Chapter 8 - What Elena Left BehindDarkness swallowed the building.
Someone screamed.
A door slammed.
Alvarez shouted for everyone to stay together.
I reached for Rachel.
She grabbed my hand.
"Don't move."
I could hear footsteps.
Not one person.
Several.
Then a gunshot sounded outside.
Everyone froze.
Alvarez ordered the team forward.
The building erupted into movement.
Doors opened.
People shouted.
Flashlights cut through the darkness.
Daniel refused to leave his mother.
Rachel pulled him toward the back corridor.
"There's another exit."
"How do you know?"
"I've been here."
"When?"
"Before."
She didn't explain.
We followed her through a narrow hallway.
At the end was a metal door.
Rachel opened it.
We stepped into the woods.
Behind us, the building remained dark.
Daniel's mother followed.
She was shaking.
"What happened?" Daniel asked.
She looked at him.
"I tried to protect you."
"From what?"
"Your uncle."
Daniel's expression hardened.
"What did he do?"
"He was never supposed to be involved."
She looked at Rachel.
"Neither was Elena."
Rachel's eyes filled.
"What happened to her?"
Their mother looked away.
"She found the records."
"What records?"
"The original financial ledgers."
Alvarez stepped closer.
"Where are they?"
The woman hesitated.
"Elena hid them."
"Where?"
She looked at me.
I didn't understand.
Then she said:
"With the person they would never suspect."
My stomach tightened.
"Who?"
She pointed at me.
Everyone went silent.
"Me?"
She nodded.
"Elena knew about you."
I stared at her.
"How?"
"She saw your name."
"Where?"
"In the records."
Rachel looked confused.
"That's impossible."
Their mother shook her head.
"No."
She reached into her coat.
She removed a small envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Me.
Taken months before I had ever been imprisoned.
I stared at it.
My world shifted.
"Why did Elena have this?"
Their mother whispered:
"Because she believed you were going to become one of their targets."
Alvarez took the photograph.
"Why?"
"Because of what your family knew."
I felt dizzy.
"My family?"
She nodded.
"They had information about the organization."
I couldn't remember.
"Nobody told me."
"Because you were protected."
"Then how did they find me?"
She looked at Daniel.
"Because someone inside the system sold the information."
Morgan.
The realization was immediate.
Alvarez looked toward the trees.
"We need to move."
But the woman's hand tightened around mine.
"There's more."
"What?"
She pulled out another envelope.
"This is from Elena."
Rachel began crying.
"She wrote it before she disappeared."
I opened it.
The handwriting was careful.
The letter wasn't long.
It explained that Elena had discovered a network that used legitimate businesses to conceal illegal activity.
She had collected evidence.
She had tried to report it.
Then she realized the people she trusted were compromised.
She wrote that if she disappeared, her mother should hide the evidence.
And she wrote one final thing.
Rachel will survive if she believes she has a reason to.
Rachel broke down.
Daniel held her.
I looked at the letter again.
Then I saw something.
A number.
At the bottom.
Not a phone number.
A case number.
I gave it to Alvarez.
She recognized it immediately.
"That's Morgan's first investigation."
Daniel looked at her.
"What?"
"The case that started everything."
Alvarez stared at the number.
"Six years ago."
Then she looked at me.
"There's one problem."
"What?"
"The case file was destroyed."
I stared at her.
"How do you know?"
"Because I checked it this morning."
Rachel whispered:
"Then someone wanted us to believe it was destroyed."
A sound came from the woods.
A branch snapping.
Everyone turned.
Another.
Closer.
Alvarez raised her weapon.
"Show yourself!"
Nothing.
Then a flashlight appeared between the trees.
A man stepped forward.
Detective Morgan.
He looked older than in the photographs.
Calm.
Almost disappointed.
"You've made this much harder than it needed to be."
Alvarez pointed her weapon.
"Don't move."
Morgan smiled.
"I wasn't planning to."
Daniel stepped forward.
"You killed my sister."
Morgan's expression didn't change.
"No."
He looked at Rachel.
"Your sister killed herself."
Rachel screamed.
"You're lying!"
Morgan shook his head.
"Ask her."
He pointed toward Daniel's mother.
Everyone looked at her.
She was crying.
And that was when I realized something.
She wasn't crying because Morgan had lied.
She was crying because part of what he said was true.
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There was a secret she still hadn't told us.
And it was bigger than all of us.
