Chapter 5 - Someone Deleted Floor 47
At 1:40 a.m., Maya, Rebecca, and two private security officers drove to the South Loop storage facility.
Charles insisted on coming.
Maya refused.
“You don’t get to control the evidence anymore.”
He stared at her, then handed Rebecca his keys. “Take my driver.”
They used a different car.
Locker 615 sat at the end of a fluorescent hallway that smelled like dust and cold metal.
Maya slid the brass key into the lock.
It turned.
Inside were three banker boxes, an old laptop, and a red coat folded inside plastic.
Maya stopped breathing for a second.
“Elena,” Rebecca said quietly.
The first box contained invoices from 2008 and 2009.
The second held printed emails.
The third contained photographs of construction sites, loading docks, and men Maya recognized from current Whitmore leadership.
One photograph showed the present COO, Grant Mercer, standing beside Elena Marlow.
On the back, Elena had written: GRANT KNOWS WHO APPROVED NORTH BELL.
Maya’s pulse jumped.
North Bell.
The same fake company receiving money now.
Rebecca picked up the old laptop. “We take everything.”
The lights went out.
One security officer cursed.
A metal door slammed somewhere down the hall.
“Stay behind me,” the second officer said.
Footsteps.
Fast.
Then a crash.
Maya grabbed the banker box closest to her and backed into the locker.
A flashlight beam cut through the darkness.
Someone ran past.
The first security officer shouted, “Stop!”
A car engine roared outside.
By the time power returned, one box was gone.
The box with the photographs.
Rebecca swore under her breath.
Maya looked at the remaining papers.
“They knew exactly which one to take.”
Her phone rang.
This time it was Whitmore IT director Nolan Price.
His voice shook. “Maya, we have a problem.”
“What?”
“Floor forty-seven doesn’t exist anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean someone remotely wiped every access record, security log, and workstation image tied to that floor.”
“Backups?”
“Gone.”
Rebecca stared at Maya.
Nolan continued, “And there’s something else.”
May you like
“What?”
“The deletion was authorized using your credentials.”
