Chương 8 - The Man She Called Uncle
Marcus found them.
But he wasn't there to hurt Jessi.
He was terrified.
“You shouldn't have come.”
Jessi stepped forward.
“You've been spying on me.”
“I've been trying to keep you alive.”
He explained the ring.
The security footage.
The private investigator.
Marcus had been tracking Victor because he suspected the accident had been sabotage.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Victor has someone inside your office.”
Ivan asked, “Who?”
Marcus looked at Jessi.
“I don't know.”
Then gunshots shattered a warehouse window.
Ivan dragged Jessi down.
Marcus screamed.
Glass exploded.
They escaped through a rear loading bay.
Marcus had been hit in the shoulder.
Not fatal.
At the hospital, he gave them access to everything he'd collected.
Victor had been moving money through shell corporations for years.
But the evidence still didn't prove murder.
Then Marcus handed Ivan a flash drive.
“Your wife gave me this.”
Ivan stopped breathing.
“You knew Laura?”
“Once.”
Rage flooded Ivan.
“You let me believe—”
“She made me promise.”
“She's dead!”
“I know.”
Marcus's voice cracked.
“She knew someone was following her.”
Ivan inserted the drive into a laptop.
One video file appeared.
Laura's face filled the screen.
Ivan hadn't heard her voice in three years.
“Hi, Ivan.”
His knees nearly gave out.
“If you're watching this,” Laura continued, “something happened to me.”
Ivan covered his mouth.
Jessi silently stepped away.
Laura described financial irregularities.
Vehicle contractors.
Victor Sterling.
Then she said something unexpected.
“Victor isn't working alone.”
The video distorted.
Laura leaned closer.
“The person helping him is someone Jessica Sterling trusts completely.”
The recording ended.
Ivan looked toward Jessi.
Her face had gone pale.
Because there were only three people Jessi trusted completely.
Marcus.
May you like
Her longtime attorney.
And her younger brother, Adrian.
