Chapter 4 - THE SHADOW MASTER
Richard stood frozen on the wet pavement. Inside his own house?
His mind raced through the names. He had no wife, no children. His inner circle consisted of Marcus, his housekeeper of fifteen years, Mrs. Gable, and his personal lawyer, Arthur Pendelton, who had handled his estate for nearly three decades.
Arthur.
Arthur had been the one who drafted the original partnership agreements for Wilson & Montgomery. He had been the one who "discovered" the financial discrepancies that incriminated Daniel. He had been the one who advised Richard to cut ties with Daniel immediately to save the firm from federal prosecution.
Richard jumped into the driver's seat of his SUV, leaving his driver behind. He slammed his foot on the gas, the tires screaming against the wet asphalt. He had forty-five minutes left on the countdown.
As he drove, he dialed Arthur’s private line. It rang three times before a calm, cultured voice answered.
"Richard. I assume you’ve seen the news about the Parker woman. Tragic. Truly tragic."
"You did it," Richard said, his voice a low, lethal hiss. "You framed Daniel. You stole the twenty million from our startup, and now you’ve kidnapped his widow."
A soft, amused sigh came through the speaker. "Richard, you always were excellent at finance, but terribly naive about human nature. Daniel was weak. He wanted to use our capital to fund community housing and low-interest loans for the poor. He was going to ruin everything we built before we even started. I simply... redirected our trajectory."
"Where is Sarah, Arthur?"
"She’s in a very comfortable, highly mobile environment," Arthur replied smoothly. "And she will remain there until you sign the transfer of ownership documents I’ve sent to your personal email. Once Julian has control of the firm, and I have my offshore shares, Sarah will be delivered to a reputable clinic in Switzerland. If you refuse... well, pneumonia is a highly unpredictable illness. People slip away so easily."
"I will kill you, Arthur," Richard said, his knuckles white on the steering wheel.
"I doubt that," Arthur chuckled. "You’re a man of contracts and boardrooms, Richard. You don't have the stomach for violence. You have thirty-five minutes. The documents require your digital certificate. I suggest you pull over and sign."
The line went dead.
Richard’s phone screen split, showing the live feed of Sarah Parker alongside the digital signing portal. The timer was at 32:14.
He couldn't sign. If he signed, Julian and Arthur would take control of the firm, delete the evidence of their twenty-year-old crimes, and Sarah and Emma would disappear anyway. Men like Arthur didn't leave loose ends. Once they had the shares, Sarah would become a liability.
He needed a miracle. He needed to find that ambulance.
Suddenly, his car’s navigation system glitched. The screen flickered, and a child’s voice came through the bluetooth speakers.
"Mr. Wilson? Can you hear me?"
It was Emma.
"Emma?!" Richard gasped. "How are you talking to me? Where is Marcus?"
"Marcus is driving," Emma said, her voice remarkably calm. "But I have my mom’s tablet. Before they took her, she set up a tracking app on my phone. She said if we ever got separated, I could use her master account to find her. I figured out how to link it to your car’s system. I saw the map on her screen."
Richard looked at his dashboard. A pulsing red dot had appeared on the navigation screen, moving rapidly through the industrial sector of Brooklyn, near the navy yard.
"Emma, you are a genius," Richard breathed, a surge of adrenaline washing over him. "Stay on the line. Marcus, do you hear me?"
"I hear you, boss," Marcus’s voice came through the background. "We’re turning around. We’ll meet you at the navy yard in ten minutes."
"No," Richard said. "Take Emma to the police precinct on 4th Avenue. Keep her safe. This is between me and Arthur."
"But Mr. Wilson!" Emma cried out. "The timer is almost gone! You can't do it alone!"
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"I’m not alone, Emma," Richard said, looking at the faded photo of him and Daniel sitting on his dashboard. "Your dad is with me."
He slammed his foot on the accelerator, steering the massive SUV toward the Brooklyn Bridge. The hunt was on.
