Chapter 12 - Daniel
We found Daniel's car abandoned behind an old textile warehouse twelve miles away.
Blood marked the driver's door, but not much.
Ruiz found his phone smashed under a tire.
Marcus found something better.
A hotel key card tucked inside the sun visor.
Room 614.
The hotel was across town. Police moved first. We arrived minutes later.
Daniel opened the door himself.
He had a cut above his eyebrow and one sleeve torn, but he was alive.
I punched him in the shoulder.
He stared at me. “Good to see you too.”
Then we hugged.
It lasted maybe two seconds.
That was more affection than the Hale brothers had shown in years.
Daniel had escaped through the warehouse loading dock after realizing the men following him wanted his briefcase, not his life.
“What's in it?” I asked.
He set a folder on the bed.
Inside were board minutes, wire transfers, and a photograph taken at a private club four months earlier.
Lauren sat at a table with three Hale directors.
Across from them sat a silver-haired man I recognized from childhood.
Thomas Whitmore.
Alive.
Older, heavier, but unmistakable.
Daniel pointed to the date.
“Two weeks after your doctors extended your medical leave.”
Ruiz studied the board records. “What were they planning?”
“A control vote,” Daniel said. “They needed Vincent unable to return by day one hundred eighty-one.”
“What day are we on?”
I already knew.
“One seventy-nine.”
Silence.
Two days.
If I remained classified as medically unfit for forty-eight more hours, the trust mechanism could shift voting control.
“But if you can walk?” Daniel asked.
I looked at my unbraced leg.
“I can stand.”
“That's not the same as being cleared.”
Keller's records were poisoned. My medical status was still officially restricted.
Ruiz's phone rang.
She listened, then looked at me.
“Lauren Whitmore is gone.”
“How?” Marcus asked.
“The attorney escort never arrived. The guard outside her room was found unconscious.”
Marcus went still.
“Which guard?”
Ruiz gave the name.
May you like
Marcus closed his eyes.
It was his younger brother, Sean.
