Chapter 8 - The Second Copy.
Claire slammed the brakes just as the gray sedan moved toward her lane.
The sedan shot ahead and clipped the front bumper of a delivery truck.
Horn blasts filled the highway.
Claire took the next exit and drove through a maze of side streets until she lost sight of the car.
She did not go to Elena Brooks.
Instead, she called Ortiz.
The detective cursed when Claire told her what Adrian had said.
"Brooks is not compromised."
"How sure are you?"
Ortiz went silent.
That was not enough.
Mason suggested they stop thinking like people seeking protection.
"Evelyn controls doors," he said.
"So we stop using doors she owns."
He led them to an old print shop that belonged to his brother.
There was no security system, no staff, and no connection to Vale Holdings.
They copied every file from the memory card onto six encrypted drives.
Claire mailed two to national investigative reporters under false return addresses.
Ortiz arranged for one to reach a federal magistrate outside the district.
Mason kept one.
Claire hid one.
The sixth copy stayed in the print shop safe.
For the first time since the balcony, Claire felt as though the evidence might outlive her.
Then they opened the remaining folders.
The MERCER folder contained invoices disguised as emergency consulting fees.
Several payments matched dates of suspicious fires, witness disappearances, and sealed legal settlements.
The THOMAS BENNETT folder contained scans of her father's handwritten notes.
One sentence was underlined three times.
EVELYN NEVER ACTS WITHOUT A FALL GUY.
Claire read it again.
"Who was supposed to take the blame for my father's death?"
Mason's expression darkened.
"Adrian's father, Richard Vale."
Claire knew Richard had died two years before she met Adrian.
Publicly, he had suffered a heart attack.
Privately, the family never discussed him.
Mason pulled an old photograph from his wallet.
It showed Richard Vale and Thomas Bennett standing together outside a courthouse.
They were smiling.
"They were working together," Claire said.
Mason nodded.
"Richard wanted to expose Evelyn."
"Then my father died."
"And six months later, Richard died too."
Claire felt sick.
Ortiz paced across the print shop.
"If this is real, we are looking at conspiracy, fraud, obstruction, and possibly multiple murders."
A printer in the corner suddenly activated.
All three of them froze.
The machine was not connected to a computer.
One page slid out.
A photograph filled the paper.
It showed Claire entering the print shop twenty minutes earlier.
Beneath it were five words.
WE SEE EVERY COPY YOU MAKE.
Mason ripped the power cable from the wall.
Another page came out anyway, pushed by the printer's internal battery.
This one showed a little girl leaving an elementary school.
Claire recognized her instantly.
Emma Ortiz.
The detective's nine-year-old daughter.
Ortiz went white.
A message was printed beneath the photograph.
BURN THE CARD OR SHE DISAPPEARS.
Ortiz reached for her phone.
Claire grabbed her wrist.
"If they wanted Emma already, they wouldn't warn us."
Ortiz looked ready to break Claire's hand.
"That's my daughter."
"And that's exactly why they chose her."
Mason checked the time stamp on the photograph.
"This picture was taken yesterday."
Ortiz stared at him.
Her daughter was supposed to be at her father's house three hundred miles away yesterday.
The threat was terrifying.
But it was also impossible.
Claire looked at the grainy background of the image.
Then she saw the reflection in the school window.
May you like
A man wearing a Vale security badge was holding the camera.
And beside him stood Adrian.
