Chapter 6 - THE SECOND LEDGER WAS GONE
The vault had been opened forty-eight hours earlier.
Declan stared at the access record.
SEAMUS GALLAGHER.
His retired uncle still possessed family privileges because Declan had never bothered removing them.
A mistake built from sentiment.
The leather Bible was gone.
So was a sealed envelope Patrick had left for Declan.
But one thing remained.
A cassette recorder.
Old.
Dusty.
Label:
D.B. / WAREHOUSE 12.
Daniel Bennett.
Norah’s father.
Declan looked at her.
“Do you want to hear it?”
She hated that he asked.
She loved that he asked.
“Yes.”
Patrick Gallagher’s voice came first.
“Daniel, start from Keane.”
Then Daniel.
“Martin moves the money. Seamus chooses where it goes.”
Norah closed her eyes.
Her father sounded younger than she remembered.
Alive.
Angry.
Patrick asked:
“Richard Greco?”
“Provides the contractors.”
“Police?”
“Two names. Maybe three.”
Then Patrick said:
“I’m taking this to the federal task force.”
Daniel answered:
“Your brother will know.”
“I know.”
“He’ll come after you.”
“I know.”
Then silence.
Patrick’s next words were quieter.
“I should have stopped him years ago.”
Daniel responded:
“Then stop him now.”
The tape clicked.
Another recording began.
Different day.
Patrick sounded terrified.
“Daniel didn’t make it out.”
Norah stopped breathing.
A second voice:
Martin Keane.
“It was an electrical fire.”
Patrick:
“Don’t lie to me.”
Keane:
“You cannot prove anything.”
Patrick:
“My brother ordered it.”
Silence.
Then Keane whispered:
“You have a son.”
Declan’s face changed.
Patrick had been threatened with Declan.
“Think carefully about what happens to him if Gallagher Enterprises collapses.”
The tape ended.
Norah stared at Declan.
“Your father stayed silent because of you.”
Declan’s voice was hollow.
“Yes.”
“But he was planning to testify.”
“Yes.”
“What happened three weeks later?”
“My father died.”
Official cause:
Cardiac arrest.
Age fifty-four.
No history of serious heart disease.
Declan had never questioned it because Seamus arranged the funeral, doctors, everything.
Norah asked:
“Was there an autopsy?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Family refused.”
“Who signed?”
Declan already knew before checking.
Seamus.
Then Liam O’Rourke called.
“Boss, we found Keane.”
“Where?”
“His apartment.”
“Alive?”
A pause.
“No.”
Martin Keane was dead.
No obvious signs of forced entry.
A handwritten note on his desk claimed he alone embezzled the money and sabotaged Declan’s elevator.
Too convenient.
Then Liam added:
“We found something else.”
Inside Keane’s safe was a photograph taken three days earlier.
Seamus Gallagher.
Martin Keane.
And Liam O’Rourke.
Declan’s own head of security.
May you like
Norah watched Declan’s expression become completely still.
The man responsible for protecting him had been meeting privately with the people trying to kill him.
