Chapter 7 - Locker 214
Union Station no longer had public lockers.
But it still had storage rooms.
The old locker bank had been sealed behind a maintenance wall during renovations.
At 8:15 that morning, a station manager led Sarah, Julian and Detective Reyes into a narrow basement corridor.
“Most of these haven’t been opened in years.”
He stopped before a steel door.
Inside were dozens of rusted lockers.
Sarah found 214.
It had two keyholes.
One brass.
One silver.
Her hands shook as she inserted both keys.
Nothing happened.
Julian examined the lock.
“Turn them together.”
Sarah nodded.
He took the silver key.
She held the brass one.
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
They turned.
Click.
The locker opened.
Inside sat a small leather case.
Sarah touched it.
“Ethan’s.”
She recognized the initials.
E.S.
Reyes opened the case carefully.
Inside were three objects.
A flash drive.
A handwritten ledger.
And an old digital voice recorder.
Julian stared at the recorder.
“That’s what Raymond meant.”
Reyes pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then Ethan’s voice.
“October ninth. Eleven fourteen p.m.”
Sarah pressed both hands against her mouth.
Seven years disappeared.
He sounded alive.
Tired.
Angry.
“I confronted my mother tonight.”
Another voice appeared.
Victoria.
“You’re destroying this family over a waitress.”
Sarah’s eyes filled.
Ethan answered.
“She is my wife.”
“She trapped you.”
“She gave me Leo.”
“She gave you weakness.”
Sarah shut her eyes.
The recording continued.
Ethan accused Victoria of stealing from Leo’s trust.
Victoria denied it.
He mentioned fourteen million dollars moved through Mercer Consulting.
Then Victoria’s voice became quiet.
“If you expose me, the company collapses.”
“Then it collapses.”
“And Leo?”
“He’ll have Sarah.”
“You would hand our family to that woman?”
“I already did.”
A chair scraped.
Then Ethan said,
“I changed the trust.”
Victoria inhaled sharply.
“What did you do?”
“If anything happens to me, Sarah gets voting control.”
Julian looked at Sarah.
She stared at him.
Voting control?
Of Sterling Holdings?
The recording continued.
Victoria sounded terrified now.
“You can’t do that.”
“I already did.”
“Ethan, listen to me.”
“No.”
“You have no idea what your father built.”
“I know exactly what he built.”
Then another voice entered.
Male.
“You’re making a mistake.”
Sarah looked at Julian.
Julian had gone completely still.
Because the voice belonged to him.
On the recording, Ethan said,
“Get out, Julian.”
Sarah slowly stepped away from the real Julian.
He whispered,
“Sarah.”
The recording continued.
Julian’s younger voice sounded furious.
“If you release those files, Vance Holdings goes down with Sterling.”
“I don’t care.”
“I have six thousand employees.”
“And my mother stole from my son.”
“Give me forty-eight hours.”
“I gave you three months.”
A door slammed.
The recording ended.
Sarah stared at Julian.
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“You knew.”
“Not everything.”
“You lied to me.”
“I didn’t lie.”
“You stood in my husband’s bedroom days before he died and threatened him.”
“I was trying to stop him from releasing incomplete financial records.”
“You never told the police.”
Julian’s face tightened.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I left.”
“How convenient.”
Reyes stepped between them.
“Mr. Vance, from this point forward, you need an attorney.”
Julian ignored her.
He looked only at Sarah.
“There is more on that recorder.”
Sarah reached for it.
Julian caught her wrist gently.
“Before you listen, you need to know one thing.”
She pulled away.
“What?”
“I was not the last person who saw Ethan alive.”
Reyes narrowed her eyes.
“Who was?”
Julian answered.
May you like
“Victoria.”
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