A WAITRESS FED THE SAME HOMELESS MAN EVERY NIGHT—ONE DAY, HE WALKED IN WEARING A SUIT
Chapter 11
Emma drove back to the restaurant.
Paul was waiting in the kitchen.
His face was gray.
“Where is your daughter?”
“Safe.”
“Richard lied to you?”
Paul nodded.
“He threatened her.”
David stepped forward.
“Where is he?”
Paul looked at him.
“Richard was arrested.”
“Then who is threatening her?”
Paul hesitated.
“There are others.”
Emma’s stomach tightened.
“Who?”
Paul gave them a name.
Martin Cole.
David recognized it.
“Richard’s chief attorney.”
Paul nodded.
“He built the shell companies.”
“Where is he?”
“He disappeared.”
Emma looked at David.
“Then the case isn’t over.”
David nodded.
The police had arrested Richard, but the financial network remained.
Martin could destroy evidence.
The witnesses could still be threatened.
They needed the original ledger.
Emma remembered her father’s video.
He had said:
The first funds.
She searched the files.
There was a reference to a warehouse.
Warehouse 19.
The same warehouse where David and Richard had first started their company.
They drove there with police officers.
Inside, dust covered the floor.
Old machinery stood untouched.
Emma found a metal cabinet.
David opened it.
Inside was a ledger.
Thousands of transactions.
Every payment.
Every account.
Every bribe.
And one final column.
Beneficiary.
Emma read the names.
Then stopped.
“Martin Cole.”
David nodded.
“That’s enough.”
But the last page contained another name.
Richard Harrison — Beneficiary.
And beneath it:
David Hayes — Primary Target.
David stared.
Emma turned the page.
There was a handwritten note.
If David returns, eliminate him before he can testify.
A sound came from behind them.
Footsteps.
David turned.
Martin Cole stood in the doorway.
He held a gun.
“Give me the ledger.”
Police officers raised their weapons.
Martin smiled.
“You don’t understand.”
“You’re surrounded,” one officer said.
Martin shook his head.
“No.”
He looked at Emma.
“She’s the reason you’re all here.”
Emma stepped backward.
“What do you want?”
“Your father’s final recording.”
“You already have the evidence.”
“No.”
Martin’s eyes hardened.
“Your father recorded the names of everyone involved.”
David stared.
“The recording isn’t on the drive.”
Martin smiled.
“Exactly.”
He raised the gun.
“Tell me where it is.”
