Chapter 15 - THE CONTAINER
The blood was Daniel's.
A smear on the steering wheel. Three drops on the seat.
Not enough to tell us how badly he was hurt.
Police searched row after row of storage units.
Then a sound came from Unit 62.
A metallic bang.
Hayes shouted, "Police!"
No answer.
Another bang.
They cut the lock.
Daniel was inside, wrists tied, blood running from a cut above his eyebrow.
Alive.
I ran to him before anyone could stop me.
"Are you okay?"
"I think so."
"Where's Victor?"
"Gone."
He looked ashamed.
"I signed it."
"I saw."
"I thought if I gave him what he wanted—"
"You tried to solve it alone."
He closed his eyes. "Yeah."
For once, I did not comfort him.
The police found something else in the unit: a black hard drive taped under a folding table.
Victor had left in a hurry.
On it were audio recordings, bank files, photographs, and emails documenting years of blackmail.
One folder was labeled REBECCA.
Inside were photos of me going back four months.
Victor had been watching me long before the sunroom recording.
Why?
A document answered the question.
Background report: Rebecca Lawson Carter.
Employment: forensic accounting assistant at Harlow & Finch.
Specialty: invoice reconciliation and fraud review.
They had targeted me because of my job.
Evelyn had spent years calling my career "little office work." Secretly, she understood exactly what I could uncover.
Daniel read the file over my shoulder.
"She was afraid of you."
"No," I said. "She was afraid of being seen."
Officer Hayes entered with another drive.
"We found a scheduled email on Victor's laptop. Set to send at noon if he didn't cancel it."
"Send where?"
"Every board member. Three newspapers. The district attorney."
Walter looked sick.
"What's attached?"
Hayes exhaled.
"Everything."
At 11:59, Victor still had not been found.
May you like
At noon, the email went out.
And Evelyn's private war became public.
