Elliot's absence from the ledger was not an oversight.
I knew that before anyone said it aloud.
Morales stood over the open pages while rain ticked against the windows. Vale had returned from the back door and was staring at the same blank space where Elliot's name should have appeared.
“He's not there,” Jessica whispered.
“No,” I said.
Bell leaned against the wall, his expression unreadable.
“Your father removed him.”
I looked at him.
“You said Elliot betrayed everyone.”
“He did.”
“Then why would Dad leave his name out?”
“Because he wanted to know who was reading the records.”
Morales closed the ledger.
“So the omission was a trap.”
Bell nodded.
“A very old one.”
Vale stepped closer.
“Arthur knew Elliot was moving between accounts. Your father suspected he was also altering records.”
“Then why keep him close?”
“He didn't,” Bell said.
“Elliot kept himself close.”
The distinction made my skin crawl.
My phone vibrated.
A message had arrived from an unknown number.
Don't follow us.
Below it was a photograph.
Ryan sat in the passenger seat of a vehicle, his face bruised but conscious.
Jessica grabbed my wrist.
“He's alive.”
The next message appeared.
Bring the ledger to the old freight terminal.
No police.
No Bell.
No Vale.
Midnight.
Morales read over my shoulder.
“They're trying to separate you.”
“I know.”
“Then you aren't going.”
I looked at Ryan's photograph.
“They have my sister's husband.”
“They also have someone who may be able to identify the entire operation.”
“And if Elliot thinks the ledger is the only thing he needs?”
Morales didn't answer.
Bell pushed away from the wall.
“It's a trap.”
“I know.”
“You shouldn't go.”
I turned toward him.
“You've spent the entire night telling me my father prepared for this. If he knew someone would come for me, why didn't he leave a way to stop them?”
Bell looked at the ledger.
“Maybe he did.”
Vale opened the final pages.
There were several tiny marks in the margins.
I recognized the pattern from the photograph.
Triangle.
Circle.
Triangle.
Morales examined them.
“What do they mean?”
“Not what they mean,” Vale said. “Where they point.”
He traced the marks across three pages.
The first appeared beside a company.
The second beside a storage account.
The third beside an abandoned property.
“Coordinates,” he said.
Lawson brought up a map.
The three points formed a rough line.
They ended at the old freight terminal.
I stared at him.
“My father knew.”
“He knew the terminal mattered,” Vale said.
“Did he know Elliot would take Ryan there?”
“No.”
“Then why leave the trail?”
“Because your father didn't predict one event. He prepared for several.”
Morales made a decision.
“We're going.”
I looked at him.
“With police.”
“Yes.”
The message had demanded otherwise.
That was precisely why we couldn't obey.
Jessica insisted on coming.
I told her no.
She shook her head.
“Ryan is my husband.”
“He also put you in danger.”
“I know.”
“You don't have to prove anything.”
“I'm not.”
She picked up her coat.
“I need to hear what he says.”
There was something in her voice that stopped me from arguing.
Bell stayed behind.
Vale came with us.
Morales assigned two officers to follow at a distance.
The drive to the freight terminal took twenty minutes.
The city disappeared behind us.
Warehouses replaced houses.
Streetlights became farther apart.
The terminal had been closed for years.
My father's notes had never mentioned it directly.
But I recognized the place from one of his old photographs.
A row of rusted loading doors.
A broken clock tower.
A river beyond the tracks.
We stopped two blocks away.
Morales checked his weapon.
“No heroics.”
I almost smiled.
“I'm not planning any.”
We approached on foot.
The terminal was silent.
A light burned inside one warehouse.
Ryan's truck was parked beside it.
Jessica saw it first.
“That's his.”
Morales held up a hand.
“Wait.”
A side door opened.
Elliot stepped out.
He looked toward the road.
Then back inside.
Morales whispered, “Stay here.”
I watched Elliot disappear.
Seconds later, Ryan emerged.
His hands were free.
His face was bruised.
But he was walking.
Jessica moved before anyone could stop her.
“Ryan!”
He looked up.
His expression changed completely.
“Jessica?”
She ran toward him.
Elliot appeared behind him.
Morales shouted.
“Police!”
Everything happened at once.
Elliot turned.
Ryan shoved him.
A gunshot cracked across the yard.
Jessica screamed.
Ryan fell.
I froze.
Morales and the officers moved toward the warehouse.
Elliot ran.
Vale chased him.
I reached Ryan.
Blood spread across his sleeve.
He grabbed my hand.
“Emily.”
“Where are you hit?”
“Shoulder.”
Jessica knelt beside him.
“Ryan, look at me.”
He did.
“I didn't know what else to do.”
She was crying.
“You should have told me.”
“I tried.”
“You lied.”
“I was scared.”
I looked toward the warehouse.
“Where's Elliot?”
Ryan swallowed.
“He has the account.”
“What account?”
“The one your father found.”
“What is it?”
“A master account.”
He winced.
“Everything passes through it.”
“Where?”
“Not here.”
“Where?”
He looked at me.
“Your father's old office.”
I stared at him.
“My father didn't have an office.”
“He did.”
“Where?”
Ryan's eyes moved toward the river.
“Under the house.”
Before I could ask anything else, Morales returned.
“Elliot got away.”
Vale appeared behind him.
“He knows we're close.”
Ryan tried to sit up.
“He'll kill her.”
Jessica looked at him.
“Who?”
“Emily.”
My blood went cold.
“Why me?”
Ryan's answer came quietly.
“Because your father made you the final custodian.”
I didn't understand.
Ryan did.
“The ledger isn't the evidence.”
“What is?”
He looked at the house in the distance.
“The person who can authenticate it.”
Me.
Click here to continue reading: PART 10: Ryan Finally Admitted Why Elliot Needed Me Alive, and Beneath My Father’s House We Found the Room He Had Never Mentioned
The Family Reunion Ended Before Dinner, and the Locked Cabinet Explained Why Everyone Suddenly Wanted Me Gone
Part 9 of 12
