Chapter 4 - A DEAD MAN'S EMPIRE
Grant did not speak for several seconds.
Marcus was already tracing the call.
Elena knew it would lead nowhere.
Men who survived by hiding money through international freight routes did not suddenly forget how telephones worked.
"Who was he?" Grant asked.
Elena looked at him.
"I never knew his name."
"But you recognized his voice."
"Yes."
"From Tangier?"
She nodded.
Grant moved closer.
"What did he say then?"
Elena wished he hadn't asked.
Because the memory was one she had spent years burying.
"The night I found the altered manifests, my coordinator disappeared."
"Name?"
"Samir Haddad."
"Disappeared how?"
"He left our warehouse at 7:20 p.m. He was supposed to meet me twenty minutes later."
"He never arrived."
"No."
Elena swallowed.
"At 8:03, my phone rang."
"The same man?"
"Yes."
"What did he say?"
Elena looked away.
"He told me Samir had made the mistake of believing evidence protected people."
Grant's face hardened.
"Was Samir killed?"
"I don't know."
"You never found a body?"
"No."
"Then why did you leave?"
Elena laughed without humor.
"Because the caller knew where my mother lived."
Grant became still.
"He gave me her address."
Elena nodded.
"Then my brother's workplace. Then the license plate on my rental car."
"So you disappeared."
"I resigned the next morning."
"And nobody investigated?"
"They investigated."
"What happened?"
"Nothing."
Grant understood immediately.
"Bought officials."
"Or frightened ones."
Elena zipped her coat.
"I left the country. Changed apartments. Changed jobs. Changed everything I could without legally changing my name."
Grant frowned.
"You kept Carter."
"My mother was sick."
She paused.
"I wanted hospitals to be able to reach me."
Grant did not ask more.
For that, Elena was grateful.
Marcus returned.
"Call bounced through four countries. Last relay was Bucharest."
"Meaning useless," Grant said.
"Basically."
Elena looked at Grant.
"What are you going to do?"
"Find out whether my father is alive."
"How?"
Grant picked up his phone.
"By visiting his grave."
Two hours later, Elena stood beneath cold rain in a private cemetery outside Chicago wondering exactly where her life had gone wrong.
"This is insane," she said.
Grant walked beside her.
"You've mentioned that."
"Normal people wait for daylight before opening graves."
"Normal people don't receive calls from dead men."
Marcus followed with two trusted security officers.
No police.
Elena had objected.
Grant had ignored her.
The Maddox family mausoleum stood at the top of a stone path.
Arthur Maddox's name was carved into black granite.
ARTHUR JAMES MADDOX
1958–2019
Grant stopped in front of it.
For the first time since Elena had met him, he did not look powerful.
He looked like a son.
"My father and I hated each other during the last year of his life," he said.
Elena stayed quiet.
"He wanted me to inherit everything exactly as he'd built it."
"And you didn't?"
"I wanted the legitimate companies separated from the rest."
"The rest."
Grant looked at her.
"You know what that means."
"Yes."
"He called me weak."
"Were you?"
Grant almost smiled.
"No."
"What happened?"
"I started dismantling relationships he considered essential."
"Criminal ones?"
"Some."
"Enemies?"
"Many."
"And then he died."
"Three months later."
Elena looked at the grave.
"Convenient."
"For somebody."
Marcus arranged access with the cemetery caretaker.
Opening the crypt took nearly an hour.
When the stone panel finally moved, nobody spoke.
Grant stood closest.
A sealed coffin rested inside.
Marcus looked at him.
"Last chance."
Grant's voice was quiet.
"Open it."
The coffin was brought out.
The locks were cut.
Elena felt sick.
Grant did not blink.
Marcus lifted the lid.
Empty.
Not almost empty.
Completely empty.
No bones.
No clothing.
Nothing.
Grant stared into the coffin.
Marcus whispered a curse.
Elena stepped backward.
"Grant."
He did not respond.
"Grant."
"My mother identified the body."
Elena froze.
"What?"
"After the crash."
"You didn't?"
"I was in Dubai."
His voice sounded distant.
"She told me the body was badly burned."
Marcus added quietly, "Closed casket."
Grant turned.
"Who handled the funeral?"
Marcus looked uncomfortable.
"Your mother."
Rain struck the mausoleum roof.
Elena remembered the six people authorized to use Arthur's symbol.
Grant.
Raymond.
Marcus.
Victor.
His mother.
Arthur himself.
Five alive.
Maybe six.
"Where is your mother?" Elena asked.
Grant looked at her.
"Lake Forest."
"Does she live alone?"
"Staff. Security."
"Whose security?"
The question landed.
Grant turned to Marcus.
Marcus already had his phone out.
"Calling now."
Nobody answered.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Grant walked toward the cars.
"Move."
They drove fast.
Too fast.
Elena sat in the back of Grant's SUV while Chicago lights blurred through rain.
"Tell me about your mother."
Grant kept his eyes ahead.
"Margaret Maddox."
"That wasn't what I meant."
"What do you want?"
"Would she help your father disappear?"
"No."
"You answered quickly."
"Because she hated him."
"So did you."
Grant looked at her.
"Point taken."
"Why did she hate him?"
Grant's voice hardened.
"My father considered people property."
Elena waited.
"My mother learned eventually that marriage didn't exempt her."
He said nothing else.
She did not push.
The estate in Lake Forest sat behind iron gates and acres of dark trees.
The gates were open.
Grant noticed immediately.
"They're never open."
Marcus drew his weapon.
They entered.
The security booth was empty.
Front door unlocked.
Inside, lights burned throughout the house.
"Mama?" Grant called.
No answer.
Elena glanced at him.
The mafia boss had just called someone Mama.
Under different circumstances, she might have smiled.
Not now.
They found Margaret Maddox in the library.
Alive.
Sitting beside the fireplace.
A silver-haired woman in a cream sweater, holding a glass of bourbon.
She looked at Grant.
"You took your time."
Grant stopped.
"You're okay."
"Obviously."
"Your security isn't answering."
"I sent them away."
"Why?"
Margaret looked at Elena.
"So this is Elena Carter."
Elena's blood chilled.
Grant's voice changed.
"How do you know her?"
Margaret took a slow sip.
"Because your father has been looking for her for three years."
Grant went still.
"You knew."
"Yes."
"He's alive."
"Yes."
The word struck harder than shouting.
Grant crossed the room.
"You buried an empty coffin."
"I buried your father's name."
"You lied to me."
"I saved your life."
Grant laughed once.
It contained no amusement.
"Explain."
Margaret put down the glass.
"Arthur discovered that you intended to dismantle his international network. He decided you were no longer his heir."
Grant's jaw tightened.
"He was going to kill me?"
"No."
She looked at him sadly.
"Worse."
Elena felt the room change.
"What does worse mean?" she asked.
Margaret answered.
"He was going to make Grant responsible for everything."
Silence.
"Every shell company. Every illegal shipment. Every missing dollar. Every crime committed through Maddox Global."
Grant stared.
"He planned to frame me."
"Yes."
"So you helped him fake his death?"
"I helped him believe he had."
Grant frowned.
Margaret stood.
"I discovered his plan. Raymond and I sabotaged it. We convinced Arthur that law enforcement had uncovered enough evidence to imprison him. He disappeared voluntarily."
"Uncle Raymond knew?"
"Yes."
"Where is he?"
Margaret's face changed.
"That is the problem."
Grant stepped closer.
"What problem?"
"Raymond stopped answering me six months ago."
Elena remembered the acquisition.
"When negotiations for Northstar began?"
Margaret looked impressed.
"Almost exactly."
Grant turned toward Elena.
"The acquisition wasn't about warehouses."
"No," Elena said.
"It was about reconnecting the old routes."
Margaret nodded.
"Arthur built pieces of his network into legitimate companies. Northstar is one of the last."
Grant stared into the fire.
"Victor was steering me into buying it."
"Yes."
"So my father gets access to Maddox Global again."
"Not just access."
Margaret looked at Elena.
"The contract makes Grant personally vulnerable to liabilities hidden inside Northstar."
Grant's expression darkened.
"How vulnerable?"
"Enough to destroy the company."
"Financially?"
Margaret shook her head.
"Criminally."
Elena felt cold.
Margaret walked to an old desk and unlocked a drawer.
Inside was a small black ledger.
She placed it before Grant.
"Your father kept records."
Grant opened it.
Numbers.
Dates.
Initials.
Ports.
Elena leaned closer.
Then she saw a name.
ASTERION.
Beside it:
48,000,000.
And beneath that:
E.C. — UNRESOLVED.
Grant looked at Elena.
Margaret spoke softly.
"Arthur didn't want you dead, Elena."
"Then what did he want?"
"The encryption key."
Elena frowned.
"What encryption key?"
Margaret stared at her.
"The one Samir Haddad gave you."
Elena stepped back.
"He never gave me anything."
Margaret's face lost color.
"Then God help us."
"Why?"
"Because Arthur believes he did."
A crash sounded upstairs.
Marcus drew his weapon.
Everyone froze.
Another sound.
A door opening.
Grant moved in front of Elena.
Marcus pointed toward the hallway.
Then a man's voice came through the house speakers.
"Margaret."
She turned white.
Grant looked upward.
The voice continued.
"You always were terrible at keeping family secrets."
Arthur Maddox.
May you like
Margaret whispered:
"He's inside the house."
