Chapter 10 - The Empty Study
Police cars filled my driveway.
The back door had been forced.
Drawers were dumped.
Closets opened.
Jewelry untouched.
Television untouched.
Cash untouched.
Robert’s study had been destroyed.
Books ripped from shelves.
Desk drawers broken.
The wall safe pried open.
The detective looked at me.
“Anything missing?”
I stared at the empty shelf above Robert’s desk.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“A red ledger.”
I had seen it every month for twenty years.
Robert used to write in it at the kitchen table.
I assumed it contained mileage and business notes.
Dana arrived fifteen minutes later.
When I told her, she went still.
“That ledger was never supposed to be at the house.”
“What was in it?”
“Cash movements.”
“Legal ones?”
“Yes.”
“Then why steal it?”
“Because it also documented who authorized them.”
Lucas stood nearby.
His face changed.
“Northstar.”
Dana looked at him.
“What?”
Lucas rubbed both hands over his face.
“Dad kept a manual log of every payment Northstar requested during negotiations.”
“Kickbacks?” I asked.
“Consulting fees. Referral fees. ‘Transition bonuses.’”
Dana’s eyes narrowed.
“To whom?”
Lucas looked toward the driveway.
“To Mark.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
The detective asked, “Who knew about this ledger?”
I answered, “My husband.”
Lucas said, “Me.”
Dana said, “And probably Mark.”
Three heads turned.
My phone buzzed.
A text message from an unknown number.
STOP DIGGING OR THE NEXT THING YOU LOSE WON’T BE PAPER.
I showed Dana.
The detective took my phone.
“Do you have somewhere else to stay tonight?”
“Yes.”
I lied.
I had no intention of leaving.
That night I sat in Robert’s study alone.
The room smelled like dust and broken wood.
At 1:14 a.m., I remembered something stupid.
Robert never trusted one copy of anything.
I pulled his old desk lamp toward me.
Under the felt base was a small brass key.
I knew exactly what it opened.
The glove compartment of the blue Ford.
At two in the morning, I drove back to B17.
Inside the glove compartment was a bank envelope.
CINCINNATI FEDERAL.
And beneath it, a photograph.
Robert shaking hands with Calvin Reese.
Northstar’s attorney.
May you like
On the back, Robert had written:
He thinks I don’t know he works for both sides.
