Chapter 6 - The Third Man
Cole left behind a notebook.
Most pages contained numbers.
Dates.
Payments.
Initials.
One set appeared repeatedly.
V.C.
Daniel recognized them.
Victor Cross.
His father.
Except Victor had supposedly died five years earlier.
“No,” Daniel said.
Alvarez slid a photograph across the table.
Taken four months ago.
An older man entering a private airfield.
Victor Cross.
Daniel’s father.
Alive.
Sophie stared.
Daniel laughed once, without humor.
“My wife comes back from the dead, and now my father?”
Victor had allegedly died from a heart attack overseas.
There had been no funeral because his body was supposedly cremated.
Daniel suddenly saw the pattern.
Richard had learned from someone.
Disappearances.
False deaths.
Paperwork.
Money.
Victor.
Sophie whispered, “Richard wasn’t protecting himself.”
“He was protecting Dad.”
Federal investigators traced the shell companies.
Victor controlled them.
Richard had been his front man.
The contaminated properties, insurance fraud, clinic, bribery—everything led upward.
Daniel remembered his father differently.
Strict.
Brilliant.
Demanding.
But not murderous.
Then he remembered something Victor often said:
Family survives because someone is willing to do what others won’t.
Daniel had once thought it meant sacrifice.
Now he understood.
Victor contacted them two days later.
Not by phone.
A letter arrived.
Daniel recognized the handwriting.
Daniel,
You have heard one side.
Come alone if you want the truth.
Beneath it was an address.
Sophie tore the letter in half.
“You’re not going.”
“I need answers.”
“You have a son.”
“And I’m trying to make sure he doesn’t spend his life looking over his shoulder.”
Sophie stared at him.
Then said something Daniel hadn’t expected.
“Then I’m going with you.”
The address led to an abandoned farmhouse.
Victor waited inside.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
“My son.”
Daniel wanted to hit him.
Instead he asked:
“Did you order Sophie killed?”
Victor looked at her.
“No.”
Sophie laughed bitterly.
“You expect me to believe you?”
“I ordered Richard to recover the evidence. He chose the method.”
“You built the system that let him do it.”
Victor didn’t deny it.
Daniel stepped closer.
“Why fake your death?”
“Because investigators were closing in.”
“And Rachel Mercer?”
Victor’s silence answered.
Sophie turned away.
“You killed her.”
“I did not personally—”
“Stop.”
Daniel’s voice filled the room.
Victor looked at his younger son.
For the first time, something like regret appeared.
“Daniel, come with me. Bring Noah. There is enough money for generations.”
“What about Sophie?”
Victor looked at her.
“She creates complications.”
Daniel understood.
His father still wanted her gone.
Daniel smiled faintly.
Victor frowned.
“What?”
Daniel opened his jacket.
A recording device was clipped inside.
Victor’s face changed.
“You always underestimated me,” Daniel said.
Then a red laser dot appeared on Sophie’s chest.
May you like
Victor whispered:
“So did you.”
