Chapter 16 - The Missing Ledger
Panic moved faster than exhaustion.
Daniel searched the marina office, the dock, the federal vehicles. The ledger was gone.
One agent reviewed body-camera footage.
A woman in an EMT jacket had walked past the evidence case during the confusion around Jonathan’s ambulance.
Blond hair tucked beneath a cap.
Jenna.
“She planned this,” Daniel said.
Maria shook her head. “She came for the ledger, not Lily.”
“Then why try to get Lily from the hospital?”
“To make us think Lily was the target.”
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
Jenna called again.
“I have what Anna died for,” she said.
Daniel fought to keep his voice steady. “What are you going to do with it?”
“Finish what she started.”
“The FBI can do that.”
“The FBI had three years to notice city contracts being bought with Mercer money.”
“You don’t know who is clean.”
“Exactly.”
Maria leaned toward the phone. “Then give copies to everyone. News stations. Federal prosecutors. Newspapers. Don’t keep the only ledger in your hands.”
Jenna was silent.
“That’s what Anna would do,” Maria added.
A long pause.
Finally Jenna said, “Maybe that’s why she trusted you.”
Maria frowned. “She never knew me.”
“Yes, she did.”
The call ended.
Maria stared at the phone.
Daniel looked at her. “You worked for us after Anna died.”
“Yes.”
“Did you ever meet her before?”
“No.”
At least, Maria thought she hadn’t.
Then she remembered a rainy afternoon four years earlier, when she worked temporary cleaning jobs at a downtown law office. A tired woman had stayed late with a little girl sleeping on a couch. Maria had brought the woman coffee and helped carry the child to her car.
The woman had asked Maria one strange question:
“If you saw someone hurting a child, even a powerful person, would you speak up?”
Maria had answered without thinking.
“Of course.”
Anna.
It had been Anna.
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
A video message from Jenna appeared.
Jenna stood in a parking garage, holding the ledger.
May you like
“If you’re watching this,” she said, “someone found me.”
Behind her, a shadow stepped into frame.
