Chapter 7 - Locker 317
Robert insisted Claire shouldn't go.
Claire went anyway.
Not alone.
Ethan accompanied her, while a private security team remained at a distance.
Locker 317 was near the south concourse.
The key fit.
Claire opened it.
Inside sat a black messenger bag.
No explosives.
No threatening note.
Just files.
Hundreds of pages.
Claire removed the first folder.
THOMAS VALE.
The second.
MARTIN MORGAN.
The third.
GERALD CROSS.
The fourth made her stomach drop.
JULIAN MORGAN.
Inside were photographs.
Julian meeting Daniel.
Julian entering a bank.
Julian meeting an unidentified man.
Then Claire found a handwritten ledger.
Dates.
Payments.
Names.
Twenty-eight years of them.
Morgan Industrial had been losing money far longer than eighteen months.
Small amounts initially.
Then larger.
The same scheme changed names every few years.
Fake vendors.
Inflated contracts.
Consulting companies.
Procurement fraud.
Someone had been siphoning money from the company since the 1990s.
Claire turned another page.
At the bottom was a handwritten sentence.
THOMAS FOUND IT.
MARTIN HELPED HIDE IT.
ROBERT NEVER KNEW.
Claire looked at her father.
Robert wasn't there.
For the first time that evening, she was glad.
Ethan picked up another document.
"Claire."
She turned.
It was a photograph of Julian meeting Daniel outside a hotel.
Date: fourteen months earlier.
"Julian knew him."
Claire felt betrayed all over again.
Not because Julian had lied.
That was no longer surprising.
Because the conspiracy seemed to predate Chloe.
She dug deeper.
At the bottom of the bag was a flash drive.
They returned to Morgan Industrial.
Ethan used an isolated computer.
The drive contained seventeen video files.
The first showed Daniel.
He sat before a blank wall.
"If you're watching this, Claire Morgan finally knows enough to become dangerous."
Claire's skin prickled.
Daniel continued.
"Your husband didn't begin this."
Ethan looked at her.
"Your sister didn't begin it either."
Daniel leaned toward the camera.
"They're thieves. They're liars. And what they've done to you personally is unforgivable."
Claire stared.
"But they're not the people you should fear most."
The screen went black.
A second video automatically began.
It showed Julian sitting across from Daniel in Bellamy House.
The date was fourteen months earlier.
Daniel's hidden camera captured every word.
Julian slid an envelope across the table.
Daniel opened it.
Inside were photographs.
Claire couldn't see them clearly.
Daniel asked, "Does Chloe know?"
Julian replied, "She knows enough."
"What about Claire?"
Julian laughed.
"Claire doesn't know anything."
Daniel leaned back.
"And when this is finished?"
May you like
Julian's answer made Claire's blood run cold.
"Claire won't be a problem anymore."
