Chapter 3 - The Archive FireEmily coughed.
The smoke thickened instantly.
Daniel grabbed her hand.
“Down.”
They moved toward the floor.
“Door!”
“Locked.”
Daniel pulled at the handle.
Nothing.
Emily remembered the key.
“Here.”
She handed it to him.
He tried it.
The lock opened.
They stumbled into the hallway.
An alarm had not sounded.
That was what frightened Daniel most.
“This wasn't an accident.”
Emily coughed.
“Obviously.”
He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket.
“Cover your mouth.”
They made it down the stairs.
By the time they reached the lobby, sprinklers finally activated.
Employees screamed.
Security guards ran.
Emily looked toward the upper floors.
“The archive.”
Daniel stared upward.
Everything her mother had left behind was in there.
Then someone shouted.
“Mr. Mercer!”
Daniel turned.
A security officer was pointing toward the glass entrance.
A man was leaving.
Emily recognized him.
Gray suit.
Clean-shaven.
She had seen him before.
At the East Truman location.
He had been standing behind Vanessa the day she was fired.
Daniel saw the same recognition.
“Who is he?”
“His name is Richard Cole.”
Emily stopped.
“Vanessa's uncle?”
Daniel nodded.
“And Gregory Cole's brother.”
Richard disappeared through the doors.
Daniel started after him.
Emily grabbed his sleeve.
“He wants you to chase him.”
Daniel stopped.
She pointed toward the archive.
“Look.”
A second man stood in the stairwell.
Watching them.
He raised his phone.
Then walked away.
Daniel's expression darkened.
“Two people.”
Emily swallowed.
“They weren't trying to burn the files.”
“They were trying to make us think that.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Because the important evidence isn't in the archive anymore.”
Emily suddenly remembered the USB drive.
She pulled it out.
“This?”
“Yes.”
“Then why lock us in?”
“To see if you had it.”
He took a deep breath.
“Your mother never trusted computers.”
Emily looked down.
The USB was old.
Cheap.
Ordinary.
“Maybe it's fake.”
“Maybe.”
“Then what's the real evidence?”
Daniel looked at the key she had used.
“Where did your mother get that?”
“I don't know.”
He turned pale.
“It's not an archive key.”
“What is it?”
“A safe-deposit key.”
Emily's eyes widened.
“Where?”
Daniel took the number from the key.
“First National Bank.”
Twenty minutes later, they were in a private bank vault.
The key opened a box.
Inside was a letter.
A second photograph.
And a cassette tape.
Emily laughed in disbelief.
“A cassette?”
“Your mother was careful.”
They found an old player in the bank office.
The recording began.
Claire Carter's voice filled the room.
“If you're hearing this, Daniel failed to protect me.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Emily looked at him.
Her mother's voice continued.
“I found out Gregory Cole was stealing money.”
A pause.
“But Gregory wasn't stealing it alone.”
Another pause.
“He was paying someone in Redwood.”
The tape crackled.
“I don't know his name.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“But I know his initials.”
A paper unfolded in the recording.
A voice whispered:
“J.R.”
Daniel looked at Emily.
“Jonathan Reed.”
“Who is that?”
“My current chief operating officer.”
Emily's stomach dropped.
The tape continued.
“Jonathan knows about the money.”
“He knows about the fake contracts.”
“And he knows what happened to your father.”
Emily froze.
“My father?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Your father was not dead when your mother disappeared.”
Emily's face drained.
“What are you talking about?”
The tape continued.
“He is alive.”
Emily stopped breathing.
“He has been working under another name.”
The recording ended.
Emily stared at Daniel.
“My father is alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“But you knew?”
“I suspected.”
“You suspected?”
Daniel looked devastated.
“Your mother made me promise not to look for him.”
“Why?”
“She was afraid finding him would expose you.”
Emily stood.
“So both of you spent twenty years deciding what I was allowed to know.”
“Emily—”
“I am done being protected.”
She grabbed the photograph from the box.
It showed Claire Carter standing beside a young man.
Emily recognized the face.
Her father.
But behind them stood another person.
A man in a Redwood Burger uniform.
Emily squinted.
“That's Richard Cole.”
Daniel nodded.
“Which means he knew your parents.”
Emily's fingers tightened around the photograph.
“And if my mother was right…”
“Richard may know where your father is.”
Emily looked toward the bank door.
“Then we find him.”
Daniel nodded.
But before they could leave, a bank employee approached.
“Mr. Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“A message for you.”
Daniel opened the envelope.
His expression changed.
Emily took it.
May you like
There was one sentence.
STOP LOOKING FOR THE CARTERS, OR YOUR COMPANY WILL BE BURIED WITH THEM.
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