Chapter 8 - THE RED LEDGER
Every adult in the apartment froze.
Click.
There it was again.
Sam looked toward the closet.
Robert stepped in front of him.
Detective Ward drew her weapon.
“Everybody back.”
Another click.
Then a tiny red light appeared behind the damaged drywall.
Ward approached carefully.
A device had been hidden inside the wall cavity.
Not a bomb.
A recorder.
Motion activated.
“Someone planted surveillance here,” she said.
Robert felt sick.
“How long?”
“Impossible to know.”
Sam whispered, “They were waiting for me to come back.”
Ward called her team.
Within minutes, the apartment became a crime scene.
The device had cellular capability.
Someone could have received an alert the moment Sam entered the bedroom.
“That means they know we found the box,” Robert said.
“Yes.”
“And the letter.”
“Probably.”
Elizabeth looked toward the hallway.
“Then we don’t have much time.”
The phrase THE RED LEDGER IS HOME became their only lead.
Sam paced slowly through the apartment.
“My mom called this place home.”
Robert watched him.
“Maybe she meant somewhere else.”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“She always said a house is where you sleep. Home is where your stuff knows you.”
Elizabeth smiled sadly.
“That sounds like Nora.”
Sam entered the kitchen.
Cabinets had been replaced.
Appliances changed.
He looked under the sink.
Nothing.
Then he went to the living room.
A radiator still sat beneath the window.
Same old cast iron.
Sam crouched.
“My mom hated this thing.”
“Why?”
“It banged at night.”
He ran his fingers beneath it.
Robert heard a scrape.
Sam pulled loose a magnetic panel.
Behind it was a narrow red notebook wrapped in plastic.
The Red Ledger.
Detective Ward immediately photographed it.
Then, using gloves, opened the first page.
Names.
Dates.
Transaction codes.
Amounts.
The records went back nineteen years.
Thomas Ellington’s initials appeared repeatedly.
T.E.
Julian Mercer’s name appeared later.
J.M.
Shell companies connected to both men received millions.
But another set of initials appeared beside several early transfers.
E.E.
Robert stared.
Edward Ellington.
His father.
“No.”
Ward said nothing.
“My father wasn’t part of this.”
Elizabeth reached toward him.
“Robert, we don’t know what the initials mean.”
“They mean Edward Ellington.”
“Maybe.”
He flipped pages.
Then stopped.
One entry contained a note in Nora’s handwriting.
E.E. DISCOVERED THE ACCOUNT. REFUSED TRANSFER. THOMAS PANICKED.
Robert read it twice.
His knees weakened.
His father had not been stealing.
He had discovered the theft.
Two weeks later, according to the ledger, Edward Ellington died.
Robert looked at Ward.
“Open the investigation into my father.”
“We will.”
“I want his medical records.”
“We’ll request them.”
“He was poisoned.”
“We don’t know that.”
Robert’s voice rose.
“I know Thomas.”
Elizabeth spoke gently.
“No, Robert. We thought we knew Thomas.”
That difference mattered.
At St. Vincent’s Hospital, Graham Pike regained consciousness shortly after noon.
Police guarded the room.
Robert, Elizabeth, Sam, and Detective Ward were permitted inside.
Graham looked terrible.
One eye swollen.
Lip split.
Bandages around his ribs.
When he saw Sam, he began crying.
“Nora’s boy.”
Sam stood close to Robert.
Graham whispered, “You look like her.”
“You knew my mom?”
“Yes.”
“Were you her friend?”
“I tried to be.”
“Why didn’t you help her?”
The question cut through the room.
Graham closed his eyes.
“Because I was a coward.”
Sam said nothing.
“I knew Thomas was dangerous. Nora wanted to go to the police. I told her to wait until we had more proof.”
“You were wrong.”
“Yes.”
“You left after she died.”
“Yes.”
“You left me too.”
Graham began crying harder.
“Yes.”
Robert wanted to defend him.
He did not.
Sam deserved the truth.
Finally, Graham said, “I checked on you from a distance.”
“That isn’t the same.”
“No.”
Sam stepped backward.
Elizabeth reached for him.
He allowed her to take his hand.
Robert turned to Graham.
“What happened to my father?”
Graham stared at him.
“You found the ledger?”
“Yes.”
“Then you know Edward discovered Thomas was moving foundation money into private investments.”
“Did Thomas kill him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t give me that.”
“I don’t know.”
Graham struggled to sit.
“What I know is this: Edward scheduled a board meeting. He planned to expose Thomas.”
“When?”
“The morning after he died.”
Robert felt the room contract.
“What did the medical examiner say?”
“Natural cardiac event.”
“Did Nora investigate?”
“Years later.”
“And?”
“She found a payment to a private nurse who worked for your father during his final month.”
“What payment?”
“Two hundred thousand dollars from a Thomas-controlled company.”
Elizabeth whispered, “Where is the nurse?”
“Dead.”
Robert clenched his teeth.
“Convenient.”
Graham nodded.
“Very.”
“What about Elizabeth’s accident?”
Graham looked toward her.
“That I know.”
Elizabeth’s face tightened.
“Tell me.”
“Nora discovered Mercer had started moving larger amounts. You agreed to meet us privately.”
“I remember pieces.”
“Thomas found out.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“Mercer?”
“Maybe.”
Graham took a slow breath.
“The day before your accident, someone accessed your car through an Ellington maintenance garage. Nora traced the payment.”
“To Julian.”
“Yes.”
Elizabeth closed her eyes.
“And Nora?”
“Three days after the crash, she told Mercer she had copied everything.”
Sam stared at Graham.
“The pills.”
Graham’s face broke.
“Yes.”
“You knew?”
“Afterward.”
“You knew he killed her?”
“I suspected.”
Sam’s voice rose.
“And you did nothing?”
“I was terrified!”
“So was she!”
The boy turned and ran from the hospital room.
Robert followed him.
“Sam!”
He caught up near the elevators.
Sam wiped his face furiously.
“Everybody was scared.”
Robert said nothing.
“My mom was scared. Graham was scared. Mrs. Ellington was scared. Everyone just gets scared and then bad people win.”
Robert crouched.
“You’re right.”
Sam stared at him.
“You’re not going to tell me I don’t understand?”
“No.”
“You’re not going to say adults tried their best?”
“Some did.”
Robert paused.
“Some didn’t.”
Sam looked toward the hospital room.
“What happens now?”
“We make sure being scared doesn’t stop us.”
“Thomas is going to run.”
“Not if we stop him.”
Back inside, Graham revealed Thomas’s likely escape plan.
A yacht.
Thomas had kept a seventy-foot vessel under a holding company at a private marina in Newport.
From there he could sail into international waters and reach a larger ship.
“He won’t use his plane,” Graham said. “Too easy to track.”
Ward immediately contacted federal authorities.
Robert’s phone rang before they could leave.
Thomas.
Ward motioned for him to answer.
Robert put the call on speaker.
“Hello, Uncle.”
Thomas laughed.
“I always hated when you called me that after you turned thirty.”
“Where are you?”
“Close enough.”
“You killed my father.”
Silence.
“You tried to kill Elizabeth.”
“Julian was always too ambitious.”
“That isn’t a denial.”
“You have the ledger.”
“Yes.”
“Then bring it to me.”
“No.”
Thomas’s voice hardened.
“I have something you want.”
Robert looked at Ward.
“What?”
“Julian Mercer.”
Everyone went still.
Robert frowned.
“You have Julian?”
“He became inconvenient.”
“Is he alive?”
“For now.”
“Why should I care?”
“Because Julian made recordings.”
Thomas paused.
“Many recordings.”
Robert looked toward Graham.
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
“Then give them to the police.”
Thomas laughed.
“You still believe this is about justice.”
“What is it about?”
“Survival.”
Robert’s voice turned cold.
“Yours is running out.”
“Bring the Red Ledger to Pier Nine in Newport at eight tonight.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I will kill Julian.”
“That sounds like your problem.”
Thomas chuckled.
“Then perhaps I should mention the second person I have.”
Robert stopped breathing.
Thomas continued.
“Maria Alvarez.”
Robert looked at Elizabeth.
Their house manager.
The woman who had helped Elizabeth through two years of rehabilitation.
Thomas spoke almost pleasantly.
“Eight o’clock, Robert.”
The line went dead.
Sam whispered, “Maria.”
Robert looked toward the clock.
They had six hours.
Then Graham said something that made the room colder.
“Thomas won’t exchange them.”
Robert turned.
May you like
“How do you know?”
“Because Pier Nine is where Edward Ellington died.”
