Chapter 6 - THE SECRET BEHIND HIS FATHER’S DEATH
Then all the lights died.
The study vanished into darkness.
Audrey gasped.
Nicholas found her wrist and immediately released it.
“I’m beside you.”
Emergency lights flickered red.
The building alarm began pulsing.
Daniel shouted from the hall.
“Generator’s been cut!”
Graham drove his shoulder into one investigator and ran.
Nicholas moved toward the door.
Then Audrey’s phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
Eli.
She answered.
“Eli?”
A man’s voice replied.
“Not Eli.”
Audrey’s face went white.
Nicholas took the phone.
“Who is this?”
“Everett Shaw.”
Nicholas felt fourteen years collapse into one second.
Shaw continued.
“Your uncle disappointed me.”
Nicholas looked at Henry.
Henry looked terrified.
“I have the boy.”
Audrey made a broken sound.
Nicholas’s hand tightened around the phone.
“You touch him—”
“Bring me the black envelope and Henry’s drive.”
“Where?”
“Old Rainer warehouse on River Street. Twenty minutes.”
The call ended.
Audrey was already moving.
Nicholas stopped her.
“No.”
“That’s my brother!”
“I know.”
“I’m going.”
“So am I.”
Henry laughed nervously.
“Shaw will kill both of you.”
Nicholas turned.
“Then help me.”
Henry stared.
“You want my help?”
“You created this.”
Nicholas stepped closer.
“Do one decent thing before the night ends.”
Henry looked suddenly old.
Not weak.
Not innocent.
Simply old.
His hand went into his coat.
Daniel reached for him.
Henry slowly produced the flash drive.
“This contains recordings.”
Nicholas took it.
“What recordings?”
“My brother discovered I was moving money through Shaw’s companies.”
Nicholas’s voice became quiet.
“What happened?”
Henry looked at the floor.
“He confronted me.”
“And?”
“I told Shaw.”
Audrey watched Nicholas.
Henry continued.
“Shaw arranged the meeting where your father was killed.”
“You knew.”
“I didn’t know he planned to kill him.”
“But you sent him there.”
Henry closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Nicholas did not move.
Audrey expected rage.
Instead she saw something worse.
Grief returning to a man who had already buried it once.
Henry whispered, “I spent fourteen years trying to convince myself that not knowing Shaw would kill him meant I wasn’t responsible.”
Nicholas’s eyes were wet now.
He seemed almost angry about it.
“Were you?”
Henry looked at him.
“No.”
Nicholas nodded once.
Then handed the drive to Daniel.
“Get this to Simon.”
Henry blinked.
“You’re not listening to it?”
“My father will still be dead in an hour.”
Nicholas looked at Audrey.
May you like
“Eli may not be.”
They left.
