Chapter 8 - The Detective in the Ledger
Dominic killed the basement lights.
Darkness swallowed them.
Diana held the ledger against her chest.
Rook stood at the stairs, muscles rigid.
Another floorboard creaked upstairs.
Dominic whispered, “Behind me.”
“No.”
He looked back.
“Now isn't the time.”
“I spent twelve years behind everybody.”
“Diana.”
She moved beside him instead.
“Compromise.”
Even in darkness, she felt his frustration.
A shadow appeared at the top of the stairs.
Rook growled.
“Cross?”
Detective Alvarez.
Dominic did not relax.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Alvarez slowly entered.
Her service weapon remained holstered.
“You saw the name.”
Diana stepped forward.
“Yours.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because your father suspected my father.”
Diana frowned.
Alvarez removed an old badge from her pocket.
“My father, Miguel Alvarez, was a detective. He spent years investigating Anthony Kane.”
“Then why was his name written as a protector?”
“Because Daniel didn't know whether he could trust him.”
Dominic turned on a small lamp.
Alvarez looked exhausted.
“My father went undercover inside Kane's network. To maintain cover, he buried investigations. Released suspects. Redirected evidence.”
“That looks a lot like corruption,” Dominic said.
“It does.”
“Was he dirty?”
Alvarez's eyes hardened.
“No.”
“How convenient.”
She almost smiled.
“Coming from you?”
Diana interrupted.
“Can we stop deciding guilt by sarcasm?”
They both looked at her.
“Thank you.”
Alvarez continued.
Her father eventually built a federal case.
Before he could deliver evidence, he disappeared.
His body was never recovered.
Diana stared.
“You became a detective because of him?”
“Yes.”
“And you've spent your career trying to finish what he started?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell us?”
Alvarez looked at Dominic.
“Because I didn't know if Cross was responsible for my father's death.”
Dominic's expression tightened.
“And now?”
“I still don't.”
Diana looked between them.
“Wonderful.”
Two adults who had spent decades distrusting each other now expected her to choose.
She refused.
“We copy the ledger.”
Dominic and Alvarez both looked at her.
“All of it.”
Alvarez nodded slowly.
“Good.”
“Multiple copies. Different attorneys. Federal prosecutors. Cloud storage.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“My mother told me to live,” Diana said. “I think she also would've appreciated backups.”
Within two hours, the ledger had been photographed page by page.
Alvarez contacted a federal prosecutor outside her normal chain.
Dominic sent encrypted copies to attorneys.
Diana kept the original hidden.
Only she knew where.
Dominic objected.
She ignored him.
The evidence revealed decades of corruption.
Victor Kane's network involved judges, officers, contractors, and financial institutions.
But there was one missing piece.
Proof Victor himself ordered recent crimes.
The old ledger could destroy the network.
It could not necessarily convict Victor for Rachel's kidnapping or Diana's assault.
That required Eddie's testimony and recordings.
Which meant keeping Eddie alive.
At dawn, someone attempted to kill him.
A nurse noticed a man using another physician's credentials.
Security intervened.
The suspect escaped.
Diana received the news while drinking coffee in Dominic's kitchen.
Her hands began trembling.
Dominic noticed.
“Enough.”
“What?”
“You're exhausted.”
“So are you.”
“I don't have a concussion.”
“You have stitches and haven't slept.”
He leaned against the counter.
“Fine. We're both disasters.”
Rook sat between them.
Diana pointed.
“He agrees with me.”
“He's a traitor.”
Rook wagged his tail.
Diana smiled faintly.
Dominic watched her.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You do that constantly.”
“Do what?”
“Look at me like I'm a ghost.”
His expression softened.
“For a long time you were.”
Diana's smile disappeared.
“That's sad.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you ever marry?”
The question surprised both of them.
Dominic looked at his coffee.
“I nearly did.”
Diana felt something she had no right to feel.
“Oh.”
“She left.”
“Why?”
“She said there was always someone else in the room.”
Diana frowned.
“Who?”
“Your mother.”
The answer was not what she expected.
Dominic explained.
Maria had become a symbol of everything he failed to protect.
Every relationship became measured against guilt.
Eventually he stopped trying.
Diana studied him.
“You really did punish yourself.”
“I was excellent at it.”
“My mother literally predicted that.”
“Yes.”
“Then maybe you should stop.”
Dominic looked at her.
Something shifted.
Too intimate.
Too quiet.
Diana's pulse changed.
She stepped away.
“I'm going to sleep.”
“Good.”
“Don't look smug.”
“I'm not.”
“You are internally smug.”
“That is difficult to prove.”
She left before smiling.
Three hours later, Rook woke her.
The dog stood beside the bed whining.
Diana sat.
“What?”
He moved toward the door.
Then back.
“Dominic?”
Rook immediately moved again.
Diana followed.
She found Dominic in his study.
Blood covered his shirt.
“Dominic!”
He was sitting on the floor.
A knife lay several feet away.
A man was unconscious beside the desk.
Diana rushed forward.
“What happened?”
“Visitor.”
“Very funny.”
She pressed her hands to Dominic's side.
The stitches had reopened.
“Call an ambulance.”
“No.”
She glared.
“Do you enjoy being a terrible patient?”
“Hospital isn't secure.”
“Neither is your house apparently.”
That silenced him.
Security flooded the room.
The intruder carried false credentials identifying him as a federal agent.
Alvarez arrived thirty minutes later.
She looked at the attacker.
“I know him.”
“Who?” Diana asked.
“Former detective.”
“Worked for Kane?”
Alvarez nodded.
Dominic was bandaged by a private physician.
Diana remained beside him.
The attacker regained consciousness long enough to speak.
He looked directly at Diana.
“Kane says trade the ledger.”
“For what?” Dominic asked.
The man smiled through blood.
“Her friend.”
Diana froze.
“Rachel?”
“No.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Who?”
The intruder laughed.
“The old woman.”
Dominic stood too fast.
“Elena.”
Diana remembered the housekeeper who knew Maria.
Security searched the estate.
Elena was gone.
A camera showed her leaving through a service door with a man she apparently recognized.
Dominic stared at the footage.
“No.”
“What?” Diana asked.
“He didn't abduct her.”
The video showed Elena walking voluntarily.
“Why would she leave?”
Dominic looked devastated.
“Because she knows him.”
“Who?”
He enlarged the frame.
The man beside Elena turned enough for the camera to capture his face.
Alvarez stared.
Dominic went still.
Diana did not recognize him.
“Who is that?”
Alvarez's voice became almost inaudible.
“My father.”
Diana looked at her.
“Miguel Alvarez?”
“The detective who disappeared?”
Alvarez nodded.
Her face drained of color.
“He's been presumed dead for twenty-one years.”
The impossible image remained frozen on the screen.
Miguel Alvarez was alive.
And apparently he had just walked out of Dominic Cross's home with Elena.
May you like
Continued in Chapter 9…
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