Chapter 2 - A Name in the Dark
The officer drew his flashlight. Graham heard shoes scrape behind the counter and moved before anyone could stop him.
“Stay where you are!” the detective barked.
A figure bolted through the narrow workroom. Graham caught only a glimpse: dark jacket, black gloves, a pale scar along the jaw. The stranger knocked over a bucket of lilies and slammed through the back exit. By the time the officer reached the alley, the rain had swallowed him.
Lucy tried to sit up.
“Don’t,” Graham said, dropping beside her. “The ambulance is coming.”
“The key.”
He looked at the brass key in her palm. “What does it open?”
“Storage unit. Northside. Number 214.”
“Why do you have something connected to my company?”
“Because your company paid for my father’s silence.”
Graham felt the room tilt.
Lucy’s father, Daniel Hart, had died six months earlier. Graham knew the name. Daniel had been a senior accountant at Whitmore Systems until he resigned twelve years ago after an internal investigation. Victor had described him as unstable, dishonest, and dangerous.
“Your father stole money,” Graham said, hearing Victor’s voice in his own mouth.
Lucy flinched. “That’s what they told you.”
At the hospital, Lucy was taken for a scan. Graham sat beneath a television showing a cooking competition with the sound off. His phone kept lighting up.
VICTOR HALE: Where are you?
VICTOR HALE: The board needs you.
VICTOR HALE: Call me immediately.
Graham finally answered.
“Lucy Hart was attacked,” he said.
A pause. “Who?”
“Daniel Hart’s daughter.”
Another pause, longer this time.
“Graham, listen carefully. Don’t speak to her about company matters. Daniel was unstable. His daughter may be trying to use you.”
“She was bleeding on the floor.”
“People do desperate things.”
Graham stared at the corridor. “How did you know she was at the shop?”
“I didn’t.”
But Graham heard the hesitation.
When Lucy came out, she was pale and angry. She held out a folded scrap of paper.
“Your name is on it,” she said.
He opened it.
IF GRAHAM EVER ASKS WHAT HAPPENED, SHOW HIM THE FIRST PAYMENT.
May you like
Below it was a date: the day Graham signed his company’s first major acquisition.
And the amount was $8,400,000.
