Chapter 3 - THE MAN AUSTIN DIDN'T WARN HER ABOUT
Mara led Sadi through a service stairwell into a waiting sedan.
Austin sat in the back.
Sadi slapped him.
Hard.
Mara did not stop her.
Austin touched his cheek.
“I deserved some of that.”
“Some?”
“You needed to look unimportant.”
“You left two dollars like I was trash.”
“Yes.”
“And then sent a murderer into my diner?”
“No.”
“Grant’s man followed me because of you.”
“He followed because Grant’s surveillance picked up my visit.”
Sadi stared.
“You knew they were watching me?”
“I suspected.”
“You came anyway.”
“Yes.”
She nearly hit him again.
Mara intervened.
“We need to leave the station area.”
The car moved.
Sadi looked at Austin.
“How long have you known my father was murdered?”
He did not answer immediately.
Wrong choice.
“How long?”
“About seven years.”
Sadi went completely still.
“You knew.”
“I knew the robbery story was false.”
“And you never told me.”
“I couldn’t prove what happened.”
“So you let me believe it.”
Austin looked away.
“Yes.”
That answer hurt more than an excuse.
Mara opened one of the files.
Nathan worked in internal controls for Pembrook Consolidated’s Harbor Division.
Eight years earlier, he discovered irregular procurement payments routed through vendors linked to Grant Mercer.
Nathan approached Austin privately.
Austin believed enough to begin checking.
William Pembrook did not.
“My father thought Nathan had found accounting irregularities,” Austin said. “Not murder-level corruption.”
“Then what?”
“William ordered internal review.”
“Instead of police.”
“Yes.”
Sadi laughed bitterly.
“Protect the company.”
Austin said nothing.
That was answer enough.
Then Mara showed her a record.
Nathan had scheduled a meeting with Grant the night he died.
Parking Garage C.
Harbor Operations Building.
Time:
10:30 p.m.
Nathan’s body was found two miles away at 2:10 a.m.
Wallet missing.
Watch missing.
Briefcase gone.
Police concluded robbery after leaving work.
Sadi looked at Austin.
“Where was Grant?”
“Company logs said he flew to Chicago that evening.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
The travel record had been falsified.
Then Austin added:
“The person who approved the correction was Grant himself.”
Sadi looked at the city lights passing outside.
For eight years she had imagined an anonymous thief.
May you like
Now the dead man had a face.
And a corner office.
