Chapter 12 - THE COUNCIL MEETING
Dominic could have canceled the meeting.
Every sensible person told him to.
Mercer told him.
Vincent told him.
Clare told him.
Dominic held it anyway.
Friday morning arrived bright and cold.
Lake Michigan stretched steel-blue beyond the windows.
At eleven fifty-five, twelve council members entered the glass-walled room.
Arthur’s chair remained empty.
Two Chicago detectives waited elsewhere in the mansion with the evidence Dominic had agreed to surrender.
Arthur himself sat under guard in a private room.
Dominic entered at noon.
No cane.
Mercer had objected strongly.
Dominic compromised by allowing it to remain beside his chair.
The council stared.
They had expected a broken man.
Instead Dominic walked to the head of the table under his own power.
Slowly.
Painfully.
But upright.
Whispers stopped.
“Sit,” he said.
Everyone did.
Dominic looked at faces he had known for years.
Some worried.
Some confused.
One disappointed.
That was the face Dominic watched.
Caleb Wren, a minor council member who controlled several freight contracts.
When Dominic walked in without visible distress, Caleb’s mouth tightened.
Tiny reaction.
Easy to miss.
Dominic remembered Ellie.
Small details.
“Before we begin,” Dominic said, “I have one question.”
Nobody moved.
“Who expected me not to be here?”
Silence.
Caleb smiled nervously.
“What kind of question is that?”
“A simple one.”
Dominic looked around.
No answers.
Vincent stood near the door.
Dominic continued.
“Three weeks ago, someone arranged for a medical device on my leg to be altered.”
Several men reacted genuinely.
Others did not.
“One person in this room helped without understanding the full plan.”
Dominic looked toward Arthur’s empty chair.
“Another may have known more.”
Caleb shifted.
There.
Again.
Dominic placed a phone on the table.
Vincent pressed play.
Arthur’s recorded statement filled the room.
The anonymous calls.
The forged email.
The instructions.
When the audio ended, Dominic looked around.
“Anyone want to leave?”
No one moved.
Then the building alarm activated.
Not security.
Fire.
Red lights flashed.
Vincent touched his earpiece.
“Smoke detected in the archive level.”
Dominic stood.
Caleb stood too quickly.
Vincent noticed.
Dominic noticed Vincent noticing.
“Sit down,” Dominic said.
Caleb froze.
The fire alarm continued.
Security officers checked cameras.
Smoke filled the basement archive.
Someone had started a fire.
Exactly where the old ledgers had been found.
But Dominic had moved them upstairs the previous night.
Whoever started it did not know.
Vincent closed the council room doors.
Caleb’s face went pale.
“You can’t hold us here during a fire.”
“The fire department is coming.”
Dominic looked at him.
“And the room has independent ventilation.”
Caleb swallowed.
Dominic walked toward him.
“You expected something else?”
“No.”
“You look disappointed.”
“This is insane.”
Dominic leaned one hand on the table.
“Then explain why your freight company paid Lakefront Meridian seventy-two thousand dollars last month.”
Every head turned.
Caleb froze.
Vincent placed financial records on the screen.
The black SUV used during Ellie’s attempted abduction had been leased through a subcontractor.
That subcontractor had received payment from Caleb’s freight company.
Dominic had learned it less than an hour earlier.
Caleb’s face collapsed.
Vincent stepped behind him.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Caleb suddenly reached into his jacket.
Vincent slammed him against the table before he could pull anything free.
A phone clattered onto the floor.
Not a weapon.
Caleb laughed breathlessly.
“You people really think this ends with me?”
Dominic looked down.
“Who are you working for?”
Caleb smiled.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Explain.”
“You think Arthur betrayed you because he wanted your chair?”
“That’s part of it.”
“No.”
Caleb shook his head.
“Arthur was bait.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
Caleb looked toward the lake.
“The goal was to make you distrust everyone.”
“Why?”
“So when the real offer came, you’d have no one left to advise you.”
Dominic stared at him.
“What offer?”
Caleb’s smile returned.
The fire alarm stopped.
At that exact moment, Dominic’s private phone rang.
Unknown number.
Every person in the council room heard it.
Dominic answered.
May you like
A distorted male voice spoke.
“Now you’re ready to listen.”
