Chapter 6 - The Daughter Who Disappeared
Benjamin hadn't seen his daughter, Grace Carter, in person for two years.
They spoke through short emails and Christmas cards forwarded from an address in Oregon. Grace said she needed distance after her mother's death and the legal fight over the tower. Benjamin had accepted that explanation because he had been afraid to push her away further.
But Grace had never been a woman who ran from an accounting problem.
She was forty, sharp as broken glass, and famous in the family for returning a cashier's extra change when she was seven. After Evelyn's death, she'd volunteered to examine the Carter Family Foundation, which funded technical scholarships and housing grants. She found payments routed through companies with no employees.
Then she left town.
Benjamin called the number he'd kept pinned to his refrigerator. It rang three times.
“Dad?”
“Grace. Are you safe?”
A long pause. “Why are you asking me that?”
“Ethan knows you investigated the foundation.”
“Dad, listen carefully. Don't say another word about me inside that building.”
The line clicked dead.
Ruth watched his face change. “What did she say?”
Benjamin tried calling back. Nothing.
At the warehouse, Caleb Brooks was hiding in an office with a cracked window while two men hammered on the door. He had taken pictures of crates filled with computer servers, then sent the images to Naomi before his phone lost service.
One photo showed a shipping label: CARTER FAMILY FOUNDATION—ARCHIVAL MATERIAL.
Another showed a handwritten warning taped to the crate: KEEP OFF NETWORK UNTIL G APPROVES.
Naomi forwarded the pictures to Detective Price. “G,” she said. “Could that mean Grace?”
Benjamin wanted to say no. He wanted to say his daughter would never approve a secret shipment. But he had learned how dangerous certainty could be.
The detective's radio crackled. Officers were approaching the warehouse. There was shouting, then a loud crash.
A voice came through, breathless and distorted. “We have one civilian down.”
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Naomi staggered toward the wall.
Nobody in the lobby knew whether the injured person was Caleb.
