Chapter 4 - THE FIRE
Smoke began crawling beneath the church doors.
The detective shouted for everyone to move.
Rebecca grabbed Eli.
Rachel pulled me toward the emergency exit.
The fire alarm failed.
Someone had disabled it.
The detective kicked the side door open, and we escaped into the freezing rain.
Behind us, flames climbed through the old wooden structure.
Rebecca watched silently.
“The Broker knew where we were.”
The detective looked at her.
“How?”
She pointed toward my phone.
“Because your phone was compromised.”
I stared at the device.
The message.
The photograph of Eli.
Everything suddenly made sense.
Someone had been tracking us.
We went to a secure police facility.
There, technicians examined our phones and discovered a hidden surveillance application installed through a fraudulent banking update.
The software had been monitoring Rachel for months.
Then they found something worse.
The same program had been installed on my work computer.
I felt sick.
“How long?”
“Almost a year.”
A year.
Someone had been watching my banking activity, my clients, my home address, and my personal messages.
Then Daniel Price appeared on the security camera outside the bank.
He wasn't alone.
Victor’s lawyer was with him.
But Victor was already in custody.
The detective stared at the footage.
“They’re trying to recover something.”
Rebecca nodded.
“The evidence.”
“What evidence?”
She looked at Rachel.
“The original ledger.”
Rachel frowned.
“What ledger?”
Rebecca reached into her bag.
A small metal key.
“Your husband kept a physical record of every stolen account.”
She placed it on the table.
“I found the key six years ago.”
The detective examined it.
“What does it open?”
Rebecca looked at me.
“Your bank’s executive vault.”
My heart stopped.
I had worked there for seven years.
I had never known such a vault existed.
Rebecca continued.
“The ledger contains names, transfers, dates, and payments.”
“Payments to whom?”
She swallowed.
“The Broker.”
The detective stood.
“Then we get it before they do.”
But before anyone could leave, Rachel’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
“Bring the key.”
Rachel said nothing.
“Come alone.”
Then the caller added:
“Or Eli disappears.”
The line went dead.
Rachel collapsed into a chair.
Rebecca looked at me.
“They want you too.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re the only person who can access the vault without triggering an alert.”
I stared at the key.
For years, I had believed my job was about protecting money.
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Now I realized it was about protecting people.
And someone was willing to burn down a church to stop me from doing it.
