CHAPTER 6 — The Ledger Hidden Beneath the Grave
The hospital room fell silent.
Michael replayed Ryan's message over and over.
"Bring me Father's hidden ledger... or Mother's next."
Victoria Hale looked at him.
"Do you know where the ledger is?"
Michael slowly shook his head.
"My father never mentioned any ledger."
But then...
Lily quietly reached into the pocket of her hospital blanket.
"I think Grandpa wanted you to have this."
She pulled out a tiny brass key attached to a faded blue ribbon.
Michael froze.
He recognized it instantly.
His father had worn it around his neck every day until the day he died.
"Where did you get this?"
Lily swallowed.
"The night Grandpa died... he slipped it into my stuffed bear while everyone else was crying."
"He whispered..."
"'One day your daddy will understand.'"
Victoria's eyes widened.
"This wasn't random."
"Your father trusted Lily."
Within minutes, the three of them drove to Carter Memorial Cemetery under the cover of darkness.
Rain poured across the empty graveyard.
Lightning flashed as they stopped in front of Richard Carter's grave.
Michael knelt beside the headstone.
The brass key fit perfectly into a tiny keyhole hidden beneath the marble plaque.
Click.
The entire headstone shifted.
A narrow metal compartment slowly rose from beneath the grave.
Inside...
was an old leather journal wrapped in waterproof cloth.
Michael carefully opened the first page.
Every page contained names.
Politicians.
Judges.
Corporate executives.
Secret bank accounts.
Offshore transactions.
Bribes worth billions of dollars.
Victoria whispered,
"This isn't just evidence."
"It's enough to destroy half the country's most powerful people."
Suddenly...
A red laser dot appeared on Michael's chest.
Then another.
And another.
Victoria shouted,
"Snipers!"
Gunshots exploded through the cemetery.
Marble shattered.
Michael grabbed Lily and threw her behind the gravestone.
Masked gunmen surrounded them from every direction.
A loudspeaker echoed through the rain.
Ryan's voice.
"I knew you'd find it, brother."
"I was never after the ledger."
"I wanted everyone else to know where it was."
Black SUVs burst through the cemetery gates.
Dozens of armed men stormed toward the grave.
But they weren't Ryan's men.
Their uniforms carried no police insignia.
Only a silver wolf emblem.
Victoria's face turned pale.
"Oh no..."
"They're here."
Michael looked at her.
"Who are they?"
She answered with trembling lips.
"The people whose names are inside that ledger."
"They don't leave witnesses alive."
At that moment...
one of the masked men removed his helmet.
Michael felt the blood drain from his face.
It wasn't a criminal.
It was the Chief of National Police...
the man who had stood beside Michael at his father's funeral ten years earlier.
The officer slowly raised his pistol.
Then smiled.
"Mr. Carter..."
"Your father should have burned that book."
May you like
He pulled the trigger.
TO BE CONTINUED...
