Chapter 4 - WAREHOUSE 17The warehouse smelled like salt, rust, and old gasoline.
Rain struck the metal roof.
Michael and Emily entered through a side door.
The building was abandoned.
At least officially.
A single fluorescent light flickered above a concrete corridor.
Emily whispered:
“Kane said he found evidence here.”
Michael nodded.
They moved deeper.
A trail of water led toward the back.
Then they saw blood.
Old.
Brown.
Dried across the concrete.
Emily covered her mouth.
Michael followed the trail to a storage room.
The door was open.
Inside was a chair.
A broken table.
An overturned filing cabinet.
And one bullet hole in the wall.
Michael crouched.
There was something beneath the cabinet.
A wallet.
He pulled it free.
Inside was an identification card.
DANIEL MERCER.
Emily stared at the name.
“Who is he?”
Michael shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Then Emily pointed toward the floor.
A metal panel had been hidden beneath dust.
Michael lifted it.
Inside was a small black case.
Locked.
Lucas's silver key fit perfectly.
The case opened.
Inside was a single flash drive.
And a handwritten note.
Michael unfolded it.
Three words.
TRUST THE BOY.
He stared at the handwriting.
Rachel.
There was no doubt.
Emily whispered:
“Lucas.”
Michael inserted the flash drive into a laptop.
Folders appeared.
RACHEL
VICTORIA
LANGFORD SECURITY
HAYES HOLDINGS
Michael opened the first folder.
Photographs.
Dozens of them.
Rachel had been investigating financial transfers.
Millions of dollars.
Payments from Hayes Holdings to shell companies.
Michael stared.
“These are fake accounts.”
Emily nodded.
“Where did the money go?”
Michael opened another file.
The transfers all ended at the same company.
LARKIN ADVISORY GROUP.
Then another file opened.
Client:
Victoria Langford.
Michael’s stomach dropped.
“How much?”
Emily read the figure.
“Thirty-two million.”
Silence.
Michael stared at the number.
Rachel had not discovered a small theft.
She had uncovered an operation.
Then another video file appeared.
Michael clicked it.
Rachel sat at a desk.
Her face looked exhausted.
She glanced toward the camera.
“If Michael is watching this, then I’m already dead.”
Michael stopped breathing.
Rachel continued.
“Victoria is not working alone.”
The video glitched.
Then returned.
“There is someone inside Hayes Holdings.”
Michael stared.
“Who?”
Rachel looked directly into the camera.
“I couldn't prove it.”
Her voice lowered.
“But the person has access to everything.”
The screen froze.
Michael leaned toward it.
Then the video resumed.
Rachel whispered the final words.
“It’s someone Michael trusts.”
A crash sounded upstairs.
Emily jumped.
Michael closed the laptop.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Heavy.
Someone was inside the warehouse.
Michael pushed Emily behind the shelves.
The footsteps approached.
Then stopped.
A man's voice echoed:
“You shouldn't have opened that box.”
Michael looked toward the doorway.
He recognized the voice.
It belonged to someone he had trusted for years.
May you like
His attorney.
Thomas Reed.
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