Chapter 5 - What Her Father Taught HerCaleb did not go to the warehouse alone.
He did something Grant would never expect.
He called his mother.
Evelyn Voss answered on the fourth ring.
“Caleb?”
Her voice was groggy.
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
“Stay there.”
Silence.
“Why?”
“I need to know what happened the night Dad died.”
The silence changed.
No longer sleepy.
Alert.
“Where are you?”
“You already asked.”
“And you didn’t answer.”
“Neither did you.”
Evelyn exhaled.
“Come see me.”
“Not yet.”
“Caleb.”
“Did Dad investigate Grant Mercer?”
Another long pause.
“Yes.”
Caleb closed his eyes.
“You knew.”
“Some of it.”
“How much?”
“Enough to know this conversation shouldn’t happen on a phone.”
“Did Grant kill him?”
Evelyn’s breathing stopped.
That answer was enough.
“Mother.”
“I don’t know.”
“Were you there?”
“I found him.”
“Was Grant?”
“No.”
“Wade?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“Caleb, please.”
“Who?”
She whispered, “Your uncle.”
Caleb felt the room tilt.
Richard Voss.
August’s younger brother.
A man Caleb had not seen in nearly two years.
Richard had sold his remaining interest in the restaurant group after August’s death and moved to Florida.
At least that was what Caleb believed.
“Uncle Richard was at the lake house?”
“Yes.”
“Why wasn’t that in any report?”
“Because I asked that it not be.”
“Why?”
“He and August fought.”
“About Grant?”
“Yes.”
“Then Dad died.”
“Yes.”
Caleb stared through the apartment windows at Chicago’s wet streets.
“Where is Richard now?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
A message flashed on Caleb’s phone.
1:37.
Twenty-three minutes.
“Did Dad have another copy of the security investigation?”
Evelyn whispered, “The blue ledger.”
“What blue ledger?”
“He wrote everything by hand because he stopped trusting computers.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who does?”
“Daniel Hart might.”
Caleb looked toward Nora.
She had heard everything.
“Why Daniel?”
“Your father trusted him.”
“Then why did I never hear about him until he was accused of theft?”
“Because by then August was dead.”
“And Grant controlled the investigation.”
“Yes.”
Caleb’s anger broke through.
“You let me destroy an innocent man.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“By letting Grant stay beside me?”
“I didn’t know who was safe!”
Her voice cracked.
For the first time, Caleb heard fear in his mother.
“August died forty-eight hours after telling me someone inside the company was building files on powerful guests. Judges. Prosecutors. CEOs. Police officials. People who could destroy Grant if they learned the truth.”
“Blackmail.”
“Leverage.”
“Same thing.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you go to police?”
“Because August showed me photographs of a deputy commissioner accepting an envelope in one of our private rooms.”
Caleb understood.
They did not know who could be trusted.
“After August died,” Evelyn continued, “Daniel contacted me.”
“When?”
“Two days before he vanished.”
“What did he say?”
“That he had found the ledger.”
Nora stood suddenly.
“What?”
Evelyn heard her voice.
“Who is that?”
“Nora Hart.”
Silence.
Then Evelyn whispered, “Daniel’s wife?”
“Yes.”
Nora took the phone.
“Where is my husband?”
“I don’t know.”
“You spoke to him.”
“Eleven months ago.”
“What did he say?”
“He said Grant knew about the ledger.”
“And then?”
“He told me to protect Caleb.”
Nora laughed bitterly.
“My husband disappeared, and his last concern was your son?”
“No.”
Evelyn’s voice softened.
“His last concern was Elsie.”
Nora stopped.
“What?”
“He told me if anything happened, I needed to make sure his daughter remembered the game.”
Nora turned toward Elsie.
The little girl was sitting at the table drawing circles on a sheet of paper.
“The clock game?”
“Yes.”
Caleb stepped closer.
“What does it contain?”
“I don’t know. Daniel said children remember patterns adults overlook.”
Nora hung up.
She walked toward Elsie.
“Sweetheart.”
Elsie looked up.
“Do you remember Daddy teaching you a special pattern?”
“Lots.”
“One he said you could never forget?”
Elsie considered.
“He called it the safe song.”
Nora’s face changed.
“What safe?”
“He didn’t say.”
“How does it go?”
Elsie tapped the table.
Three.
Pause.
One.
Pause.
Four.
Pause.
One.
Pause.
Five.
Nora stared.
Caleb recognized it.
3.1415.
“Pi.”
Elsie nodded.
“Daddy said it never ends.”
Caleb looked at the brass key.
A hidden compartment.
A phone.
Passwords encoded through dates and timing.
Daniel had turned his daughter’s memory into something no hacker could steal.
“Did he teach you more?”
Elsie began tapping.
Nine.
Two.
Six.
Five.
Three.
Five.
Eight.
Nine.
Caleb wrote the digits.
3.141592653589...
Then Elsie stopped.
“After that he said to use my birthday.”
Nora whispered, “September twenty-six.”
9-26.
Caleb combined the sequence.
A password.
He returned to Daniel’s phone.
Opened the CLOCKWORK folder.
Entered the digits.
Unlocked.
Dozens of files appeared.
Photographs.
Contracts.
Audio clips.
Names.
And one document titled:
BLUE LEDGER LOCATION.
Caleb opened it.
Only a photograph appeared.
A framed portrait of Caleb’s grandfather inside Voss Restaurante.
He knew the painting.
It hung in the original dining room.
Behind it?
Too obvious.
A second image showed the frame removed.
Inside the wall was a safe.
The combination field read:
ELSIE KNOWS.
Caleb stared at the clock.
1:48.
Twelve minutes.
Nora saw the time.
“You’re not going to the warehouse.”
“I have to.”
“No. We know Daniel’s alive. We have evidence.”
“We have a photograph.”
“We have files.”
“Which may not survive unless we understand them.”
“Then call police.”
“Which police?”
Nora had no answer.
Caleb walked to a cabinet.
Inside was an emergency phone purchased anonymously months earlier.
He dialed one person.
Maya Torres.
A federal prosecutor Caleb had met through a charity board and, more importantly, someone who had no connection to Voss security.
She answered angrily.
“Do you know what time it is?”
“I need you to listen without interrupting.”
“Caleb—”
“A man may be held against his will. My company security system has been compromised. I have evidence of blackmail and financial crimes, and I don’t know whether local law enforcement is involved.”
Silence.
Then Maya’s voice changed.
“Where are you?”
“I’m not telling you yet.”
“Good.”
That response reassured him.
“I’m going to send you an encrypted file.”
“Do not send it to my government account.”
“Where?”
She gave him an address.
“What else?”
“I’m expected at a warehouse in eight minutes.”
“Do not go.”
“They have a man named Wade Kessler.”
“Caleb.”
“And they may know where Daniel Hart is.”
“Do not go.”
He looked at Nora.
She knew from his face that he already had decided.
Maya cursed.
“If you insist on being reckless, keep your phone connected to me.”
“They may search it.”
“Then use the emergency phone and hide it.”
Caleb slipped it into the lining of his coat.
“I’ll send a team, but I need time.”
“How much?”
“Twenty minutes.”
“I have six.”
“Then stay alive for fourteen more.”
He almost smiled.
He left Nora, Elsie and the evidence in the apartment.
Before he went, Elsie ran to him.
“Mr. Voss.”
He crouched.
She placed Daniel’s broken-watch photograph in his hand.
“Bring Daddy home.”
Caleb looked at the child who had discovered in minutes what teams of adults had missed for nearly a year.
“I’m going to try.”
Elsie shook her head.
“Daddy says trying is what people say when they want permission to quit.”
Despite everything, Caleb smiled.
“What does he say instead?”
“Do the next right thing.”
Caleb stood.
“All right.”
He entered the elevator.
At 1:59 a.m., he pulled into the abandoned Voss warehouse.
One overhead light burned inside.
Wade sat tied to a chair.
Grant Mercer stood behind him.
And beside Grant was a man Caleb had not seen since his father’s funeral.
Richard Voss.
His uncle smiled.
“Right on time.”
Caleb looked at the clock on the warehouse wall.
2:00:00.
Richard lifted a remote control.
The clock froze.
2:00:01.
Then eleven seconds vanished.
May you like
And every camera in the warehouse went black.
For the first time, Caleb stood inside the blind spot instead of watching it—and he finally understood why Daniel had been terrified.
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