Chương 7 - The Photograph of a Dead Woman
Ivan confronted Jessi.
She denied knowing Laura.
He believed her.
Mostly.
Together they searched old Sterling & Vance records.
Laura Mercer had worked briefly for an insurance auditing company.
Three weeks before her death, that company had investigated Sterling transportation contracts.
One contract involved Victor Sterling.
Ivan felt sick.
“Laura never told me.”
“Maybe she was protecting you.”
The phrase hurt.
Ivan remembered Laura's nervousness before the accident.
Phone calls she'd dismissed.
A laptop she'd suddenly replaced.
Things he had interpreted as ordinary stress.
Now they looked different.
They found an archived memo.
Laura had flagged suspicious payments connected to a private transportation contractor.
The same contractor had serviced the vehicle Jessi was driving during her accident.
Jessi stared at Ivan.
“My accident.”
“And Laura's investigation.”
Neither finished the thought.
They didn't need to.
Two women.
Two crashes.
One financial trail.
Ivan wanted revenge.
Jessi wanted evidence.
For once, she was the calm one.
“If you attack Victor without proof, he wins.”
“If he killed Laura—”
“We prove it.”
“And then?”
“We bury him legally.”
Ivan looked at her.
“That sounded almost disappointing.”
“It is.”
They traced the contractor to an abandoned warehouse in New Jersey.
Against Ivan's advice, Jessi insisted on going.
Inside they discovered boxes of records.
Invoices.
Vehicle maintenance reports.
Payments.
Then headlights appeared outside.
Someone else had arrived.
Ivan killed the flashlight.
Footsteps entered.
A man's voice echoed through the warehouse.
“Jessica?”
Jessi's face went white.
She recognized the voice.
Marcus Hale.
May you like
Her godfather.
And he wasn't alone.
