Chapter 3 - THE RED LEDGER
Lena stared at the photograph until the three men blurred.
Her father looked younger than she remembered him.
Not because the picture was old.
Because he was smiling.
Daniel Mercer stood beside Adrian Vale with one hand on the red ledger while Everett gripped the other end.
It didn’t look like three men fighting.
It looked like three men passing something between them.
“That proves nothing,” Lena said.
Silas leaned against his desk.
“No.”
“You just accused your uncle of hunting something my father supposedly stole.”
“I said I think he was.”
“That picture could mean anything.”
“Yes.”
His agreement irritated her more than an argument would have.
Lena stood.
“My father was an electrician.”
“That’s what his employment file says.”
“It’s what he was.”
Silas watched her.
“Then why did an electrician have private access to Adrian Vale?”
She had no answer.
The office door opened.
Jonas entered without knocking.
Normally that alone would have told Lena something was wrong.
Tonight, everything was wrong.
“Carver wants a deal.”
Silas’s expression hardened.
“He isn’t in a position to negotiate.”
“He says he’ll explain the Mercer ledger if Lena hears it.”
Lena stepped forward.
“Take me to him.”
“No,” Silas said.
Her head snapped toward him.
He corrected himself.
“Not yet.”
“That sounded exactly like no.”
“Because he’s trying to control the room.”
“So are you.”
Jonas looked between them.
Silas exhaled once.
“Five minutes.”
They found Wade in a conference room two floors below.
His jacket was gone.
One cheek was bruised from his struggle with security.
His wrists were cuffed to the steel ring beneath the table.
He smiled when Lena entered.
“Daniel’s girl.”
“My name is Lena.”
“I know.”
“You knew my father?”
Wade shook his head.
“Not personally. I was twenty when Warehouse Nine burned.”
“Then stop talking like you know anything about him.”
“I know what men said afterward.”
“Men like Everett?”
Wade glanced toward the mirrored wall.
That was answer enough.
Silas sat across from him.
“What did Daniel Mercer steal?”
Wade’s eyes moved to Lena.
“The Meridian book.”
“The red ledger?” she asked.
His eyebrows lifted.
“So you found the picture.”
Silas’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“How did you know about the picture?”
Wade smiled.
“Because Price knew.”
Owen.
The man poisoned at dinner.
Lena leaned forward.
“What did Owen know?”
“Payroll sees ghosts nobody else notices.”
“Meaning?”
“Workers who don’t exist. Trucks that arrive empty and leave heavy. Containers paid to move on nights when the docks were officially closed.”
Jonas spoke from the wall.
“Smuggling.”
Wade laughed.
“Call it whatever helps you sleep.”
Silas’s jaw tightened.
“Fourteen years ago?”
“And now.”
That changed the room.
Lena looked at him.
“What does that have to do with my father?”
Wade lowered his voice.
“Daniel found the old numbers.”
“Numbers for what?”
“Container routes. Payoffs. Names.”
“And stole the ledger?”
“That’s the story.”
“Whose story?”
Wade looked straight at Silas.
“His uncle’s.”
Silas gave nothing away.
Lena continued.
“What happened to the ledger?”
“If anyone knew, we wouldn’t be sitting here.”
“Then why try to poison me?”
Wade’s expression shifted.
“I didn’t.”
Jonas pushed off the wall.
“The phone in your sleeve said otherwise.”
“I was told to send that message.”
“By whom?”
Wade shook his head.
“No name.”
Lena almost laughed.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I expect you to believe I’m scared.”
For the first time, Wade looked exactly that.
Not slick.
Not mocking.
Afraid.
He looked at Silas.
“Your father tried to clean up something that had been running through Meridian for years. Daniel helped him. When Daniel died, Adrian kept digging.”
“And then Adrian was murdered,” Lena said.
Wade nodded.
Silas’s voice was flat.
“Who killed him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wrong answer.”
“It’s the only one I have.”
Wade leaned forward as far as the cuffs allowed.
“But I know this. The red ledger wasn’t in Warehouse Nine when it burned.”
Lena’s heart kicked.
“How?”
“Because somebody saw Daniel leave with it.”
“My father died inside.”
“That’s what the report says.”
Silas’s gaze sharpened.
“Careful.”
Wade looked at Lena.
“He went back in.”
The words struck harder than any accusation.
Lena remembered the official report.
Electrical fault.
Rapid fire.
Daniel Mercer found near the north service corridor.
She had always imagined him trapped while trying to escape.
“Why?”
Wade shrugged.
“That’s the question Everett spent fourteen years asking.”
Jonas’s phone buzzed.
He checked it.
“Hospital.”
Everyone went still.
“Owen Price is conscious.”
Silas rose.
Wade suddenly pulled against the cuffs.
“Ask him why he changed the seating list.”
Lena turned.
“What?”
Wade smiled without humor.
“Your boss didn’t put you at that table first.”
Silas stared at him.
“I changed Lena’s seat this afternoon.”
“Exactly.”
Wade’s eyes gleamed.
“After Price printed the original arrangement.”
Jonas frowned.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying somebody knew Vale would move her.”
Silas’s face changed.
Only three people had known.
Silas.
Jonas.
And—
Lena understood.
“Everett.”
Jonas shook his head.
“Mr. Vale didn’t know.”
A voice came from the doorway.
“Yes, he did.”
Celeste Vale stood there.
Her face was pale.
She had removed her diamonds.
Without them she looked younger.
And much more frightened.
Silas rose.
“How did you get past security?”
“By being a Vale.”
She closed the door behind her.
Grant was not with her.
Celeste looked at Lena.
“I wrote the note.”
Silence.
Lena’s fingers curled around the back of a chair.
“You?”
“I saw Wade near your place before dinner.”
“You knew Silas was moving me?”
Celeste swallowed.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because Grant knew.”
Silas’s eyes went cold.
Celeste continued quickly.
“He heard Everett discussing it with Owen that afternoon.”
Lena stared.
“That doesn’t make sense. Silas decided.”
“I know.”
Everyone looked at Silas.
Celeste pulled something from her evening bag.
A gold bracelet.
She unfastened one charm.
Inside was a tiny flat key.
“Grant keeps copies of things he shouldn’t.”
Silas took the key.
“What does this open?”
“Owen’s private payroll cabinet.”
Jonas stared at her.
“You stole it from your husband?”
Celeste’s mouth tightened.
“I borrowed it because I wanted to know why Grant has been waking up terrified for six months.”
That was not the answer Lena expected.
Celeste looked toward Wade.
“My husband is involved in something. But he isn’t running it.”
Wade said nothing.
Celeste turned back to Lena.
“I warned you because I thought Wade had poisoned your wine.”
“You were wrong.”
“I know.”
“Then why did he care whether I drank?”
Celeste’s eyes filled with shame.
“Because the wine wasn’t supposed to kill you.”
Silas took one step toward her.
“What was it supposed to do?”
“Make her sick. Confused. Easy to remove from the room.”
Lena’s skin went cold.
“For what?”
Celeste looked at the pocket watch still clenched in Lena’s hand.
“To search her apartment.”
Jonas immediately reached for his phone.
But Celeste shook her head.
“They won’t find the ledger there.”
Lena stared at her.
“How would you know?”
“Because Daniel Mercer never gave it to you.”
Celeste reached into her purse again.
This time she removed an old baggage claim ticket.
The paper was yellow, almost brown.
Across the top were faded letters.
GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL
A number had been stamped underneath.
9174.
The same four numbers carved inside her father’s watch.
Celeste placed the ticket on the table.
“My husband found this hidden in Everett’s desk three weeks ago.”
Lena could barely speak.
“What was attached to it?”
Celeste looked at Silas.
“A handwritten note from Adrian Vale.”
“What did it say?”
May you like
Celeste’s answer was almost a whisper.
“If Daniel is dead, give this to his wife.”
