Chapter 7 - THE FARMHOUSEThe farmhouse was surrounded by dead cornfields.
Delaney arrived just before dawn.
No lights.
No vehicles.
No movement.
She entered with her weapon drawn.
“Mason?”
Nothing.
The house had been abandoned for years.
Dust covered the floor.
The kitchen cabinets were empty.
Then she heard a child's voice.
“Help!”
Delaney froze.
The sound came from the basement.
She rushed downstairs.
Mason was tied to a chair.
Blood covered his shirt.
Beside him was a teenage boy.
Vanessa's son.
Alive.
The boy looked at Delaney.
“My name is Tyler.”
“Mason, where is Ronan?”
“Gone.”
“What happened?”
Mason winced.
“They came at midnight.”
“Who?”
“Quill.”
Delaney cut his restraints.
“Where did he take him?”
Mason shook his head.
“He didn't.”
“What?”
“Quill wasn't alone.”
Delaney stopped.
“Who was with him?”
Mason looked at Tyler.
“Tell her.”
Tyler swallowed.
“My mother knew him.”
“Who?”
Tyler whispered:
“The Auditor.”
Delaney knelt.
“What did he look like?”
“Old.”
“Anything else?”
“A scar.”
“Where?”
Tyler touched his neck.
“Here.”
Delaney's mind flashed to Graham.
Her uncle had a thin scar across his throat.
She stood.
“Graham.”
Mason looked away.
“You think it's him.”
“He has the scar.”
“So does half of Texas.”
“Where is Ronan?”
Mason pointed toward a map.
“There.”
A red circle surrounded an abandoned courthouse.
“Why would they take him there?”
“Because that's where the first account was created.”
Delaney stared.
“What account?”
“The roadside account.”
Mason opened his jacket.
Inside was a small metal key.
“This unlocks the evidence room beneath the courthouse.”
Delaney took it.
“What is inside?”
“Everything.”
She drove.
The courthouse stood behind a line of oak trees.
The town had abandoned it decades ago.
No one came near it.
Delaney entered through the basement.
The key fit an old steel door.
Inside were shelves.
Boxes.
Hard drives.
Bank ledgers.
Photographs.
Hundreds of folders.
She opened one.
A list of seized cash.
Another.
Judicial payments.
Another.
Federal transfers.
Then she found a file labeled:
DANIEL VOSS
Her father's file.
Inside was a photograph.
Daniel standing beside Graham.
And Quill.
Delaney stared.
The photograph had been taken twenty-five years earlier.
Quill was much younger.
But there was no mistake.
He had known her father.
A sound came from the hallway.
Footsteps.
Delaney turned.
Ronan stood in the doorway.
His face was bruised.
He looked exhausted.
But alive.
“Ronan!”
She ran toward him.
He grabbed her.
“You came.”
“Of course I came.”
“Delaney...”
“What?”
He looked over her shoulder.
“There is something you need to know.”
“What?”
Ronan reached into his pocket.
Pulled out a tiny black memory card.
“Dad gave me this.”
“When?”
“Before he died.”
Delaney stared at it.
“What is on it?”
Ronan's face went pale.
“A video.”
“Of what?”
“Dad.”
“Talking?”
“No.”
He swallowed.
“Dying.”
Delaney's heart stopped.
“Someone recorded his murder.”
Ronan nodded.
“And I know who was holding the camera.”
“Who?”
Ronan looked at her.
“Uncle Graham.”
A gunshot thundered upstairs.
Ronan ducked.
Mason shouted:
“DOWN!”
Another shot.
Then another.
Delaney grabbed Ronan and pulled him behind the shelves.
Mason checked the hallway.
Then whispered:
“They know you're here.”
Delaney held the memory card.
On the other side of the steel door came a calm voice.
A voice she hadn't heard in twelve years.
Her uncle Graham.
“Delaney.”
He knocked twice.
“Open the door.”
May you like
Then he laughed softly.
“We have so much catching up to do.”
