Chapter 11 - THE FOURTH PASSENGER
The Brooklyn storage facility looked ordinary.
That made Caitlyn hate it immediately.
Ordinary places had become dangerous in the last day.
Hospitals.
Office towers.
Parking garages.
Now rows of gray warehouse doors under fluorescent lights.
Caitlyn sat inside the command SUV with a security officer while Damian and Vincent entered through opposite sides of the property.
She wore an earpiece this time.
No one had asked whether she wanted one.
Damian had simply placed it in her hand.
"Do not leave the vehicle."
Those had been his final words before stepping out.
Caitlyn had nodded.
He had looked unconvinced.
She was mildly offended by how justified that was.
"Unit twelve clear," Vincent's voice said in her ear.
Another voice followed.
"Unit thirteen clear."
Damian spoke.
"Fourteen locked from inside."
Caitlyn sat straighter.
The security officer beside her touched his weapon.
Metal crashed through the earpiece.
Then shouting.
Caitlyn gripped the seat.
"Damian?"
No answer.
"Vincent?"
Gunfire cracked once.
The officer beside her reached for the door.
"Stay."
"I'm not going anywhere."
He looked surprised.
Caitlyn glared.
"I can learn."
The radio hissed.
Vincent's voice returned.
"Rowan is down."
Caitlyn's heart stopped.
"Dead?"
"No."
Damian came through next.
"Noah isn't here."
Her stomach dropped.
She closed her eyes.
Of course.
Another location.
Another empty room.
Another few minutes of hope transformed into rage.
Damian continued.
"But we found his medication."
Caitlyn opened her eyes.
"Current?"
"Prescription filled yesterday."
"Then he was there."
"Yes."
The SUV door opened three minutes later.
Damian climbed in.
There was dust on his coat and blood on one knuckle.
Caitlyn looked at it.
"Not yours?"
"Mine this time."
"Progress."
Vincent entered the other side.
"Rowan is talking."
"Already?" Caitlyn asked.
"Damian can be persuasive."
She looked at Damian's knuckle.
"I see."
"I asked him questions."
"With your hand?"
"Once."
Vincent coughed.
"Twice."
Damian gave him a look.
Caitlyn should have been horrified.
Instead she thought of Noah strapped to a bed.
That frightened her about herself.
"Where did they move him?"
Vincent handed her a photograph.
A narrow brick building stood beside the East River.
"Rowan says Mercer uses a private clinic there."
"How far?"
"Twenty minutes."
"Then go."
Damian did not move.
Caitlyn stared.
"Why aren't we moving?"
"Because Rowan also said the clinic is wired."
"Wired how?"
"Cameras, remote locks, alarms."
Vincent's expression tightened.
"Possibly explosives."
Caitlyn felt sick.
"Noah is inside a building that might explode."
Damian looked at her.
"We don't know if he's still there."
"That is not better."
"No."
Vincent's phone rang.
He answered.
Then his expression changed.
"Malcolm."
Damian held out his hand.
Vincent gave him the phone.
"Where are you?" Damian asked.
Caitlyn could not hear Malcolm's answer.
Damian's face hardened.
"No."
A pause.
"You disappeared after your car exploded."
Another pause.
"Then prove it."
Damian ended the call.
Caitlyn stared at him.
"What?"
"Malcolm wants to meet."
"Where?"
"A church in Brooklyn."
Vincent frowned.
"He's becoming dramatic."
"He's frightened."
Caitlyn looked at Damian.
"Do you believe him?"
"I believe frightened men sometimes become useful."
They changed direction.
The church was small and nearly empty.
Caitlyn expected Damian to make her stay in the car.
He did not.
"You wanted to meet the fourth passenger," he said.
"Stay close."
They entered together.
Malcolm Hamilton sat alone in the third pew.
His silver hair was uncombed.
A bandage crossed his temple.
He looked ten years older than he had that morning.
Caitlyn stopped in the aisle.
Malcolm looked at her.
"I'm sorry."
The words made her angrier than denial would have.
"For which part?"
He lowered his eyes.
"All of it."
Damian remained standing.
"Start talking."
Malcolm looked toward the altar.
"Your father asked me to investigate Mercer in 2019."
"Why you?"
"Because I was the idiot who hired him."
Damian's jaw tightened.
Malcolm continued.
"Northstar's margins were collapsing."
"Mercer offered contacts at the ports, faster inspections, cleaner routes."
"At first, I believed he was bribing bureaucrats."
Caitlyn stared.
"And that was acceptable to you?"
Malcolm looked ashamed.
"At the time, I had a flexible relationship with morality."
"My parents are dead because of your flexibility."
He flinched.
"Yes."
Caitlyn had expected excuses.
His agreement left her nowhere to push.
Malcolm took a breath.
"By 2019, Mercer had turned Northstar into a pipeline."
"Drugs, weapons, money."
"He was using our trucks and our name while keeping enough evidence to blackmail everyone who helped him."
Damian's voice was cold.
"The ledger."
Malcolm nodded.
"Robert hired Thomas Elmore because Thomas had no connection to us."
Caitlyn's throat tightened at her father's name.
"Why was my father in the car with you?"
"Because he found the ledger."
Malcolm looked at her.
"He called me that afternoon."
"He said someone had searched his office."
"He did not trust electronic transfer anymore."
"So we agreed to meet and bring the evidence to Robert personally."
Caitlyn's hands curled into fists.
"My mother and Noah were with him."
Malcolm closed his eyes briefly.
"Your mother refused to let him go alone."
That sounded exactly like Sarah Elmore.
The familiarity hurt.
"I got into the car at a service station."
"Peter Vane followed us."
"Mercer was with him."
Caitlyn felt cold.
"Noah saw them."
"Yes."
"Then the truck changed routes."
Malcolm nodded.
"It came through the median too cleanly to be an accident."
His voice became rough.
"Your father swerved."
"The car spun."
"I remember glass."
"I remember your mother screaming Noah's name."
Caitlyn stopped breathing.
Damian moved closer to her but did not touch her.
Malcolm's eyes filled.
"When I woke, I was outside the car."
"Robert's people had arrived before the police because I had triggered an emergency beacon."
"Your father was alive for a few minutes."
Caitlyn's face crumpled despite every effort.
"What?"
Malcolm swallowed.
"He gave me the drive."
"He told me to get it to Robert."
Caitlyn's voice came out as a whisper.
"Did he say anything else?"
Malcolm looked directly at her.
"He said tell Cait this wasn't her fault."
The church disappeared.
Caitlyn sat down because her legs no longer worked.
She had spent three years secretly blaming herself for not being in the car.
If she had taken that weekend off.
If she had gone home.
If she had called earlier.
If she had insisted they delay the drive because of weather.
A thousand useless ifs.
Her father had known her well enough to predict them while dying.
Caitlyn pressed both hands over her face.
Damian sat beside her.
He did not speak.
He simply remained there.
Malcolm continued quietly.
"Robert removed my name from the report."
"Why?" Damian asked.
"Because he thought Mercer still had people inside law enforcement."
"He wanted Mercer to think I had died or disappeared."
"Instead, Mercer learned I survived."
"So Robert buried everything."
Damian's voice hardened.
"Including the truth about Caitlyn's parents."
Malcolm looked at him.
"He said he was protecting you."
"He was protecting the company."
"Both."
Damian laughed once without humor.
"He never knew the difference."
Caitlyn lowered her hands.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Malcolm looked at her.
"I wanted to."
"That is a useless sentence."
"I know."
"You saw me at work for two years."
Her anger returned through the grief.
"You called me sweetheart."
"You smiled at me in hallways."
"You knew my father died because he helped your family."
Malcolm's face tightened.
"Yes."
"And you said nothing."
"Robert made me promise."
"Robert was dead."
Malcolm had no answer.
Caitlyn stood.
"Then your promise became cowardice."
He looked down.
"Yes."
Damian watched his uncle for a long moment.
"Who inside the company is helping Mercer now?"
Malcolm's expression changed.
"That is why I called."
He reached inside his coat.
Vincent immediately drew a weapon.
Malcolm froze.
"Easy."
He slowly removed a folded document.
"I found this in my townhouse before I left."
Damian took it.
It was a copy of the internal security protocol used to authorize the emergency override in Damian's office.
Only three people could approve it.
Damian.
Vincent.
And Hamilton Holdings general counsel, Eleanor Price.
Caitlyn knew Eleanor well.
Sixty-three.
Elegant.
Unfailingly polite.
The woman who had sent Caitlyn flowers after her parents died.
The woman who had personally approved Noah's extended insurance exception two years earlier.
Caitlyn went cold.
"Eleanor knows about Noah."
Malcolm nodded.
"She knows everything."
Vincent's phone buzzed.
He read the message.
Then looked at Damian.
"Price left the office forty minutes ago."
"Where?"
"No one knows."
Caitlyn thought of the leaked article.
The reporters downstairs.
The forged legal request for Noah's physical records.
The old Northstar cleanup.
General counsel could reach every one of those things.
Damian's face became ice.
"Find her."
Caitlyn's phone rang.
She looked down.
Eleanor Price.
Every person in the church stared at the screen.
Caitlyn answered on speaker.
"Hello?"
Eleanor's familiar voice came through.
"Caitlyn, thank God."
She sounded breathless.
"You need to get away from Damian immediately."
Caitlyn looked at him.
"Why?"
Eleanor lowered her voice.
"Because Vincent Russo is working with Mercer."
May you like
Vincent went completely still.
