Chapter 9: Shadows in the Penthouse
Chapter 9: Shadows in the Penthouse
The penthouse at the Grand Horizon Hotel was quiet, save for the hum of the secure terminal on the mahogany desk. I sat in the leather executive chair, scrolling through the encrypted dossier Special Agent David Vance had dropped off an hour ago.
Even with Harrison locked away in a federal medical facility and Julian wandering the streets like a ghost, there were loose ends. Richard Sterling—my sister Victoria's disgraced, opportunistic husband—had jumped bail before his extradition hearing could be finalized. He was hiding somewhere in the Cayman Islands, sitting on a stash of offshore digital assets he had skimmed from the company’s final hours.
My phone chimed on the desk. An incoming encrypted ping.
I tapped the screen. A video feed flickered to life.
It wasn't Richard. It was Victoria.
Her face was gaunt, her expensive makeup replaced by dark hollows under her eyes. She sat in a sterile, dimly lit motel room somewhere in upstate New York, staring straight into the camera lens with a mixture of terror and desperate malice.
"You think you won, don't you?" Victoria's voice shook, vibrating with suppressed hysteria. "You took our home, you ruined Dad, you threw Richard into a corner where he had to run. But you forgot one thing, Evelyn. Mom left a secondary portfolio—one that wasn't tied up in the probate court. And Richard took the private keys before the feds froze the accounts."
I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the desk, my expression completely unreadable. "Tell Richard that running across international waters with stolen assets only upgrades his federal charges from wire fraud to international racketeering. The NCIS and Interpol are already tracking his IP address."
Victoria let out a shrill, manic laugh that scraped against the microphone. "Let them look! By the time they knock on his door in George Town, he’ll be boarding a private yacht to a non-extradition country. And you’ll still be standing alone in the ruins of a family you tore apart!"
The screen went black.
I didn't flinch. I picked up my secure satellite phone and dialed a direct, high-priority extension.
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"David," I said the moment the line connected. "Victoria just made a mistake. She pinged me from a burner phone linked to an IP address in the Caymans. Richard isn't hiding alone. He's trying to liquidate the last secondary portfolio."
"On it, Captain," David's voice came back crisp and immediate. "I'm routing the coordinates to our liaison in the Cayman Islands Royal Police Force right now. He won't even make it to the dock."
