Chapter 7 - THE MAN IN THE SHADOWS
Marcus moved faster than I had ever seen anyone move.
“Back door!” he shouted.
Daniel grabbed the documents.
Victoria screamed.
My mother froze.
Then footsteps thundered across the upper floor.
One.
Two.
Three men.
Marcus pushed us toward the basement.
“Stay together.”
We reached the lower corridor.
Then the door slammed behind us.
Someone was already there.
A man in black stepped from the darkness.
He raised his hands.
“Easy.”
Marcus immediately restrained him.
Within seconds, the man was on the floor.
But he wasn't alone.
Another man ran through the opposite hallway.
Marcus chased him.
I stayed with my mother and sister.
The first man looked at me.
“You're making a mistake.”
“Who sent you?”
He smiled.
“You know.”
“Black?”
No answer.
I crouched beside him.
“Where is Richard?”
He laughed.
“You'll never find him.”
Then my mother spoke.
“I know where he is.”
I looked at her.
She swallowed.
“He owns the old Blackridge warehouse.”
“Where?”
She gave me the address.
The man on the floor suddenly stopped smiling.
That reaction was enough.
We had found something.
The police arrived twenty minutes later.
The intruder was arrested.
But Marcus found something else.
A tracking device attached beneath my car.
Someone had been following me for days.
The next morning, I went to the warehouse.
Daniel wanted me to wait.
I refused.
Marcus came with me.
The warehouse was abandoned.
At least officially.
Inside, we found boxes.
Hundreds of them.
Financial records.
Property deeds.
Bank transfers.
Photographs.
And dozens of forged documents.
Then I saw something that made my blood freeze.
A photograph of Elena.
Taken four years earlier.
She was standing outside a grocery store.
Someone had been monitoring her long before she knew anything was wrong.
Another photograph showed Julian.
My son was three.
He was holding my old baseball glove.
I picked up the picture.
“Why were they watching him?”
Marcus didn't answer.
Then Daniel found a file.
He opened it.
“Julian.”
I turned.
The folder contained a medical report.
My father's name was on it.
I read the first page.
Then the second.
Then the third.
My hands started shaking.
The official cause of death had been changed.
My father hadn't died from a natural heart attack.
He had been poisoned.
Slowly.
Repeatedly.
The toxicology report had been suppressed.
I looked at Marcus.
“Who signed this?”
He pointed to the bottom.
A private physician.
Dr. Samuel Reed.
I recognized the name.
He had been my father's doctor.
And he had attended the funeral.
My father had been murdered.
My mother knew.
My sister knew nothing.
And Richard Black had been involved.
I turned toward my mother.
She had followed us to the warehouse.
“You knew.”
She was crying.
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because they threatened to kill you.”
“You let me spend five years overseas believing you were protecting me.”
“I was.”
“No.”
My voice cracked.
“You were protecting yourself.”
She didn't deny it.
Then she whispered:
“I was afraid.”
I stared at her.
“So was my wife.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You don't.”
I walked away.
That afternoon, Daniel submitted the evidence to federal investigators.
The case was no longer just about financial fraud.
May you like
It was murder.
And Richard Black suddenly had far more to lose than a twenty-six-million-dollar trust.
