By three in the morning, Carter Meridian headquarters was surrounded by police vehicles, fire trucks, news vans, and employees who had received emergency alerts.
The explosion had been small.
Targeted.
One section of the twenty-second floor.
Emily stood across the street watching smoke drift from a broken window.
Michael had been treated for a cut above his eyebrow.
Lauren sat inside a company SUV with a blanket around her shoulders.
David and Robert were in custody.
Evelyn had gone to the hospital for evaluation.
Jonathan and Daniel had gone with her.
Everything should have been stabilizing.
Instead, one sentence kept repeating in Emily's mind.
Not what. Who.
The police commissioner personally escorted Emily inside after firefighters cleared the lower floors.
“You don't have to see this.”
“Yes, I do.”
The elevator stopped at twenty-one.
They took the stairs.
The smell of smoke became stronger.
On twenty-two, sprinklers had soaked the carpet.
Ceiling panels hung loose.
The archive corridor was blackened near the end.
Emily approached slowly.
Her private records room had been destroyed.
Firefighters had already extinguished the flames.
A body lay beneath a thermal sheet.
Emily stopped.
“Who is it?”
The detective beside her hesitated.
“We found identification.”
“Who?”
“Michael Harris.”
Emily stared at him.
“What?”
He handed her a scorched wallet inside an evidence sleeve.
Michael's driver's license.
Emily turned.
Michael was standing fifteen feet behind her.
Alive.
Everyone looked at him.
Michael approached carefully.
“That isn't my wallet.”
The detective's expression hardened.
“Your photograph. Your credentials.”
“Those could be copied.”
Emily looked at Michael.
“Who has access to your identification?”
“No one.”
“Think.”
Michael rubbed his face.
“My office was broken into six weeks ago.”
“You told me nothing was stolen.”
“We thought nothing was.”
The detective looked toward the body.
“Dental identification will take time.”
Emily stepped closer.
A hand protruded beneath the sheet.
Male.
Older.
A gold ring remained on one finger.
Michael inhaled sharply.
“No.”
Emily looked at him.
“What?”
He moved closer.
The ring was engraved with a small compass.
“I've seen that.”
“Where?”
“Samuel Whitmore wore one.”
Lauren had followed despite being told to remain downstairs.
She heard him.
“Samuel?”
Michael looked at her.
“David's father.”
Lauren shook her head.
“Samuel died eight years ago.”
“So everyone believed.”
Emily felt cold.
Jonathan alive.
Now perhaps Samuel too.
The dead were returning one by one.
Lauren approached the body.
“That can't be him.”
A firefighter lifted the sheet enough for the detective.
Lauren caught a glimpse.
She stumbled backward.
Emily grabbed her.
“What?”
Lauren's face went white.
“I've seen him.”
“Where?”
“At my house.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Emily stared.
“He told me he was David's business mentor.”
“What name?”
“Michael Shaw.”
Michael Harris swore quietly.
Emily understood why David had planted Michael's identification.
To implicate him.
“Samuel was helping David?”
Lauren shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“What happened at your house?”
“David told me they were discussing investments.”
“Did Samuel speak to you?”
“Only once.”
“What did he say?”
Lauren stared toward the covered body.
“He told me I should leave my husband.”
Emily said nothing.
Lauren continued.
“I thought he was making some weird joke.”
“What exactly did he say?”
Lauren's voice trembled.
“He said, ‘Some cages come with diamonds.’”
She looked down at the finger where her ring had been.
Emily thought of the archive room.
“What was Samuel doing here?”
Michael answered.
“Looking for something.”
The detective interrupted.
“We found another item.”
A scorched metal case had survived the blast.
Inside were several microfilm reels and an external encrypted drive.
The drive had been damaged but not destroyed.
Emily looked at Michael.
“Samuel's archive.”
“Probably.”
The detective said, “This becomes evidence.”
“Of course.”
Emily stared at the body.
“Was he killed by the explosion?”
“Preliminary assessment says no.”
She looked at him.
“How did he die?”
“Gunshot.”
Lauren closed her eyes.
The detective continued.
“The explosion was meant to destroy the body and records.”
Emily thought of David.
“Then David killed his father.”
“Maybe.”
But something didn't fit.
David had said dead fathers don't pay debts.
Not my father is dead.
“He expected Samuel alive,” Emily said.
Michael understood.
“So someone else killed him.”
The detective nodded.
“We're investigating.”
Emily looked around the destroyed archive.
Robert was in custody at the warehouse during the explosion.
David was too.
Therefore someone else was involved.
Someone who still had access to Carter Meridian.
Her phone buzzed.
An internal emergency notice.
BOARD MEETING — 8:00 A.M.
Emily frowned.
Michael checked his device.
“I didn't schedule that.”
“Neither did I.”
The sender was listed as Gregory Vale.
Carter Meridian's chief financial officer.
Michael's expression changed.
“Gregory has emergency authority when you're unavailable.”
Emily called him.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
The detective asked, “Problem?”
Emily looked toward the elevator.
“Maybe.”
At 6:30 a.m., Emily finally reached the executive floor.
Gregory's office was empty.
His computer had been wiped.
His personal files were gone.
A resignation letter sat on the desk.
Effective immediately.
Michael read it.
“This was printed yesterday.”
Emily looked through the windows over Manhattan.
“Before David disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“So Gregory knew something was coming.”
Michael checked the drawers.
Empty.
Emily's phone rang.
Board member Helen Cross.
“Emily, where are you?”
“At headquarters.”
“We need to talk before eight.”
“About what?”
Helen hesitated.
“The board received a legal filing.”
“What filing?”
“A challenge to your controlling ownership.”
Emily said nothing.
“Filed by whom?”
Another pause.
“The Jonathan Carter Estate.”
Emily's stomach dropped.
“Jonathan isn't dead.”
“That apparently complicates things.”
“What exactly are they claiming?”
“That the original founder agreement granted Jonathan's heirs controlling rights if fraud invalidated the 1993 restructuring.”
Emily sat slowly.
Daniel.
Jonathan's son.
If true, Daniel might legally own part of Carter Meridian.
Perhaps a very large part.
But Daniel would never—
Her phone buzzed.
A message from him.
I'm sorry.
A second message appeared.
I had no choice.
Emily stared at the screen.
Then an email arrived from Carter Meridian Legal.
Emergency petition filed in New York Supreme Court.
Petitioner:
DANIEL CARTER.
Emily's little brother was suing her for control of the company.
