Chapter 11 - Daniel Price Confesses
Ernesto grabbed Adrian’s phone.
“Mom!”
Victor ended the call.
The screen went black.
The boy stood frozen.
Mateo pulled him close.
Ernesto fought him.
“Let go!”
“Listen to me.”
“He wants me.”
“He wants what he thinks you have.”
“I don’t have anything!”
Mateo looked at the red key card.
Then the watch.
Then Adrian.
“No. He thinks I gave you the ledger code.”
Adrian frowned.
“What code?”
Mateo opened William’s ledger.
Numbers along the margins.
MR-27.
The same code on Sofia’s red card.
Ernesto stared.
“My mom used that.”
Mateo nodded.
“It was our family emergency code.”
“For what?”
“Where the original ledger was hidden.”
Adrian looked at the book on the table.
“This isn’t original?”
“Copy.”
Mateo reached into his shirt and pulled out a small key.
“The original proves signatures, dates, everything.”
“Where?”
“Old pumping station under the riverfront warehouse.”
The hostage location.
Victor knew enough to bring Sofia there.
Maybe he did not know the exact hiding place.
Daniel arrived twenty minutes later.
Mateo nearly shot him.
Adrian stopped it.
“Not yet.”
Daniel looked at Sofia’s frozen video frame.
His face tightened.
“I can get us inside.”
Mateo laughed.
“You got Adrian into the river.”
“Yes.”
“And now you want trust.”
“No.”
Daniel set down a transmitter.
“I want Victor recorded.”
Adrian stared.
“He already confessed enough.”
“Not to murder.”
Daniel played another file.
Victor:
“William should have signed and retired.”
Daniel:
“And Eleanor?”
Victor:
“She made the same mistake.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
Daniel continued.
“I’ve been building a case for months.”
“While helping him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“My son.”
Adrian looked at him.
“After this, you testify.”
“Yes.”
“You give everything.”
“Yes.”
“You do not negotiate through me.”
“Yes.”
Daniel nodded once.
That was the closest thing to surrender Adrian would get.
They built a plan.
Adrian would go visibly.
Ernesto would not.
The boy objected immediately.
“That’s my mom.”
“And you’re nine.”
“She’ll die because of me.”
“No.”
Adrian crouched despite the pain.
“She is in danger because adults chose crimes. Not because you exist.”
Ernesto’s eyes filled.
He looked away.
Mateo placed a hand on his shoulder.
“You stay with Marcus.”
Ernesto nodded.
Too easily.
Adrian noticed.
So did Marcus.
But there was no time.
At dusk, Adrian arrived at the riverfront warehouse with Daniel.
Victor’s men took their phones.
Inside, Sofia sat beneath a hanging light.
Victor stood beside her.
“Where is the boy?”
Adrian smiled.
“Not here.”
Victor’s face emptied.
“Then she dies.”
He reached for his gun.
A metal clang sounded beneath the floor.
Victor froze.
Sofia looked down.
Then whispered:
“Ernesto.”
Adrian’s blood went cold.
May you like
The boy had come anyway.
CUT.
