Chapter 4 - The Betrayal Inside the Room
Nobody moved.
Cormac stared at the screen.
Josie stared at Cormac.
Emmett stared at neither.
He looked at the door.
“Lock it.”
Cormac slowly obeyed.
“Emmett—”
“Don’t.”
One word.
Quiet.
Dangerous.
Cormac stepped away from the laptop.
“My credentials were used.”
“So you’re saying you didn’t delete it?”
“Yes.”
“Can you prove that?”
“Not yet.”
Emmett looked at Josie.
“Do you trust him?”
Cormac almost laughed.
“You’re asking the housekeeper?”
“Yes.”
Josie disliked the question.
Trust was not evidence.
Patrick had taught her that.
“I trust patterns,” she said.
Emmett’s eyes shifted toward her.
“Cormac was with you when the notebook disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“Then unless he can be in two places at once, he didn’t physically take it.”
“He could have hired someone.”
“He could have. So could you.”
Cormac looked at her.
“Thank you, I think.”
“I’m not defending you.”
“I noticed.”
They examined access logs.
Cormac’s credentials had been used from a workstation inside hotel security.
The camera feed had been erased three minutes after Josie received the threatening message.
Security had two employees on duty.
One was found downstairs.
The other was missing.
His name was Daniel Voss.
Cormac pulled his employment record.
Six months at the hotel.
Recommended personally by Trent.
Emmett’s expression hardened.
“There’s your pattern.”
Police were notified.
Daniel’s address was searched.
Empty.
But investigators found cash, prepaid phones, and a photograph of Josie.
Someone had been watching her.
Emmett insisted she stay in a secured hotel suite.
“I can protect myself.”
“I know.”
“Then stop ordering me around.”
“I’m not ordering you.”
“You literally told security not to let me leave.”
“That was a request.”
“To armed men.”
“They’re unarmed.”
“That isn’t helping.”
Warren watched the argument with amusement.
“She’s staying,” he said.
Josie turned.
“You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“I’m on the side where you remain alive.”
That ended the debate.
The next evening, Emmett went to Victor’s mansion.
Police investigators knew about the meeting.
Cormac waited nearby.
Josie was supposed to remain at the hotel.
She did.
Technically.
She sat in the security office with Warren, watching the live feed from the discreet camera on Emmett’s jacket.
Victor welcomed his nephew with expensive bourbon.
“You look tired.”
“Busy week.”
“So I heard.”
Victor poured two glasses.
“You know, your father used to become obsessed with problems. Once he thought something was wrong, he couldn’t let it go.”
Emmett accepted the glass but didn’t drink.
“Was that what happened before he died?”
Victor’s hand stopped.
Only for a fraction of a second.
“What do you mean?”
“He was investigating contractors.”
Victor smiled.
“Your father investigated everything.”
“Royce Tanner.”
The smile disappeared.
Victor set down his glass.
“What about him?”
“He gave me records.”
Victor walked toward the fireplace.
“Royce is a thief.”
“Yes.”
“He’ll say anything to protect himself.”
“Probably.”
Emmett waited.
“Which is why I didn’t mention that he named you.”
Victor turned.
There it was.
Not surprise.
Calculation.
Josie saw it through the monitor.
“He knew,” she whispered.
Warren nodded.
Victor approached Emmett.
“You have no idea how this family survived after your father died.”
“Explain it.”
“Patrick was idealistic. He wanted every building perfect, every employee happy, every contractor honest. Businesses don’t work that way.”
“So you stole from him?”
“I protected what he built.”
“By billing premium materials and installing garbage?”
Victor’s face hardened.
“You sound exactly like him.”
“Thank you.”
“It wasn’t a compliment.”
Victor poured another drink.
“You think your father was some saint?”
“No.”
“Good. Because saints don’t build empires.”
Emmett leaned forward.
“What happened in room 2314?”
Victor froze.
At the hotel, Josie stopped breathing.
Victor recovered.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Three days before my father died.”
Nothing.
“Two whiskey glasses.”
Nothing.
“A medication bottle.”
Victor’s eyes changed.
Emmett saw it.
“You remember.”
Victor placed the bottle of bourbon down.
“Your father was sick.”
“My father had controlled hypertension.”
“He had more than that.”
“What?”
Victor looked toward the fire.
“He was frightened.”
“Of you?”
Victor laughed bitterly.
“Of what he’d built.”
He turned.
“Patrick discovered money was being moved. He thought I was behind all of it.”
“Were you?”
“Some.”
Emmett’s face hardened.
Victor continued quickly.
“But not all.”
That was unexpected.
“Who else?”
Victor hesitated.
“Your father discovered a second network. Somebody was using our contractor system for something bigger.”
“How much bigger?”
“Millions.”
“Who?”
Victor shook his head.
“I never knew.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I stole money, Emmett. I’m not pretending otherwise. But I did not kill my brother.”
The word kill filled the room.
Emmett had never used it.
Victor had.
At the hotel, Josie leaned toward the monitor.
“He just admitted Patrick might have been killed.”
Warren nodded grimly.
Emmett asked the obvious question.
“I said nothing about murder.”
Victor realized his mistake.
Then the camera went black.
Josie stood.
“Emmett?”
No response.
Cormac’s voice came through the secondary channel.
“Signal lost.”
“Get him out.”
Cormac was already moving.
Inside Victor’s house, Emmett heard the doors lock.
Victor looked toward the hallway.
“That wasn’t me.”
Emmett stood.
A man appeared behind Victor.
Daniel Voss.
The missing security employee.
He held a pistol.
Victor turned.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Daniel ignored him.
Another man entered.
Trent Bole.
Emmett finally understood.
Victor was guilty.
But Victor wasn’t in charge.
Trent smiled.
“You Kavanaughs have a remarkable habit of believing every crime requires a Kavanaugh.”
Victor looked furious.
“You worked for me.”
“For years.”
Trent removed Josie’s notebook from his coat.
Emmett’s eyes locked onto it.
“You stole it.”
“It was never hers.”
“It belonged to my father.”
“Exactly.”
Trent opened the notebook.
“Patrick was clever. Too clever.”
Victor stepped toward him.
“What did you do?”
Trent looked at Victor almost pityingly.
“You really never figured it out?”
Then Emmett understood something else.
Victor’s guilt had made him easy to manipulate.
Trent had hidden his own crimes beneath Victor’s.
“Patrick found your theft,” Trent said. “Then he found mine.”
Victor’s face changed.
“You…”
“Your little consulting scheme was useful camouflage.”
Emmett’s voice was ice.
“What happened to my father?”
Trent smiled.
“He asked the same question Josie always asks.”
Emmett waited.
“Why don’t the numbers match?”
Outside, Cormac and police units approached the property.
Inside, Trent pulled one folded page from Josie’s notebook.
Patrick’s original notes.
“You want the truth?”
Emmett stared at him.
Trent held the page over the fireplace.
“Your father discovered everything.”
He released it.
Emmett lunged.
May you like
The paper fell toward the flames.
And at the same instant, a gunshot exploded through the house.
