Chapter 7 - the voice of the dead
Silas stared at the wooden queen in Hannah's hand, his face darkening with intense rage. "That piece is a fake! Guards, seize that bag!"
Before Silas's guards could even raise their hands, Cole's revolver was pressed against Silas's throat, the heavy hammer cocked back with a sharp, lethal click.
"Order your men to step back, uncle," Cole whispered, his breath warm against Silas's ear. "Or we'll see if your lawyers can file an injunction against a bullet."
Silas swallowed hard, feeling the cold steel against his neck. He raised a hand, signaling his guards to back down. "Stand down," Silas growled through clenched teeth.
"Marcus, take their weapons," Cole ordered.
Within seconds, Silas's guards were disarmed and forced to their knees. Cole kept his gun trained on Silas as he motioned for Hannah and Owen to follow him down the grand spiral staircase toward the subterranean vault level.
The bank's vault door was a ten-ton wheel of stainless steel and brass dials. The late-night vault keeper, trembling under the tension, unlocked the outer grill and led them into the long aisle of stainless steel safety deposit boxes.
Cole stood in front of Box 412. He inserted the brass key from Harold's envelope, while Hannah inserted a tiny silver key hidden inside the hollow base of her wooden queen.
They turned the keys simultaneously.
Clack.
The heavy steel box slid out smoothly. Cole pulled it out and set it on the viewing table in the center of the private room.
Inside the box were no stacks of cash, no bearer bonds, and no real estate deeds.
Instead, there was a heavy analog cassette tape player, a single recorded tape labeled COLE & HANNAH, and a thick leather folder containing official medical records from twenty years ago.
Cole pressed play on the tape player.
The speaker crackled with static, followed by the deep, raspy, instantly recognizable voice of Harold Mercer:
"Cole... if you are listening to this, it means I am dead, Silas has shown his true face, and Hannah has finally brought my grandson home."
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Harold paused, taking a ragged breath on the recording.
"There is something about your mother's death twenty years ago that I never told you, Cole. It was not a car accident. It was ordered by the board because she threatened to go to the federal authorities. And the man who signed the order... was your uncle Silas."
