Chapter 13 - The Missing Man
My uncle vanished from a locked hospital room. The only person who knew where he was had just confessed to killing my father.
The hospital security footage showed Gary leaving at 3:12 a.m.
He walked calmly.
No struggle.
No disguise.
Someone was waiting at the exit.
A black sedan.
The license plate was blurred.
A nurse handed me a note.
It had been left on Gary's bed.
You should have asked him why he kept your father's watch.
My stomach tightened.
I knew that watch.
I'd seen it in the evidence photo.
Gary had taken it the night Dad died.
I called Thomas.
No answer.
Mara answered instead.
“Where are you?”
“At Nexus.”
“Stay there.”
“Why?”
“Because someone is accessing the founder archive.”
My blood went cold.
“Who?”
“My mother.”
Silence.
“She has the key?”
“No.”
“Then how?”
Mara hesitated.
“Your credentials.”
I looked at Liam.
He understood immediately.
“She's using the stolen founder identity.”
“Can she open the archive?”
“Not without your biometric confirmation.”
I went still.
“What if she has it?”
“She does.”
“How?”
Mara whispered,
“Gary gave it to her.”
I suddenly remembered the plastic containers.
The seat beside the kitchen.
The way Gary had looked at me.
He had been testing whether I knew.
He had spent the entire evening insulting me because he needed everyone to believe I was irrelevant.
Then he had tried to get me to leave with food.
A distraction.
An alibi.
Something simple.
Something normal.
My hands shook.
“The Thanksgiving dinner was staged.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To keep you distracted while they accessed Nexus.”
Liam looked at me.
“But the security breach happened before dinner.”
I frowned.
Mara said,
“No.”
“What?”
“The breach began three days ago.”
That meant the entire Thanksgiving confrontation had been part of a larger operation.
I opened my laptop.
The founder archive loaded.
A single message appeared.
WELCOME BACK, ALINA.
I stared.
I hadn't accessed it in years.
A countdown began.
23:59:54
Liam stepped closer.
“What is that?”
“I don't know.”
The countdown dropped.
Twenty-three hours.
Fifty-nine minutes.
Something was scheduled to happen.
A file appeared.
FINAL RELEASE PROTOCOL.
I opened it.
Dad appeared on screen again.
This time he looked directly at me.
“If you're seeing this, then I failed.”
I couldn't breathe.
“You may think I failed because I died.”
He shook his head.
“I failed because I trusted your mother.”
Sarah whispered,
“Mom…”
Dad continued.
“Gary knows the truth.”
The screen flickered.
“Gary was the person I chose to help me hide the money.”
Then his face became serious.
“But he became greedy.”
I felt sick.
“He was the one who sold the location of the archive.”
The video ended.
A second file opened automatically.
It contained audio.
Gary's voice.
Five years ago.
My father's last night.
“I told you, Daniel. She doesn't need to know.”
My father's voice answered.
“She deserves the truth.”
Gary:
“She deserves to live.”
Then a third voice.
My mother's.
“You're both wasting time.”
Silence.
Then Dad screamed.
The recording cut.
Sarah covered her ears.
I closed the file.
Liam looked at me.
“Now we know.”
“No.”
“What?”
I stared at the countdown.
“We know who was in the room.”
“That’s enough.”
“It isn't.”
“Why?”
I looked at him.
“Because someone edited the recording.”
He froze.
“How do you know?”
“Because Dad stopped breathing before the file ended.”
The final six seconds were missing.
Someone had removed the murder.
Someone wanted us to know everything except who actually did it.
Then my phone buzzed.
One message.
From Gary.
Come alone.
Below it was an address.
An abandoned warehouse.
May you like
And one final sentence.
Bring the fourth envelope.
