Chapter 7 - THE COUSIN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Nathan showed the message to Quinn despite Evan's warning.
She read it twice.
"You are not going alone."
"If he sees police, he may run."
"If you go alone, you may not come back."
Daniel agreed.
"We can follow without being visible."
Nathan shook his head.
"Evan grew up with me."
"Which means he knows exactly how you think."
Grace watched Nathan from the table.
"He also knows what you will risk for family."
Nathan looked at her.
"And I know what he will risk for money."
Grace's expression said she was not convinced.
Evan sent an address.
It belonged to a private aviation hangar at Lakeshore Executive Airport.
Nathan recognized the facility as one leased by Cole Holdings for corporate aircraft.
Quinn arranged surveillance teams outside the property line.
Nathan wore a concealed transmitter beneath his shirt.
"If he searches me, this ends."
Quinn adjusted the device.
"Then do not let him search you."
"Excellent plan."
"I am serious."
"So am I."
Grace stood as Nathan prepared to leave.
"Bring her back."
He knew she meant Evelyn.
"If she is there."
"She was trying to stop this before Lily was born."
Grace looked down.
"I owe her more than I can explain."
Nathan wanted to ask whether Grace had trusted Evelyn more than she had trusted him.
He knew the question was unfair.
He kept it to himself.
The hangar doors were half open when Nathan arrived.
A Gulfstream jet sat inside beneath white industrial lights.
Evan stood near the nose of the aircraft in shirtsleeves.
He looked exhausted.
"You came."
Nathan walked toward him.
"You sound surprised."
"I was not sure Daniel would let you."
"Daniel does not own me."
"Neither did your father."
Nathan stopped six feet away.
"You helped Conrad remove me from the company."
Evan looked at the concrete floor.
"Yes."
"You planted the red coat in Grace's hospital room."
Evan looked up sharply.
"No."
"You were there."
"I was there because your father told me to be."
Nathan stared at him.
"My father is dead."
"He left instructions."
"Everyone seems to have received instructions except me."
Evan almost smiled, but the expression died quickly.
"That was Richard's specialty."
Nathan moved closer.
"Where is my mother?"
Evan looked toward the plane.
"Not here."
Nathan's jaw tightened.
"Then why did you call me?"
"Because she is moving tonight."
"From where?"
"A private residence outside Madison."
"Whose residence?"
"Conrad's."
Nathan felt his anger sharpen.
"You knew she was alive."
"For three years."
Nathan punched him.
Evan staggered backward into a workbench.
The transmitter under Nathan's shirt crackled.
Quinn's voice whispered through a tiny earpiece.
"Nathan, stop."
Nathan ignored her.
Evan wiped blood from his lip.
"I deserved that."
"You deserved worse."
"Probably."
Nathan grabbed his shirt.
"Why did you say nothing?"
Evan did not resist.
"Because my father died owing Conrad Vale seventeen million dollars."
Nathan froze.
Evan continued.
"Conrad bought the debt."
"Your father never had that kind of debt."
"You think you knew our family finances because Richard let you see the version he wanted you to see."
Nathan released him.
Evan straightened his shirt.
"Conrad told me if I cooperated, he would forgive the debt and leave my mother and sister alone."
"So you sold me."
"At first, I gave him schedules."
"Schedules."
"Board calendars, travel plans, security changes."
"Then what?"
Evan looked ashamed.
"Then he asked for access tokens."
Nathan thought of the false two-million-dollar transfer.
"You forged my payment to Grace."
Evan nodded.
"Yes."
"You manipulated the garage video."
"I authorized access to the software."
"That is not an answer."
"I did not create the video."
"Who did?"
"Rourke's team."
Nathan stared at him.
"Rourke works for Conrad?"
"Rourke works for whoever keeps certain files buried."
"What files?"
Evan took out a flash card and set it on the workbench.
"This is why I called you."
Nathan did not touch it.
"What is on it?"
"A copy of the access logs for the synthesis system."
"Why give it to me now?"
"Because Conrad ordered me to make another video tonight."
Nathan felt cold.
"Of what?"
Evan looked at him.
"You confessing to paying Grace to abduct Lily."
Nathan's face hardened.
"They have enough footage of me to build that?"
"More than enough."
"Why tonight?"
"Because tomorrow morning the board will petition the court to declare you temporarily unfit to manage the family trust assets."
"On what basis?"
"Emotional instability, criminal exposure, and concealment of a child."
Nathan laughed bitterly.
"And you will testify?"
Evan did not answer.
Nathan understood.
"You planned to."
"Until Grace was attacked."
"That changed your conscience?"
"Lily did."
Nathan stared at him.
Evan looked away.
"I saw her in the hospital."
"Why were you in Grace's room?"
"I went to warn her."
"About what?"
"That Rourke had people inside the hospital."
"Did you?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"She was asleep."
Nathan's eyes narrowed.
"Then why not wake her?"
Evan's voice became smaller.
"Because I was afraid."
Nathan stepped back in disgust.
"A four-year-old was braver than you."
Evan accepted it.
"Yes."
Nathan picked up the flash card.
"Where is Evelyn?"
Evan gave him coordinates.
"Conrad keeps her in a secured farmhouse owned through North Cross Medical Holdings."
"Why not kill her?"
"Insurance."
"Against what?"
"Richard."
Nathan frowned.
"My father is dead."
"He was not always dead."
Evan leaned against the workbench.
"Richard tried to pull out of the arrangement six years ago."
"Before Lily was born."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I do not know."
"You know enough."
Evan looked at him.
"I know he started moving money into protected accounts."
"For Grace?"
"Some."
"For Evelyn?"
"Some."
"And the rest?"
Evan shook his head.
"A trust under a name I could never trace."
Nathan's phone vibrated.
Quinn's voice came through his earpiece.
"We have movement outside."
Nathan looked toward the hangar doors.
A black SUV had stopped beyond the fence.
Evan's face drained of color.
"He knows."
"Conrad?"
"Or Rourke."
The hangar lights went out.
Nathan heard the Gulfstream's auxiliary power unit shut down.
Darkness swallowed the building.
"Down."
Evan pulled Nathan behind the workbench.
A sharp crack echoed from the far wall.
A bullet punched through a metal cabinet.
Quinn shouted through Nathan's earpiece.
"Shots fired, move now."
Nathan crawled toward the aircraft.
Evan followed.
Another shot struck the concrete where Evan's head had been seconds earlier.
Police sirens erupted outside.
The shooter changed position.
Nathan saw a shadow near the side door.
Then the hangar flooded with blue and red emergency lights from approaching vehicles.
The shadow disappeared.
Quinn's team entered with weapons drawn.
"Hands where I can see them."
Nathan raised his hands.
Evan did the same.
Quinn reached them first.
"Are you hit?"
Nathan shook his head.
Evan looked toward the side door.
"He will not stop now."
Quinn handcuffed him.
Evan did not resist.
Nathan looked at her.
"He is cooperating."
"He also admitted to fraud, evidence manipulation, and conspiracy."
"He knows where my mother is."
Quinn looked at Evan.
"Then he can tell us from a secure room."
Evan laughed softly.
"There is no secure room."
Quinn tightened the cuffs.
"There is tonight."
As officers led him away, Evan turned toward Nathan.
"Do not trust the birth certificate."
Nathan frowned.
"What?"
"Lily's."
"Why?"
Evan looked at the officers beside him and shouted before they pushed him through the door.
"Your name is not the one they changed."
Nathan stood frozen.
Grace had told him Lily's birth certificate did not list him as the father.
What other name could have been changed?
Then Daniel called.
His voice was tense.
"Nathan, the lab completed a rapid kinship screen from the hospital samples."
Nathan's heart slammed against his ribs.
"Is Lily mine?"
"Yes."
Relief hit him so hard he had to brace against the aircraft.
Then Daniel continued.
"But there is another match in the database."
Nathan closed his eyes.
"Who?"
"The maternal line does not match Grace."
Nathan opened his eyes.
For one horrible second, the entire world went silent.
"Say that again."
May you like
Daniel did.
"The preliminary test says Grace is not Lily's biological mother."
