Chapter 5 - The Brother in the Warehouse
Naomi's younger brother, Caleb, was twenty-two and trying to get his life back after a rough stretch of bad choices. Three months earlier, Ethan had offered him warehouse work through a subcontractor. Naomi had been grateful until Caleb stopped bringing home pay slips and started coming home scared.
“Don't ask about the trucks,” he'd told her one night.
“What trucks?”
“Exactly.”
The warehouse stored replacement fixtures, computer equipment, and construction supplies supposedly bought for Carter Tower. But Caleb saw sealed crates moved in after midnight and driven back out before sunrise. The inventory numbers never matched the labels.
When Caleb challenged his supervisor, someone shoved him against a loading dock and broke two ribs. He told the hospital he'd fallen.
Now Naomi stared at the threat on her phone. She slipped behind a marble column and called him.
Straight to voicemail.
“Come on,” she whispered. “Pick up.”
Another message appeared: WALK OUT THE SIDE DOOR. ALONE.
Benjamin found her trembling by the elevators.
“What's wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Naomi, I watched you put on a brave face for three years. It doesn't fool me.”
She showed him the screen.
He read it once, then dialed Ruth. “We have an immediate safety issue. Her brother may be in danger.”
Ruth turned to Detective Price. Within seconds, two officers were coordinating a welfare check.
Naomi grabbed Benjamin's sleeve. “If they see the police—”
“Then we'll make sure they don't go charging in blind.”
Ethan watched from the other side of the lobby, his eyes narrowed. He recognized the second phone. He recognized fear. And he suddenly understood exactly where Naomi's loyalty might go.
He approached with a smooth smile. “Naomi, sweetheart, let me explain. That text is a sick joke.”
“How do you know what it says?” she asked.
He froze.
Benjamin stepped between them. “Easy question, Ethan.”
Ethan's mouth hardened. “You old fool. You have no idea what you've started.”
“Then enlighten me.”
Instead, Ethan leaned close enough that only Benjamin could hear. “Ask Ruth what happened to the last person who tried to audit the foundation.”
May you like
Benjamin went cold. There had been a foundation accountant, a friend of Evelyn's, who vanished from the job five years earlier.
That accountant was his daughter.
