Chapter 10 - JARED’S FATHER GAVE THE ORDER
Jared didn’t speak for almost a minute.
Evelyn’s image flickered on the screen.
“Our father ordered Daniel killed?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He panicked.”
Arthur Kensington had originally used Daniel Thornton to document Dominic’s corruption.
But Daniel discovered something Arthur had not intended him to see.
Arthur had been laundering Kensington money through legitimate charities to hide assets from federal investigators.
Not Dominic.
Arthur.
Daniel threatened to expose both brothers.
Dominic wanted him bribed.
Arthur wanted him silenced.
The order came from Jared’s father.
Then something changed.
“Arthur regretted it,” Evelyn said.
“That doesn’t bring my father back,” I said.
“No.”
Again, no excuses.
Arthur tried to cancel the order.
Dominic’s men had already moved.
Daniel died.
Arthur spent the next two decades secretly collecting evidence against Dominic while hiding his own guilt.
Then, six days before Arthur’s death, he changed the family trust.
“He left joint control to Jared and me because he wanted the legitimate companies separated from the criminal network.”
Jared laughed bitterly.
“Redemption through paperwork.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Maybe he knew it was too late for anything else.”
The video feed suddenly shook.
Brendan turned.
“What was that?”
A door slammed somewhere near them.
Evelyn whispered:
“They found us.”
The connection dropped.
Jared was already moving.
Miles traced the signal.
Private rehabilitation facility in New Jersey.
We reached it forty-two minutes later with federal agents who had finally been brought in after the ledger identified enough compromised local officers to justify outside involvement.
The facility looked ordinary.
Too ordinary.
One floor was empty.
Another contained legitimate patients.
The basement contained locked rooms with no names.
We found Brendan unconscious but alive.
Evelyn’s room was empty.
On the wall, written in marker:
BRING NERO TO THE KENSINGTON ESTATE.
Jared stared at it.
“No.”
I understood immediately.
“Dominic wants the dog.”
“Why?”
I thought of Nero’s collar.
The hidden plate.
The memory card.
The whistle.
The storage room.
“Because Evelyn hid more than one thing on him.”
We returned to Nero.
Under ultraviolet light, the inside of his collar revealed tiny handwritten numbers.
Coordinates.
They led to the Kensington family estate in Westchester.
Jared stared at them.
“That property has been empty since my father died.”
I looked at the final engraving beneath the coordinates.
One sentence.
CAESAR SHOWED DANIEL. NERO WILL SHOW JARED.
“What did Caesar show my father?” I asked.
Jared looked toward the old estate on the map.
“I think we’re about to find out.”
Then Nero stood without help for the first time in weeks.
May you like
He walked toward the door.
And waited.
