Chapter 8 - The Blue Ledger
The storage unit smelled of dust, oil, and old cardboard.
Emily stood beneath a flickering fluorescent light.
Noah held their mother’s pendant in one hand.
Alexander studied the numbers written on the blue paper.
“They look like bank transfers,” he said.
Mara shook her head.
“They are grave coordinates.”
Noah stared at her.
“How can numbers be grave coordinates?”
“The first six identify a cemetery section.”
“The rest identify a plot.”
Emily read the final sentence again.
“The man who never died.”
Alexander looked toward Luca.
“Marco Moretti.”
Emily turned.
“Your father?”
“His coffin was sealed.”
“Why?”
“Publicly, because of facial injuries after an accident.”
“Privately?”
Alexander’s eyes darkened.
“My uncle insisted.”
Mara opened a box marked NORA’S WINTER CLOTHES.
Inside were no clothes.
There were hospital records.
Medication lists.
Photographs of Eleanor asleep in a rehabilitation clinic.
A copy of Dr. Cole’s employment contract.
Several bank statements were clipped together.
Payments from the Harrington Foundation had been sent to a company named Crown Consulting.
Crown Consulting transferred the money to Dr. Cole.
Another set of payments went to Detective Mason Creed.
Noah found a blue notebook beneath the statements.
Most of its pages had been torn out.
Five remained.
Each page contained initials, dates, and amounts.
V.H.
A.C.
M.C.
L.P.
R.M.
Emily looked at Alexander.
“Renato Moretti.”
Alexander’s expression remained unreadable.
Mara pointed toward L.P.
“Lucian Price.”
Luca looked toward the entrance.
“Someone is outside.”
The lights shut off.
Darkness swallowed the storage unit.
Noah’s breathing stopped.
Emily reached for him.
Alexander pulled her behind a concrete support.
A metallic click sounded near the entrance.
Luca shouted.
“Down!”
Gunfire shattered the lock.
Sparks tore through the darkness.
Alexander pushed Emily to the floor.
Luca returned fire toward the doorway.
A vehicle engine roared outside.
The metal door began closing.
“They are sealing us in,” Mara said.
Smoke entered through the ventilation shaft.
Noah coughed.
Emily smelled gasoline.
“They are going to burn the building.”
Alexander took out his phone.
“No signal.”
Luca ran toward the closing door.
He jammed a steel shelf beneath it.
The motor groaned.
The door stopped three feet above the floor.
Flames appeared at the end of the corridor.
“Move!” Luca ordered.
Noah crawled beneath the door.
Mara followed.
Emily shoved the blue notebook inside her jacket.
Alexander pushed her toward the opening.
“You first.”
“What about you?”
“Go.”
She crawled outside.
Luca slid beneath the gap.
Alexander followed as the shelf collapsed.
The door slammed behind him.
Flames raced along the corridor.
They ran toward the loading exit.
The handle would not move.
“It is chained,” Mara said.
Luca struck the glass with a metal extinguisher.
It cracked.
He struck it again.
Smoke burned Emily’s eyes.
Noah wrapped his shirt around his mouth.
Alexander kicked the weakened glass.
It shattered outward.
They climbed into the alley.
Fire engines arrived four minutes later.
By then, half the building was burning.
Luca examined the exterior cameras.
“The recordings were disabled from inside.”
“Who had access?” Alexander asked.
“The storage manager.”
“Where is he?”
“Missing.”
Emily removed the notebook from her jacket.
The edges were scorched.
The pages remained readable.
Mara pointed toward one payment.
“This was made two days before Marco Moretti died.”
Alexander looked at the initials.
A.C.
Adrian Cole.
Emily turned the page.
A handwritten note filled the bottom margin.
M.M. WILL NOT SIGN.
R.M. AUTHORIZED ALTERNATIVE.
Mara exhaled slowly.
“Your father refused something.”
Alexander stared at the note.
“Three weeks before he died, Marco changed his will.”
“Renato challenged it.”
“Lucian handled the dispute.”
Emily pointed toward the payment.
“And Dr. Cole treated him.”
Luca approached carrying a small ring.
“I found this outside the loading door.”
The ring bore the Moretti family crest.
Alexander looked toward Luca’s hand.
“Every senior security officer receives one.”
Luca nodded.
“There are only six.”
“Who owns them?”
“Me.”
“Two retired officers.”
“Your uncle’s security director.”
“Lucian Price.”
“And you.”
Emily stared at Luca.
He met her gaze.
“I did not set the fire.”
Alexander took the ring.
The inside had been scratched.
A crown symbol appeared beneath the Moretti crest.
Alexander closed his hand around it.
Mara’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her face immediately changed.
“What happened?” Emily asked.
Mara lowered the phone.
“Lucian Price is at the estate.”
“Why is that strange?” Noah asked.
Mara looked at Alexander.
“Because a city camera recorded him entering this building eleven minutes before the fire started.”
They returned to the Moretti estate before sunrise.
Lucian’s car stood near the entrance.
Alexander entered through the east hall.
Emily followed despite Luca’s warning.
Smoke drifted beneath the door of Marco Moretti’s old study.
Alexander kicked it open.
Lucian stood beside the fireplace.
Documents burned inside the grate.
He turned toward them.
A Moretti security ring gleamed on his hand.
Alexander closed the door.
“What are you burning?”
Lucian looked at Emily.
Then at the blue notebook beneath her arm.
His face lost all color.
“You found the ledger.”
Emily stepped forward.
“You tried to destroy it.”
Lucian shook his head.
“No.”
Alexander seized the front of his jacket.
“Then explain.”
Lucian’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“The ledger is not evidence against your uncle.”
“It is a list of people Renato owns.”
May you like
He looked toward the burning papers.
“And one of them has been inside this house every day for four years.”
