Chapter 13 - The Name Above Vale
The room went silent.
Harrison Vale had been appointed seventeen years earlier.
The political world around that appointment was old, tangled, and full of dead careers.
Brooks shut down the speculation immediately.
“We follow evidence. Not hints from a fugitive sheriff.”
Elena agreed.
“Mercer wants us chasing shadows.”
Price stared at the ledger.
“Maybe.”
He flipped backward.
One set of initials appeared repeatedly.
R.C.
Payments larger than anyone else’s.
No full name.
No account number.
Just R.C.
Brooks photographed every page.
Then Harrison’s attorney called.
His client wanted to talk.
This time, Harrison looked different.
No expensive suit.
No polished courtroom posture.
Orange jumpsuit.
Unshaven face.
For the first time in Elena’s life, he looked ordinary.
And he hated it.
“You wanted me?” Elena asked through the glass.
Harrison picked up the phone.
“My mother will sacrifice everyone.”
“You included.”
“Yes.”
“You hit me with a briefcase.”
“I know.”
“You watched me fall.”
His eyes lowered.
“I know.”
“And when you saw me alive, you let Mercer send somebody to kill me.”
“I never ordered the hospital attack.”
“You knew.”
He didn’t answer.
“That’s a yes.”
Harrison swallowed.
“I’m not asking forgiveness.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking protection.”
Elena laughed.
“For you?”
“For my daughter.”
That stopped her.
Harrison had one child.
Claire Vale, thirty-two, a public-school teacher in Virginia.
“She knows nothing,” he said.
“Then why is she in danger?”
“Because my mother keeps leverage on everyone.”
“What does that have to do with Mercer?”
“Mercer isn’t running from you.”
He looked Elena directly in the eye.
“He’s going to Claire.”
Elena grabbed the desk.
“Why?”
“She has something without knowing she has it.”
“What?”
“A key.”
“To what?”
“A deposit box.”
“And inside?”
Harrison’s face tightened.
“The original contracts.”
Not notes.
Not ledger entries.
Signed agreements.
Proof.
“Who signed them?”
Harrison whispered, “Everyone.”
Price and Brooks raced toward Claire’s home.
Elena went despite every argument against it.
They arrived to find the front door broken.
Inside, furniture was overturned.
“Claire!” Harrison had given them her number, but no one answered.
Price found a photo frame smashed in the hallway.
Brooks saw an empty hook beside the door.
“Car keys are gone.”
Elena noticed a message written on the kitchen counter.
Not in ink.
In blood.
BRING THE LEDGER.
Sofia whispered, “Whose blood?”
Then a noise came from upstairs.
Price raised his weapon.
“Police! Show yourself!”
A woman stumbled onto the landing.
Claire.
Her forehead was bleeding.
“Elena?” she whispered.
Elena rushed toward her.
“Where’s Mercer?”
Claire began crying.
“He took my son.”
Everyone froze.
Claire had a six-year-old boy.
She held up a trembling hand.
In it was a tiny brass key.
“He said if I don’t bring this to the old Vale courthouse by midnight…”
May you like
Her voice broke.
“He’ll kill my child.”
