Chapter 2 - THE ONE PLACE HE NEVER LOOKED
"Where is the flash drive, Evelyn?"
Nolan Voss stood in the private hotel suite, staring at his injured wife.
Evelyn held her silver evening gown against her chest. The medical tape around her ribs had begun peeling away, and every breath hurt.
"Before I tell you," she whispered, "I need you to promise me something."
"Anything."
"No one dies because of what I'm about to show you."
Nolan looked away.
She knew that expression.
For fifteen years, men had feared the consequences of crossing him. Tonight, his wife was asking him to become someone those men would never recognize.
"I won't make a promise I can't keep," he said.
"Then you don't get the evidence."
His eyes returned to hers.
"Evelyn, someone nearly killed you."
"And I will not have that turned into an excuse for another funeral."
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then Nolan took a slow breath.
"I promise I won't hurt anyone to get answers."
It wasn't everything she wanted.
But it was a beginning.
Evelyn reached behind her neck and unclasped the delicate gold necklace Nolan had given her on their wedding anniversary.
A small oval pendant rested against her palm.
He recognized it immediately.
Inside was a photograph taken on their wedding day.
Evelyn had been laughing when the photographer captured it. Nolan, who almost never smiled in photographs, had been looking at her as though nothing else in the world existed.
She pressed the tiny hinge.
The photograph lifted.
Beneath it was a narrow memory card.
Nolan stared.
"You've been carrying it all evening?"
"Since Tuesday."
"Why?"
"Because whoever attacked me searched my purse and my car. He never thought to check something I was wearing."
She held out the card.
Nolan didn't take it.
"Tell me what happened after the man found you."
Evelyn swallowed.
"He told me to put the ledger down. I refused."
Her hand trembled.
"He grabbed my shoulder. I tried to get past him, and he shoved me against a steel storage rack."
Nolan's face changed.
"The rack fell. Something heavy struck my ribs."
She paused.
"I remember lying on the floor. He was searching through the metal box. I thought he was going to come back for me."
"How did you escape?"
"The west loading door was still open. I crawled behind some pallets until he left."
Nolan closed his eyes.
She touched his hand.
"I drove to an urgent care clinic. They told me I needed hospital imaging. I was afraid someone would learn where I was."
"Evelyn."
"I know. I should have gone."
Nolan reached for the hotel telephone.
"I'm getting you a doctor. No discussion."
This time, she didn't argue.
Twenty minutes later, a physician arranged through the hotel's medical service examined Evelyn and recommended immediate hospital evaluation.
Nolan insisted on accompanying her.
Before they left, however, Evelyn made him examine something else.
She took a photograph of the memory card with her phone, then placed it back inside the necklace.
"The ledger is somewhere different," she said.
"Where?"
"A place Martin chose. I haven't moved it."
Nolan frowned.
"You said you took it."
"I took it out of the box. But when I saw someone coming, I hid it again."
"Where?"
"Under the old inspection platform. I couldn't carry the whole thing without being seen."
Nolan's expression darkened.
"Then the person who attacked you might already have it."
"Maybe. But there's something you need to know."
She gripped his wrist.
"Martin left a note inside the ledger."
"What did it say?"
"Follow the payments marked Mercy."
Nolan froze.
Evelyn noticed.
"That means something to you."
He didn't answer.
"Nolan?"
He walked to the window.
Rain streamed down the glass.
"Mercy was my father's private account designation."
Evelyn stared.
"Your father died twelve years ago."
"I know."
"Then why would Martin use it?"
Nolan turned.
"Because my father used that designation for payments he didn't want appearing in the family records."
"What kind of payments?"
Nolan's jaw tightened.
"Payments to people he believed deserved protection."
Evelyn looked down at the necklace.
"Someone has been stealing from injured workers using your dead father's private account system?"
"Apparently."
She shook her head.
"That makes no sense."
"It might."
Nolan retrieved a folded business card from his wallet.
On the back was an old telephone number written in fading blue ink.
He stared at it for several seconds.
Then he said something Evelyn had never expected to hear.
"There's only one living person who knows how those Mercy accounts worked."
"Who?"
Nolan's voice turned cold.
"My younger brother, Graham."
Evelyn felt the room tilt.
Graham Voss was the foundation's chief financial officer.
The man who had organized tonight's charity gala.
The man who had personally selected the donors, approved the financial reports, and insisted that Evelyn attend despite her complaints of feeling unwell.
And four days earlier, he had delivered a large arrangement of white roses to their house.
Evelyn remembered the card attached to the flowers.
For the strongest woman I know. Please take care of yourself.
She looked at Nolan.
"Your brother came to see me Tuesday night."
Nolan stopped breathing.
"He asked me a very strange question."
"What question?"
May you like
Evelyn's voice shook.
"He asked whether I'd found anything worth keeping at Warehouse Twelve."
