Chapter 5 - The Ledger Of Blood
Silas Crane’s legs seemed to give out beneath him. He sank into the nearest leather armchair, his hands trembling as he laid his leather briefcase flat on the table. The polished exterior of the young corporate prodigy had fractured completely, revealing the terrified, calculating creature underneath.
“Caleb, listen to me,” Silas stammered, his voice losing its refined cadence. “Whatever someone told you... whatever lies that woman has been feeding you... she’s trying to extort the company. She knows Owen died on company business, and she’s trying to trigger a multi-million-dollar wrongful death payout.”
“Mara didn't say a word,” Caleb replied, his voice dead and terrifyingly calm. “Her daughter showed me the master clock records. You see, Silas, you were very clever with your automated script. Three seconds. That was all you needed to spoof Owen’s credentials across the security nodes while you initiated the wire transfers to your shell company in the Caymans.”
Silas swallowed hard. “That’s... that’s technical nonsense. A network lag. We proved it in the internal report!”
“We didn't prove anything,” Caleb said. “You wrote the report. I signed it because I trusted your father, and because I thought you were incapable of this level of grotesque stupidity.”
Caleb slid an open iPad across the glossy wood table. It was playing the video Jonah had recovered from the wine cellar’s cold storage. On the high-definition screen, Silas’s face was unmistakable. His hand was gripped around Owen Ward’s throat, pushing the technician against an electrical cabinet while an accomplice—a private security contractor named Vance—forced a plastic tube into the maintenance worker’s mouth.
“That’s Vance, isn't it?” Caleb whispered. “The man you hired to handle private logistics for the hospitality group. You had him stage the crash. You had him spike Owen’s thermos with cheap bourbon so the state troopers would write it off as another pathetic drunk driver who wrapped his sedan around a concrete pillar.”
Silas stared at the screen, his chest heaving. His pupils were dilated with sheer panic. “He was going to ruin everything, Caleb! He found the escrow accounts! I didn't steal that money for myself—I was building a hedge! Our overseas investments were tanking after the European port seizure, and you were too blind to see it! I did it to protect the Voss family!”
“By butchering an innocent father of a seven-year-old girl?” Caleb asked, his tone darkening. “By putting his widow in a maid’s uniform and forcing her to clean your bathroom for minimum wage so you could watch her every single day to make sure she didn't ask questions?”
Silas lunged forward, slamming his palms against the table. “He was a nobody! A contractor who made forty dollars an hour turning screws! His life was worthless compared to what we were building here!”
Before Silas could draw another breath, Caleb moved.
May you like
In a motion so fast it defied his age, Caleb vaulted the corner of the mahogany table, grabbed Silas by the throat with one hand, and slammed his head downward into the solid wood. The sound of impact cracked through the room like a gunshot. Silas let out a muffled shriek as Caleb dragged him upward by his silk necktie, pressing him against the panoramic glass window forty floors above the city streets.
“The only worthless life in this room,” Caleb growled into Silas’s ear, “is yours.”
