Chapter 7 - Brothers
Victor contacted Adrian at midnight.
Not by phone.
Through Noah’s tablet.
A message appeared inside a children’s drawing app Noah used to share pictures with family.
MEET ME WHERE FATHER TAUGHT US TO SHOOT.
Adrian knew the place.
An abandoned hunting lodge seventy miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Rachel saw him putting on his coat.
“No.”
“I need him.”
“You need to stop behaving like you’re indestructible.”
“He notarized the forged assignment.”
“Then let police arrest him.”
“He’s running from Martin.”
“He chained me to a wall.”
Adrian stopped.
Rachel’s eyes were wet.
“Every time you talk about Victor like he’s a source instead of the man who imprisoned me, I wonder whether you understand what happened.”
Adrian removed the coat.
Then he called Brooks.
They went together.
Victor stood inside the lodge beside a dead fireplace.
No weapon visible.
Brooks trained hers on him.
“Hands.”
He complied.
“You’re under arrest for kidnapping, unlawful restraint, assault—”
“I’ll surrender.”
Brooks paused.
“Then why here?”
“Because if I walk into a precinct without leverage, I’ll die in jail.”
Adrian stared.
“What leverage?”
Victor looked at his brother.
“The truth about Dad.”
Brooks cuffed him.
“Start talking.”
Victor admitted notarizing the voting-rights assignment.
“But Charles didn’t sign it.”
“Martin did?” Adrian asked.
“No.”
“Who?”
Victor looked directly at him.
“I did.”
Adrian felt sick.
“You forged Dad’s name.”
“Martin promised me control of two development subsidiaries.”
“You sold him the company.”
“I thought I was buying my way out from under Dad.”
Victor’s laugh was hollow.
“You never understood what it was like.”
“Being rich?”
“Being second.”
Adrian almost struck him.
Brooks stepped between them.
Victor continued.
“Dad humiliated me for years. Every board meeting. Every deal. Every dinner.”
“That does not explain Rachel.”
“No.”
For once Victor did not defend himself.
“That was fear.”
Rachel had discovered the trust and the forged voting assignment almost simultaneously.
Victor knew disclosure could expose him to fraud charges.
“So you abducted her.”
“I intended to hold her overnight.”
“Thirty-seven days.”
“I kept telling myself one more day.”
Adrian’s voice dropped.
“Noah heard her.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“You hit my son.”
“I know.”
“I want to hate you enough that this is simple.”
Victor looked at him.
“It is simple.”
“No. Because Martin was using you.”
Victor’s expression changed.
“That’s what he does.”
“What does Ravenhill mean?”
Victor hesitated.
Brooks said, “You’re negotiating from handcuffs. Choose wisely.”
“Ravenhill is a private ledger.”
“A company?”
“A system.”
Martin had used shell entities for years to siphon money from Mercer Urban projects.
Some payments were kickbacks.
Some were hush money.
Some financed political influence.
Some paid Charles’s private fixers.
“And Father knew?”
“Parts of it.”
“Did Martin kill him?”
Victor looked toward the dark windows.
“I don’t know.”
“Walter says he did.”
“Walter lies whenever breathing benefits him.”
“What do you know?”
Victor swallowed.
“The night Dad died, Martin was there.”
The official timeline said Victor had been alone.
“You lied to police.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Martin threatened to expose the forged assignment.”
Adrian’s hands curled.
“What happened?”
“They argued. I went downstairs for whiskey.”
“How convenient.”
“When I came back, Dad was on the floor.”
“Alive?”
“Barely.”
“Did you call 911?”
Victor’s silence was devastating.
“How long did you wait?”
“Six minutes.”
Brooks stared at him.
“Why?”
“Martin said if Dad survived, we were both finished.”
Adrian turned away.
Six minutes.
His father might have lived.
“What did Martin do during those six minutes?”
“He took documents from the desk.”
“Which documents?”
“I don’t know.”
Brooks asked, “Medication?”
Victor frowned.
“What?”
“Did Charles take medication?”
“Heart pills. Blood pressure stuff.”
“Did Martin touch them?”
Victor’s face changed.
“He put something in his pocket.”
Adrian looked back.
“What?”
“A prescription bottle.”
Brooks made a note.
Then Victor said, “There’s something else.”
Of course there was.
“Dad had a second will.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“Let me guess. Martin has it.”
“No.”
“Who does?”
“Rachel.”
Adrian stared.
Victor shook his head.
“She may not know.”
“What does that mean?”
“Your father put an envelope in her foundation files three months before he died.”
“Why Rachel?”
“Because he knew she was the only person in the family who might actually read the numbers.”
Adrian’s anger faltered.
Victor continued.
“I saw the envelope. It said: FOR RACHEL ONLY — IF MARTIN MOVES AGAINST MY SONS.”
Brooks looked at Adrian.
“Where are those foundation files?”
Adrian knew.
“In storage at Mercer Urban.”
May you like
Victor smiled without humor.
“Which means Martin has had them all day.”
