Chapter 6 - THE BLUE LEDGER
Marcus killed the lights.
“Don’t move,” he whispered.
Lucas lay flat behind a concrete support beam, hands over his ears.
Footsteps pounded somewhere near the stairwell.
Then a door slammed.
Marcus waited ten seconds before switching on his flashlight.
“Anybody hit?”
“No,” Evelyn said.
Lucas shook his head.
The bullet had punched into the steel locker inches from where Evelyn had been standing.
Marcus called police.
Evelyn grabbed the blue ledger and the flash drive.
“We’re leaving.”
Back at the hotel, she locked herself in the executive office with Marcus and Lucas while detectives searched the old basement.
The blue ledger looked ordinary until Evelyn opened it.
Then her stomach turned.
Pages listed donations to the Cross Foundation beside coded transfers to shell companies. Millions of dollars. Dates. Initials. Approval signatures.
P.V.
D.C.
And one more set.
C.C.
Lucas looked over her arm. “Who’s C.C.?”
Evelyn didn’t answer.
Charles Cross.
Her father.
“No,” she said quietly.
Marcus read the entries. “Could be forged.”
“Could be real.”
Lucas pointed to a folded page tucked into the back cover.
Rachel Bennett’s handwriting covered both sides.
Evelyn read aloud.
“Charles discovered the diversion after Diane and Preston had already moved more than twelve million dollars. He ordered me to copy everything. He said if they knew he had proof, they would kill him.”
Evelyn stopped breathing.
Lucas stared at her.
She forced herself to continue.
“Charles planned to go to federal investigators on Monday. He died Sunday night.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Her father had not been stealing.
He had been gathering evidence.
Marcus inserted the flash drive into an isolated laptop.
There were audio files, scanned bank records, and one video.
A date appeared on screen: the night Charles Cross died.
The video showed the parking garage beneath the Cross Foundation offices.
Charles walked toward his car.
Preston Vale followed him.
Then Diane Cross appeared behind Preston.
Lucas whispered, “Play it.”
Evelyn pressed the space bar.
Her dead father’s voice filled the room.
May you like
“You two are finished.”
Preston answered, “No, Charles. You are.”
