps before Richard caught her ankle.
She fell hard.
Her elbow struck the concrete edge.
Pain flashed through her arm.
The ledger slid across the floor.
Bethany picked it up.
Everyone stopped.
Richard stood.
“Give it to me.”
Bethany looked at the cover.
Then at Sally.
“What is this?”
Sally pushed herself upright.
“Open it.”
“Do not,” Richard said.
Bethany opened the ledger.
The first pages contained handwritten lists of dates, property names, transfers, and initials. Several entries were marked with a symbol resembling a black triangle.
Bethany read one line.
“Harrow Development payment to Councilman Avery.”
Richard snatched the book from her.
“You have no idea what you are reading.”
“I know what a payment is.”
“It was a legal consulting fee.”
“Why is it in Evelyn’s private ledger?”
Richard shoved the book under his jacket.
“Because Charles involved himself in business he did not understand.”
Sally climbed to her feet.
“Did Charles confront you?”
“Yes.”
“What happened during the hunting trip?”
“He had a heart attack.”
“Before or after he threatened to expose you?”
Richard’s face darkened.
Diane seized Sally’s phone from the table and threw it against the wall.
The screen shattered.
Briggs moved toward the staircase.
“We are done here.”
Richard blocked the way.
“You entered my property without authorization.”
Sally said, “You entered mine.”
“That was different.”
“Because you are my father?”
Richard’s expression became almost sorrowful.
“You still do not understand what Evelyn did.”
“What did she do?”
“She used you.”
“For what?”
“To keep the only surviving copy of Charles’s records out of my hands.”
“You just took the ledger.”
Richard touched the bulge beneath his jacket.
“This is not the surviving copy.”
Sally looked toward the cabinets.
“Then what is?”
Richard smiled.
“The house.”
A fire alarm suddenly rang upstairs.
Red lights flashed in the basement.
Briggs used the distraction to drive his shoulder into Richard and force him away from the stairs.
Sally ran upward.
Bethany followed.
Diane shouted after them.
When Sally reached the service corridor, guests were moving toward the exits. Smoke rolled from the catering kitchen, though it appeared to be caused by an overheated appliance rather than a serious fire.
Briggs emerged behind Sally.
Richard and Diane remained below.
“Where is Bethany?” Sally asked.
Briggs looked back.
She was not with them.
Sally tried to return, but Briggs held her arm.
“We need to get outside.”
“My sister is down there.”
“She made a choice.”
“I am not leaving her.”
Before Sally could break away, Bethany appeared at the end of the corridor.
She was breathing hard.
Richard’s jacket was in her hands.
The red ledger was gone.
“What happened?” Sally asked.
Bethany looked over her shoulder.
“He took it.”
“Why do you have his jacket?”
“He dropped it when the alarm started.”
She reached into the inside pocket and removed a small black flash drive.
“This was hidden in the lining.”
Sirens approached outside.
Bethany pressed the drive into Sally’s hand.
“I think Dad lied to all of us.”
Then she disappeared into the crowd.
By the time firefighters cleared the building, Richard claimed the basement room did not exist.
The steel door was locked.
The shelving had shifted back into place.
Police officers at the scene said Sally would need a warrant before they could search a private corporate area based on her statement alone.
Briggs had managed to photograph several cabinets, but his images of the documents were blurred.
The clearest picture showed the framed photograph on the desk.
When Sally enlarged it, she recognized Charles, Thomas, and Richard.
The fourth man remained unknown.
Martin Vale identified him the next morning.
His name was Samuel Crane.
He had been a county records supervisor.
He had also been Sally’s biological grandfather.
Sally sat in stunned silence.
Richard had always told her that her mother’s father died before she was born.
Martin placed an old newspaper clipping on the desk.
Samuel Crane had not died.
He had disappeared.
The date of his disappearance was the same date as the final entry in Evelyn’s ledger.
Briggs inserted the flash drive into an isolated computer.
It contained only one audio file.
A man’s voice spoke through static.
Sally recognized Richard.
“The girl can never know Crane survived.”
A second voice answered.
“What about Evelyn?”
Richard said, “She will keep quiet as long as we control the house.”
Then came a third voice.
A woman.
Sally listened again.
May you like
The voice belonged to her mother.
Her mother had been dead for fourteen years.
