Chapter 9 - THE SHIPYARD

Detective Hayes found Grant's car at the edge of the abandoned Callahan shipyard.

The windshield was cracked. Caleb's radio lay beneath the driver's seat. A trail of blood led toward Warehouse Three, then stopped.

I remained at the estate with Lily, but every minute felt like an hour. Renata was in county custody. Pierce was under arrest. Yet someone was still moving pieces across the board.

At sunrise, police entered the warehouse.

They found Caleb tied to a chair, bruised but alive. Grant was gone.

On the floor beside Caleb was Margaret's half-burned letter.

The surviving lines read:

Grant, if anything happens to me, protect Lily from the people who call themselves family. My father knows about the illegal contracts. Renata knows where the records are hidden. Do not trust the board.

The final page was missing.

Caleb told Hayes that masked men had attacked them. One called another "Senator." Grant had been taken by boat.

Senator Thomas Vale appeared on television an hour later. Standing outside his Manhattan townhouse, he expressed concern for his missing son-in-law and blamed "an unstable domestic employee" for creating chaos inside the Callahan home.

He meant me.

Reporters gathered outside the estate gates. My name and my mother's medical history appeared online. Renata's attorney claimed I had manipulated Lily to gain money.

Grant's communications director advised me to stay silent.

I refused.

With Detective Hayes beside me, I faced the cameras.

"A child was hurt," I said. "The people responsible are trying to make the witness more important than the evidence. Do not help them."

A reporter shouted, "Are you having an affair with Grant Callahan?"

The question was designed to humiliate me.

I looked straight into the camera. "No. I am protecting his daughter because every adult should protect a child in danger."

Behind the reporters, a gray-haired woman held up a sign.

I recognized her as Margaret's former nurse.

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Written across the sign were six words:

I KNOW WHERE THE RECORDS ARE.