Chapter 2 - THE DEAD MAN'S ACCESS CARD
At 11:26 P.M., Nicholas discovered that a dead man had entered his security office forty-three times.
His new acting security chief, Daniel Reyes, stood in the dining room with a laptop.
“I checked every access event from the last twelve months.”
Nicholas remained beside Audrey.
“And?”
Reyes turned the screen.
“There's a credential we assumed was archived.”
Audrey leaned closer.
JULIAN RAINER - EXECUTIVE ACCESS.
Nicholas stared at the name of his dead brother.
“When was it used last?”
“Yesterday at 3:14 A.M.”
Silence.
“Impossible,” Nicholas said.
“Physically, yes.”
Reyes looked uncomfortable.
“Electronically, no.”
Someone had cloned Julian's credentials.
The cloned card had accessed the west security office, the archive room, an underground garage, and one warehouse owned by Rainer Freight.
Nicholas looked toward Audrey.
“The photographs you saw were in the west office.”
“Yes.”
He turned back to Reyes.
“Who can create cloned credentials?”
“Graham. Me. Two senior system administrators.”
“Where are they?”
“One is downstairs. One is on vacation in Florida.”
“And Graham?”
“No verified location.”
Nicholas's expression hardened.
He had surrendered one access card at the front desk.
Nobody had actually searched him.
Audrey stood suddenly.
“Liam.”
Nicholas followed.
“What?”
“If Graham can still use the security system, he has the address.”
“He already had it.”
“No.”
She grabbed her coat from the staff chair.
“He has the address of my apartment. But Liam isn't there tonight.”
Nicholas's eyes narrowed.
“Where is he?”
“With his friend Mason.”
“Does Graham know?”
“I don't know.”
Nicholas picked up his phone.
Audrey immediately said, “No armed men at a sixteen-year-old's house.”
He looked at her.
“He's being threatened.”
“And if three black SUVs show up, his friend's mother will call the police and never let Liam visit again.”
That was not the argument Nicholas expected.
He lowered the phone.
“What do you want?”
“I'll call her.”
She did.
Liam answered on the third ring.
“Hey.”
Audrey almost collapsed from relief.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Stay inside.”
A pause.
“That's never a normal sentence.”
“Liam.”
“Okay.”
“If anyone comes asking for you, even someone who says I sent them, you don't leave.”
His voice changed.
“Is this about Suit Guy?”
Nicholas looked at Audrey.
She went still.
“What suit guy?”
“The silver-haired guy.”
Her heart sank.
“Graham?”
“I don't know his name.”
“How long has he been talking to you?”
“Talking is generous.”
“Liam.”
“Maybe two months.”
Audrey closed her eyes.
Nicholas listened.
“He came by school twice. Said he knew Dad.”
“What did he want?”
“He kept asking if Dad left us an old toolbox.”
Audrey opened her eyes.
“What toolbox?”
“The red one.”
She knew exactly which one.
It sat beneath the workbench in the storage unit she had rented after their mother died.
Nobody used it.
Their father had been a building engineer and maintenance supervisor before his death. Audrey had kept his tools because Liam had once begged her not to throw them away.
“What did you tell him?”
“That we didn't have it.”
“Why?”
“Because he was creepy.”
For the first time all night, Nicholas almost smiled.
Audrey did not.
“Stay where you are. I'll call you in ten minutes.”
She hung up.
Nicholas was already reaching for his coat.
“Storage unit?”
“Yes.”
“We go together.”
Audrey looked at him.
“This is my family.”
“And Graham is my security director.”
“Former security director.”
“Even more reason.”
Forty minutes later, they stood inside a storage facility in Yonkers.
The red toolbox was beneath a folded dining table exactly where Audrey remembered.
She opened it.
Wrenches.
Drill bits.
A measuring tape.
Old electrical gloves.
Nothing.
Nicholas crouched beside her.
“Liam said Graham specifically asked about this?”
“Yes.”
Audrey lifted the tray.
The bottom looked too shallow.
Her father had always built hidden compartments into things for no practical reason.
He once kept Christmas money inside a fake wall outlet.
Audrey pushed the corner.
The metal floor popped upward.
Underneath lay a brass key.
And an envelope.
Her name was written across it.
AUDREY.
Her hands began shaking.
Nicholas stepped back.
“You open it.”
Inside was one page in her father's handwriting.
Sweetheart,
If you're reading this, someone has started asking questions.
Don't give the key to anyone named Rainer.
Audrey looked slowly at Nicholas.
Neither spoke.
Then she read the next line.
Especially not Nicholas.
May you like
And at the bottom:
If Graham Keene still works for that family, Julian's death was not an accident.
