Chapter 3 - The File Someone Was Willing to Kill For
“Blue.”
That was the first thing Lucas said.
Rebecca frowned.
“What?”
“The blue file.”
His heart monitor immediately began climbing.
The nurse stepped toward him.
“Mr. Bennett, I need you to calm down.”
Lucas ignored her.
“Rebecca, check my office safe.”
“You changed the code.”
“I’ll give it to you.”
“No,” the security chief interrupted. “If someone entered the office, we need law enforcement present before touching anything.”
Lucas’s jaw tightened.
“What’s in the file?” I asked.
Everyone turned toward me.
I immediately regretted speaking.
“I’m sorry.”
Lucas studied me.
Then he looked at Rebecca.
“Close the door.”
The nurse crossed her arms.
“I’m staying.”
“Fine.”
Rebecca shut the door.
Lucas waited.
“The file contains an internal audit.”
Rebecca’s expression changed.
“What audit?”
“One I commissioned privately.”
“Why privately?”
“Because three months ago I discovered irregularities in the employee pension fund.”
I blinked.
I knew almost nothing about finance.
But I understood the word pension.
Howard had talked about retiring someday.
Darlene had complained about hers.
Thousands of people working inside Meridian depended on that money.
“How much?” Rebecca asked.
Lucas looked at the ceiling.
“Potentially sixty-two million.”
My mouth opened.
Rebecca didn’t move.
“Sixty-two million dollars?”
“Possibly more.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t know who I could trust.”
That hurt her.
I could see it.
Lucas noticed too.
“I’m sorry.”
“Who knew?”
“My outside forensic accountant. Me.”
“And whoever stole it.”
Lucas nodded.
Rebecca’s voice dropped.
“Did Malcolm know?”
“I confronted him Monday afternoon.”
The room went silent.
Less than thirty-six hours later, Lucas’s heart had stopped.
Rebecca sat down.
“What did he say?”
“He blamed a subordinate accounting team. Claimed he had no idea.”
“Did you believe him?”
“No.”
I thought about Malcolm asking who had told us about the coffee cup.
My skin crawled.
Lucas looked at me.
“You’re thinking something.”
“He knew.”
“About the cup?”
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
“No.”
“But?”
I hesitated.
“When I found you, your right hand was curled near your chest.”
Lucas frowned.
“Okay.”
“Your left hand was open.”
“Bailey…”
“There was something blue under it.”
His face changed.
“What?”
“I thought it was paper.”
Rebecca stood.
“Are you sure?”
“I was trying to find a pulse. I wasn’t paying attention to documents.”
“What happened to it?”
“I don’t know.”
Lucas closed his eyes.
“Think.”
I replayed every second.
My cleaning cart.
Lucas on the floor.
The cup.
The brass rail.
The AED pads.
His jacket.
Howard.
Then I remembered.
“When we moved you.”
“What?”
“Howard helped me pull you flatter so I could position the AED pad.”
“Yes?”
“A piece of paper slid underneath the elevator bench.”
Rebecca grabbed her phone.
Lucas stopped her.
“No calls.”
“What?”
“If someone already removed Bailey’s cart and entered my office, assume internal communications are compromised.”
I wondered if billionaires normally talked like characters in spy movies.
Apparently mine did.
Mine?
I mentally slapped myself.
Lucas wasn’t mine.
He was a man whose sternum I had nearly crushed twelve hours ago.
Lucas looked at Rebecca.
“Go yourself. Take Cynthia.”
The security woman nodded.
“Police too.”
Rebecca left.
Lucas sank back against the pillow.
The nurse checked his monitor.
“You are going to cause another cardiac event if you continue like this.”
“I’ll try not to be murdered before lunch.”
She glared.
I liked her immediately.
“Five minutes,” she told us. “Then everyone leaves.”
She walked out.
Lucas looked at me.
“You should go home.”
“So should you.”
He smiled faintly.
“I own a house.”
“I mean rest.”
“So do I.”
The adrenaline was fading.
Suddenly every muscle in my body hurt.
Lucas noticed me rubbing my wrists.
“Are you injured?”
“No.”
“Your hands.”
“Sore.”
“From CPR?”
I nodded.
Something dark crossed his face.
“You hurt yourself saving me.”
“It isn’t serious.”
“You lost your job.”
“Temporarily.”
“Because you saved me.”
“You already ordered someone to fix it.”
“That doesn’t make it right.”
I looked at him.
“Mr. Bennett—”
“Lucas.”
“That seems inappropriate.”
“You’ve seen me without a shirt.”
“You were clinically dead.”
“Still counts.”
I laughed before I could stop myself.
He grabbed his ribs.
“Oh, that was cruel.”
“Sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
For the first time since my mother died, I felt something I had forgotten existed.
Lightness.
It disappeared quickly.
But I felt it.
Lucas became serious.
“Go back to nursing school.”
My spine stiffened.
“What?”
“You said you left because of your mother.”
“I left because my mother got sick.”
“And now?”
“Now I have rent.”
“Meridian has an education fund.”
“No.”
“You haven’t heard the offer.”
“I don’t need to.”
His eyebrows rose.
“I’m not taking money because I saved you.”
“It wouldn’t be charity.”
“It would feel like it.”
“Bailey—”
“Please.”
He stopped.
The room went quiet.
“I appreciate that you’re grateful,” I said. “But I don’t want my life to become some billionaire rescue story where you write a check and suddenly everything is fixed.”
His expression changed.
“I wasn’t trying to insult you.”
“I know.”
“I’m bad at this.”
“At what?”
“Being grateful.”
That surprised me.
He stared toward the window.
“People usually want something from me.”
I almost laughed.
“I want something.”
He looked back.
“What?”
“My job.”
Lucas smiled.
“Done.”
“And tell Darlene she can’t fire people for performing CPR.”
“Very done.”
“And Howard deserves something too.”
“That’s two things.”
“He did compressions when my arms failed.”
“I’ll handle it.”
“Without embarrassing him.”
Lucas studied me.
“You care a lot about other people.”
“My mother said it was my worst financial skill.”
He laughed again and immediately regretted it.
Before either of us could say anything else, the door opened.
Rebecca walked in.
She was holding a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a folded piece of blue paper.
Lucas went pale.
“You found it.”
“Under the elevator bench.”
“What does it say?”
Rebecca didn’t answer.
Lucas extended his hand.
She gave him the bag.
The paper inside contained handwritten numbers and three names.
I could only read one from where I stood.
Malcolm Reeves.
Lucas’s breathing changed.
“What?”
Rebecca closed the door again.
“Lucas, Cynthia checked the security logs.”
“And?”
“Your private forensic accountant died last night.”
He stared at her.
“What?”
“Car accident. Around ten thirty.”
Before Lucas collapsed.
The man who created the audit.
Dead.
Lucas gripped the plastic evidence bag.
“That wasn’t an accident.”
“We don’t know that.”
“You know.”
Rebecca’s face tightened.
“I know the timing is disturbing.”
Lucas stared at the blue paper.
Then his eyes moved to me.
A terrible realization crossed his face.
“Bailey.”
“What?”
“You found me by accident.”
“Yes.”
“No one knew you’d be on forty-five.”
“My schedule did.”
“Where is that schedule kept?”
I thought.
“The cleaning office.”
“Who can change it?”
“My supervisor.”
“Anyone with access to the scheduling system.”
My stomach twisted.
Lucas looked at Rebecca.
“Someone removed her cart.”
“I know.”
“They’re not cleaning up evidence from my collapse.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’re building evidence.”
Rebecca froze.
I understood one second later.
My fingerprints on the coffee cup.
My unusual presence on the executive floor.
My former medical training.
My cart disappearing.
A perfect stranger who had touched Lucas’s body.
Someone disposable.
Someone invisible.
“Me,” I whispered.
Lucas nodded.
“They’re going to blame me.”
Rebecca immediately shook her head.
“We won’t allow that.”
But the words had barely left her mouth when Cynthia rushed inside.
Behind her stood two Chicago police detectives.
One was holding my employee badge.
The badge Darlene had taken.
Except it wasn’t supposed to be at Meridian anymore.
Cynthia looked sick.
“Bailey…”
My heart slammed.
“Where did you find that?”
She didn’t answer.
The older detective did.
“Inside Mr. Bennett’s private office.”
My mouth went dry.
“That’s impossible.”
“Ms. Carter,” he said, “we need to ask you some questions.”
Lucas tried to sit up.
“She saved my life.”
May you like
The detective looked at him.
“And right now, Mr. Bennett, we’re trying to determine whether she may also be the reason you nearly lost it.”
