Chapter 12 - The Man with the Cane

Mr. Keene did not look gentle anymore.

He shut the hidden door and raised the gun.

"Put the ledger on the table."

Ethan moved in front of Mara.

Keene sighed. "Still playing protector. You never learned."

"My father trusted you," Ethan said.

"Your father trusted everybody until they disappointed him."

"How much did Nolan pay you?"

"Enough."

Mara watched Keene's steady left leg. "Your cane," she said.

Keene smiled. "A useful prop. People stop seeing an old man as a threat."

Mara thought of every morning he had limped through the staff dining room. Every time she carried boxes for him. Every door he had access to.

"You hired me," she said.

"Bianca asked me to."

"Why?"

"Because you were easy to research. No father. Sick mother. Medical debt. You needed a job badly enough not to ask questions."

The cruelty of it hit harder than Bianca's slap.

"You used my mother."

"We used your circumstances. Don't make it sentimental."

Ethan lunged.

Keene fired.

The shot exploded inside the stone room.

Mara screamed.

Ethan crashed into Keene, knocking the gun aside. The bullet struck a shelf, showering them with wood chips.

Keene drove an elbow into Ethan's ribs and reached for the weapon. Mara swung the black ledger into his face.

He stumbled.

"That was for my mother."

Ethan kicked the gun under a cabinet.

Keene slammed Mara against the wall.

Pain shot through her back.

Ethan grabbed him from behind.

The two men crashed into the table.

The digital recorder hit the floor but kept playing.

Richard Harrow's voice filled the chaos.

"If Daniel Keene is listening, you should know I made a copy."

Keene stopped fighting for half a second.

Ethan used it.

He drove Keene to the ground and pinned him.

Mara snatched the gun.

"Don't move."

Keene looked up at her and laughed.

"You think the ledger saves you?"

"It saves enough."

"No. Nolan has something better."

Mara's grip tightened.

"What?"

Keene smiled through a split lip.

"Your medical records."

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