Chapter 3 - The Blue Envelope
At seven the next morning, Nathan called Marcus into his office.
“Close the door.”
Marcus obeyed.
Nathan pushed the file toward him.
“What do you notice?”
Marcus flipped through it.
Then stopped.
“Page forty-three.”
“Missing.”
Marcus looked at Nathan.
“What was on it?”
“The detailed communication log from the night of the ambush.”
Marcus went silent.
Nathan continued.
“Whoever attacked me knew my route changed.”
“Only six people knew.”
“Five.”
Marcus frowned.
Nathan tapped the file.
“My driver died. He couldn’t have leaked it afterward.”
Marcus understood.
“You think the missing page identifies whoever received the updated route.”
“I think someone wants me unable to prove it.”
Marcus lowered his voice.
“Grant?”
Nathan’s expression remained unreadable.
“Find the original report.”
“That investigation was two years ago.”
“Then start digging.”
Later that morning, Claire knocked.
“Come in.”
She entered alone.
“Lily is downstairs.”
Nathan nodded.
Claire remained near the door.
“I need to ask you something.”
“Go ahead.”
“Are we in danger?”
Nathan didn’t answer quickly enough.
Claire’s face changed.
“We are.”
“Possibly.”
“I have a three-year-old daughter.”
“I know.”
“No, Mr. Caldwell. You don’t understand.”
Her voice hardened.
“I can lose this job. I can lose this house. I can start over. But Lily doesn’t become collateral damage in whatever is happening between you and Grant.”
Nathan looked at her.
“You’re right.”
Claire blinked, apparently expecting an argument.
Nathan rolled closer.
“You and Lily should leave temporarily.”
Claire stared.
“You’re firing me?”
“No.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“I own a lake house outside the city. Marcus can put security there.”
Claire shook her head.
“You think Grant planted that money.”
“I think someone did.”
“And you think it connects to your shooting.”
Nathan’s silence answered her.
Claire stepped closer.
“Then why me?”
“That’s what I intend to discover.”
The door opened.
Lily appeared.
“Mommy?”
Claire turned.
“I told you to stay downstairs.”
Lily ignored her and walked toward Nathan.
“Are you mad?”
“No.”
“At Mommy?”
“No.”
“At smile man?”
Nathan almost smiled.
“Possibly.”
Lily climbed onto his lap.
Claire sighed.
“You really have to stop letting her do that.”
Nathan looked down at Lily.
“She doesn’t ask permission.”
“That is exactly the problem.”
Lily touched Nathan’s face.
“You didn’t laugh today.”
“I’ve been busy.”
“Do it.”
“You can’t order people to laugh.”
“You order everybody.”
Claire looked away, hiding a smile.
Nathan finally chuckled.
Then his phone rang.
Marcus.
Nathan answered.
“Talk.”
“I found something.”
Nathan’s expression changed.
“What?”
“The original police archive still has the communications supplement.”
“Page forty-three?”
“Yes.”
Nathan tightened his grip on the phone.
“What does it say?”
Marcus paused.
“Your route change was sent at 8:12 p.m.”
“To whom?”
“Your driver. Me. Grant.”
Nathan felt the room become very quiet.
“That’s not enough.”
“There’s more.”
Marcus lowered his voice.
“Seven minutes later, Grant made a ninety-three-second call to a burner number.”
Nathan looked toward the windows.
“Can you identify it?”
“I’m working on it.”
Nathan ended the call.
Claire had heard enough.
“Grant betrayed you?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“You know.”
Nathan looked at her.
“I know enough to become dangerous if I act too early.”
That afternoon, Grant arrived without being invited.
Marcus stopped him outside Nathan’s office.
Grant raised both hands.
“I only want to speak with my friend.”
Nathan called from inside.
“Let him through.”
Grant entered.
His eyes immediately found Claire and Lily.
“Still here?”
Claire stiffened.
Nathan said, “Careful.”
Grant looked at him.
“You’re choosing a maid and her child over me?”
“This isn’t a competition.”
“It became one when you started trusting a toddler’s imagination over fifteen years of loyalty.”
Nathan rolled closer.
“Where is page forty-three?”
Grant froze.
Barely.
But Nathan saw it.
“What page?”
“The one you removed from my ambush file.”
Grant laughed.
“You’ve lost your mind.”
“Maybe.”
Nathan’s voice remained calm.
“Then humor me.”
Grant leaned down until they were eye level.
“I saved your empire while you were learning how to move from a bed into that chair.”
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
“I know.”
“Everyone abandoned you.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t.”
“No.”
Nathan stared directly into his eyes.
“You stayed very close.”
Grant straightened.
For the first time, his expression contained something other than confidence.
Nathan saw fear.
Grant turned toward the door.
Then Lily spoke.
“You were wet.”
Grant stopped.
Nathan looked at her.
“What?”
Lily pointed at Grant.
“In Mommy’s picture.”
Claire frowned.
“What picture?”
Lily ran from the room.
Grant suddenly moved toward the door.
Marcus blocked him.
“Stay.”
Lily returned carrying a photograph she had taken from Claire’s box of old belongings.
Claire stared.
“Where did you get that?”
Lily held it toward Nathan.
It showed Claire’s late husband, Daniel Dawson, at a charity event almost three years earlier.
Several men stood behind him.
One was Grant.
Nathan took the photograph.
“Daniel knew Grant?”
Claire shook her head.
“I didn’t know that.”
Nathan turned it over.
A date and location were written on the back.
Caldwell Freight Terminal 8.
Three weeks before Nathan’s ambush.
Nathan looked at Grant.
“What was Daniel doing at my freight terminal?”
Grant’s voice became cold.
“Ask his widow.”
Claire stepped forward.
“My husband was an electrical contractor.”
Nathan remembered something.
The traffic cameras near the ambush had mysteriously gone offline seven minutes before the shooting.
Electrical failure.
His eyes lifted.
“Claire.”
“Yes?”
“What was Daniel working on before he died?”
She swallowed.
“A city surveillance contract.”
Nathan’s stomach tightened.
Grant moved toward the door again.
Marcus blocked him.
Nathan stared at his oldest friend.
“Sit down.”
Grant smiled.
May you like
This time there was nothing friendly about it.
“You finally started asking the right questions.”
