Chapter 12 - THE LIBRARY OF DEAD MEN|
The library had been renovated twice since Jenna's childhood, but the old reading room remained beneath the newer wing.
Eleanor had kept the key hidden for eleven years.
She handed it to Jenna without meeting her eyes.
"I know you may never forgive me."
Jenna accepted the key.
"I don't know if I can."
Her mother nodded as if she had expected nothing else.
"But I need you to understand something," Eleanor continued. "I never wanted any of this. Your father believed he could save everyone by telling the truth. I believed silence would save you."
"And now?"
Eleanor looked toward the street.
"Now I think we were both wrong."
We entered the library shortly before closing. Marcus had arranged for a trusted employee to let us into the old reading room.
Jenna moved through the space slowly, touching the wooden shelves.
"Dad used to sit here with me every Saturday. He said books were doors you could open without asking permission."
She stopped beside a low shelf.
"When I was eight, I lost a library card. He hid a new one inside a book and told me to find it."
She pulled out an old collection of fairy tales.
A small envelope fell from between the pages.
Inside was a brass token engraved with the same raven symbol as the key.
Marcus examined it.
"Could be a locker token."
Jenna turned it over.
Numbers were stamped on the back.
"Twenty-seven."
We found locker twenty-seven in the basement archive. The token opened it.
Inside lay a thick ledger wrapped in oilcloth, a small tape recorder, and a sealed envelope addressed to Jenna.
She opened the letter first.
My little girl, if you are reading this, then I wasn't able to keep my promise to come home. I need you to know that none of what happened was your fault. Some people use fear to make others obedient. Never confuse obedience with love.
Jenna pressed the letter against her chest.
I looked away, giving her a moment.
When she was ready, Marcus played the recording.
Thomas Hart's voice filled the small room.
"Daniel, if you're hearing this, the ledger is secure. Voss has been moving money through the Blackwood accounts for years. Richard is helping him. Eleanor has been forced to sign documents she doesn't understand. If anything happens to me, protect Jenna and Matt."
A second voice spoke.
My father's.
"Thomas, I'm coming to get the ledger."
"You can't. Voss knows you're suspicious."
"Then I'll make him believe I'm still loyal."
The recording ended abruptly.
I stood frozen.
My father had planned to infiltrate Voss's organization from within. The money transfers weren't simply theft. Some had been used to finance safe houses, pay witnesses, and protect families whose names appeared in Voss's files.
But other transactions had funded the very criminal network my father had wanted to destroy.
The ledger separated the two.
One section contained evidence against Voss.
Another showed payments made to corrupt officials.
And a third contained a list of people who had helped him.
At the bottom of that list was a name I hadn't expected.
Ryan Callahan.
He had been only a teenager when my father died.
Jenna looked over my shoulder.
"Why would a teenager be involved?"
"Maybe he wasn't. Maybe someone used his identity."
Marcus turned a page.
A note had been written in red ink.
THE ORIGINAL WITNESS IS STILL ALIVE.
Beneath it was a photograph of a woman.
Jenna stared at the face.
Then she whispered, "That's impossible."
May you like
The woman in the picture was her aunt.
The sister Eleanor had told her died before Jenna was born.
