Chapter 19 - The Second Glass
The clue came from June.
When Lena played the cassette for her mother, June listened twice.
Then she said, “There was another book.”
Lena turned.
“What?”
“Thomas used to call it his clean copy.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Mom.”
“He stopped bringing it home.”
Victor leaned forward.
“What did it look like?”
June frowned.
“Green binding. Smaller than the blue one.”
Lena remembered something.
Her father donated old accounting textbooks to St. Anthony’s Church after the scandal.
Victor’s church.
They drove there.
Father Michael let them into the basement library.
Boxes of donated books lined the wall.
Lena searched titles her father loved.
Advanced Auditing.
Corporate Fraud Examination.
Managerial Accounting.
Inside the last textbook, hollowed pages concealed a green notebook.
Lena laughed and cried at once.
“Dad.”
The notebook contained what Leon feared most.
Names.
Not just companies.
People.
Every person who approved, transported, disguised, or benefited from stolen Romano funds.
Graham Whitmore.
Two board directors.
Bellrose executives.
Leon Mercer.
And a lawyer named Stephen Crowe.
Victor went still.
“My general counsel.”
The attorney who knew about the private audit.
The source who warned Leon.
Crowe was still working for Victor.
Still attending meetings.
Still receiving legal strategy.
Dmitri reached for his phone.
Victor stopped him.
“No.”
“You want him walking free?”
“I want him useful.”
They planned one final deception.
Victor invited Stephen Crowe to a private dinner at the Grandeur.
Only Victor, Lena, Dmitri, and Crowe attended.
A bottle of champagne sat on the table.
Crowe stared at it.
Victor noticed.
“Nervous?”
“Given recent events?”
Victor poured four glasses.
Lena nearly laughed at the symbolism.
Victor lifted one.
Crowe did not.
Victor asked, “Anything wrong?”
Crowe’s face tightened.
“No.”
Victor took a sip.
Perfectly safe.
Then he placed the green ledger on the table.
Crowe’s color vanished.
Victor said, “Recognize it?”
“No.”
“Interesting.”
Victor opened to Crowe’s name.
The lawyer stood.
“I need to make a call.”
Dmitri blocked the door.
Crowe looked at Victor.
“Is this a threat?”
“No.”
Victor glanced at Lena.
“I am trying something new.”
Lena hid a smile.
Ruiz entered from the adjoining room.
“Stephen Crowe, we have a warrant for your phone and electronic devices.”
Crowe’s face collapsed.
He immediately began bargaining.
Within two hours, he revealed Leon’s current location.
Not a townhouse.
Not a safe house.
The Grandeur.
Lena stared.
“He’s here?”
Crowe nodded.
“There are sealed archive spaces below the hotel. Old bank storage from before the renovation.”
Victor knew them.
A century earlier the Grandeur building had housed a private financial club.
The basement contained two reinforced vaults.
Leon had been entering through a service tunnel connected to an adjoining parking structure.
Dmitri cursed.
“He never left his headquarters.”
Lena understood the arrogance.
While everyone searched Manhattan, Leon remained beneath the building.
Close to the evidence.
Close to Victor.
Close to Room 814.
Ruiz assembled officers.
Victor wanted to join.
She refused.
Then an alarm sounded.
Fire.
Smoke appeared on the eighth-floor cameras.
Room 814.
Lena ran before anyone could stop her.
Victor followed.
They reached the archive floor.
Smoke filled the corridor.
Sprinklers activated.
The door to Room 814 stood open.
Inside, boxes burned.
Someone had set fire to the financial archives.
Lena stared at the flames.
Her father’s remaining records.
Years of proof.
Victor pulled her backward.
“The ledgers are safe.”
“It’s not just the ledgers.”
She watched Thomas’s old workplace disappear in smoke.
Then a shape moved at the end of the corridor.
Leon Mercer.
He stood beneath the emergency light.
For the first time since the gala, Victor faced him.
Leon smiled.
“You always were slow, Victor.”
Dmitri reached for his weapon.
Leon held up a small remote.
“Don’t.”
The fire alarm screamed.
Leon looked at Lena.
“Your father should have taken my offer.”
Lena stepped forward.
“What offer?”
Leon’s smile widened.
“To give him his reputation back.”
Her heart stopped.
Leon had offered Thomas a way out.
And Thomas refused.
Why?
Leon began backing toward the stairwell.
“Ask Victor what your father wanted instead.”
Then he disappeared behind the fire door.
Victor looked at Lena.
And for the first time, she saw fear in his face.
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Not fear of Leon.
Fear of answering her.
