Chapter 6 - Road to Savannah
The rain poured in relentless sheets over the hood of the unmarked black SUV as it sped south along Interstate 16 toward the Georgia coast.
Daniel drove with both hands firmly on the wheel, checking his rearview mirror every twenty seconds. Janelle sat in the passenger seat, Elijah asleep in the rear car seat beneath a soft blue blanket. The rhythmic thumping of the heavy wipers was the only sound breaking the tense silence inside the cabin.
""You handled yourself back there,"" Daniel said quietly, his eyes focused on the dark asphalt ahead. ""Most people would have frozen.""
""I work in a neonatal intensive care unit,"" Janelle replied, looking out into the pitch-black pine forests rushing past. ""When a premature infant goes into cardiac arrest, you don't have time to panic. You move, or someone dies. It’s the same principle.""
A faint, genuine smile touched the corner of Daniel’s lips. ""Min-jae always said the strongest people in the world were the ones who didn't care about looking strong. He would have liked you.""
""He did,"" Janelle murmured. ""He called me 'the warden' because I wouldn't let him eat greasy takeout in Danielle’s hospital room.""
Her smile faded as she watched the highway signs flash by. Macon. Dublin. Metter. Each mile brought them closer to Savannah, but further away from the safety of Daniel’s corporate fortress in Atlanta.
""What do you think is in that safety deposit box, Daniel?""
Daniel stared into the rainy night. ""When our father died of a heart attack twenty years ago, Robert took control of Song Logistics overnight. I was eighteen. Min-jae was twenty. Robert told us our father had accrued millions in gambling debts and bad real estate ventures, and that Robert sacrificed his personal fortune to save the family business.""
Daniel gripped the steering wheel tighter until his knuckles turned white. ""Min-jae never believed it. He spent five years digging into old paper archives before Robert digitized everything. Right before Min-jae cut ties with the family, he told me that Robert didn't save our father's company—he embezzled it, staged the bankruptcy panic, and forced our father into a fatal cardiac crisis with forged audit reports.""
Janelle gasped. ""You think Robert murdered your father?""
""I think Robert systematically destroyed anyone who stood between him and total control of the Song fortune,"" Daniel said, his voice flat with lethal certainty. ""Min-jae knew it. And that's why Min-jae’s car went off that bridge in Charlotte.""
At three in the morning, the SUV rolled through the moss-draped historic squares of downtown Savannah. The air here was warm, damp, and smelled of salt water and old oak trees.
Daniel pulled into a secluded parking garage behind a historic brick building overlooking Johnson Square. First National Bank of Savannah occupied the ground floor, its neoclassical stone columns looking ancient and immovable under the amber streetlamps.
""The bank doesn't open until nine,"" Janelle whispered, looking at the heavy wrought-iron gates.
""The bank manager is a man named Thomas Choi,"" Daniel said, turning off the ignition. ""He was my father's college roommate. He’s eighty-four years old, and he sleeps in an apartment directly above the vault. He told my father thirty years ago that if a Song ever showed up at his back door with a brass key, he would open the vault regardless of what time it was.""
Daniel got out, walked around to open Janelle’s door, and reached into the back to unbuckle Elijah. He lifted the sleeping child into his arms with careful, surprisingly natural gentleness, tucking the baby’s head against his collarbone.
Janelle grabbed the diaper bag and followed him through a narrow, cobblestone alleyway toward a heavy oak service door hidden beneath a canopy of wisteria.
Daniel knocked three times. Paused. Then knocked twice more.
A minute passed in dead silence. Then, a small brass peephole slid open. A pair of sharp, watery eyes behind thick bifocals peered through the opening.
""Who is there?"" an old, gravelly voice demanded in Korean, then in English.
""It's Daniel,"" Daniel said softly against the wood. ""Daniel Song. Min-jae is gone, Mr. Choi. But his son is here.""
The heavy deadbolts retracted with three distinct clunks. The door creaked open, revealing a frail, silver-haired man in a plaid bathrobe, holding an old revolver at his side.
May you like
Thomas Choi looked from Daniel’s face down to the baby sleeping against his chest. His old eyes welled with tears.
""Come inside, boy,"" Thomas whispered, stepping back. ""Before the wolves see where you hid.""
