Chapter 8 - THE BROTHER WHO KNEW NOTHING|
Matt Hart answered his phone on the fourth ring.
"Evan? Why is your security chief outside my building?"
"Because someone is watching you."
There was a pause.
"Is this about Jenna?"
"Yes."
"Is she okay?"
"She's safe. For now."
Matt swore under his breath.
"Tell me where to meet you."
I told him to stay inside and wait for our team. Ten minutes later, he arrived at Blackwood Tower with a duffel bag and a furious expression.
Jenna ran to him.
"Matt!"
He embraced her so tightly she laughed despite everything.
"You scared me half to death," he said.
"You're the one who looks like he fought a bear."
"I had to get past two men who kept insisting I couldn't bring my own bag."
"They were checking for weapons."
"They found a sandwich."
"That doesn't mean you weren't dangerous."
Matt looked at me.
"Do you always let her win arguments?"
"Only when I want to survive."
Jenna smiled, but the expression faded when Matt placed the duffel bag on the table.
"I brought Dad's old things," he said. "Mom called me after you left. She told me what happened."
He removed a small wooden box.
"I found this in her closet years ago. She said it belonged to Dad and that I shouldn't open it until I was older."
Jenna stared at the box.
"You never told me."
"I thought it was just sentimental stuff."
Inside lay an old wristwatch, a brass key, and a photograph of Thomas Hart standing beside Daniel Blackwood.
The same photograph Ryan had sent Jenna.
But this one had writing on the back.
If the ledger is lost, the original is beneath the foundation.
I read the words aloud.
"Which foundation?" Matt asked.
I looked at the photograph.
The warehouse.
The place where my father had died.
Marcus entered, accompanied by two guards. He had been stripped of his usual security duties but remained in the building while we investigated the false company registered in his name.
"I found something," he said. "The warehouse was sold after the fire. The property is scheduled for demolition tomorrow morning."
"Who bought it?"
"A holding company connected to Ryan."
Jenna looked at the brass key.
"So he wants something hidden under the foundation."
"And he wants us there when he gets it," I said.
Matt shook his head.
"Then we call the police."
"Some of the evidence involves organized crime, false identities, and financial accounts that have been manipulated for years. We can involve the authorities, but we need to know what we're walking into."
Jenna turned to me.
"You are not going there without me."
"No."
Her face hardened.
"Don't start."
"I'm not taking you into a building where someone may be waiting with a gun."
"That building has my father's secrets in it."
"And my father's grave."
We stared at each other.
Finally, she took a breath.
"Then we go together, with a plan. Not because I need to prove anything. Because I have a right to know what happened to my family."
I looked at Matt.
He nodded.
"She's right."
I hated that he was right, too.
We agreed to approach the warehouse before dawn with a small team and notify a trusted law-enforcement contact of our location.
As we prepared, Marcus placed the brass key into a scanner.
The metal was older than the photograph. A tiny symbol had been engraved along its edge: a black raven with its wings spread.
I had seen that symbol once before.
On the signet ring of my father's closest friend.
May you like
A man who had disappeared the night my father died.
Richard Blackwood. My uncle.
