Chapter 4 - The Truth Unmasked
The discovery of Caleb's hidden ledger changed everything.
Armed with the document, Daniel did not wait for the Whitlocks to bring the police to the hospital. He left a heavy security detail with Hannah and headed directly to the downtown headquarters of the Whitlock Shipping Corporation, where Claire and her father were holding an emergency board meeting to deal with the harbor strike.
The glass doors of the executive boardroom shattered as Daniel’s men kicked them open.
Richard Whitlock, a silver-haired man with a face lined by greed, stood up in fury. "Carver! You can't just barge in here! We have an active warrant for that maid's arrest!"
"You have nothing," Daniel said, stepping into the room and tossing the encrypted ledger onto the center of the conference table.
Claire, who was sitting beside her father with a furious, red face, looked down at the paper. Her expression instantly drained of color.
"Where did you find this?" she whispered, her voice trembling.
"My brother Aaron didn't die in an industrial accident, Richard," Daniel said, his voice dropping to a terrifying, deadly register. "He was murdered because he discovered that the Whitlock company was smuggling illegal cargo through my docks using forged Carver manifests. And Caleb Monroe didn't embezzle your money. You abducted him because he found the accounts you were using to pay off the harbor police."
Richard Whitlock tried to bluster. "This is speculation! A piece of paper written by a missing accountant means nothing in a court of law!"
"It does when it's paired with the testimony of the man who actually wrote it," Daniel said.
He stepped aside, and the door opened once more.
Supported by two of Daniel’s men, a thin, gaunt man with dark circles under his eyes walked into the room. His clothes were wrinkled, but his face was unmistakably that of Caleb Monroe.
"Caleb!" Claire gasped, her hands flying to her mouth.
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"They kept me in a secure warehouse near the old shipyards for three months, Daniel," Caleb said, his voice shaky but clear. "They wanted the master passwords to the offshore accounts. But I didn't give them up because I knew if I did, they would kill me instantly."
Daniel looked at Claire, whose hands were shaking so violently she couldn't even look him in the eye. "Your family is finished, Claire. The federal authorities have already raided your warehouses. The harbor strike stays in place until your family signs over every asset to the estate of Aaron Brooks and his child."
