Chapter 22 - BURIED ALIVE
Stone crashed around them.
Daniel grabbed June.
Samuel pulled Elise behind a support column.
Monica disappeared through another passage.
“Move!” Daniel shouted.
The main tunnel collapsed.
Dust swallowed everything.
They ran deeper underground.
Behind them, the evidence chamber vanished beneath tons of stone.
Elise coughed.
“The files!”
Samuel shook his head.
“Forget the files.”
“That was everything!”
“No.”
Daniel looked toward him.
“Jonathan said the ledger wasn’t the evidence.”
Samuel suddenly smiled.
“He finally understood.”
They reached a second chamber.
Elise demanded answers.
Samuel removed an old cassette tape from his coat.
“Your father recorded every meeting.”
Elise stared.
“Michael?”
“The ledger was bait.”
For years, Michael had pretended to maintain a handwritten ledger detailing illegal payments.
But the book contained incomplete information.
The real evidence was audio.
Voices.
Confessions.
Instructions.
Names.
Locations.
Monica had spent nearly two decades searching for paper that barely mattered.
“Where are the recordings?”
Samuel looked at Elise.
“You already have them.”
“I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
He pointed upward.
“Northbridge music archive.”
Elise thought of thousands of donated recordings Jonathan had cataloged before his death.
Classical concerts.
Piano recitals.
Old reel-to-reel tapes.
One collection had come from Michael.
Boxes Elise had never opened.
Daniel smiled grimly.
“Smart.”
Then June said:
“Mom.”
She was looking down another tunnel.
Light.
They climbed a ladder and emerged inside the old chapel behind Northbridge.
Police cars surrounded the grounds.
But Daniel stopped them.
“We don’t know who’s loyal to Monica.”
“Then who do we trust?”
Daniel looked at June.
“People she can’t control.”
Three hours later, Elise entered Northbridge publicly.
Cameras were already outside.
News crews had gathered after reports of explosions.
Elise walked straight toward them.
Monica appeared at the edge of the crowd.
For the first time, she looked nervous.
Elise approached the microphones.
“My name is Elise Marlowe.”
Reporters shouted questions.
She raised one hand.
“Tonight, an attempt was made to destroy evidence connected to decades of financial crimes and multiple deaths.”
Monica pushed through the crowd.
“Elise, don’t.”
Elise looked directly at her.
“My father, Michael Bennett, recorded the people responsible.”
Monica’s face went blank.
“And copies of those recordings have already been distributed.”
It was a bluff.
But Monica didn’t know.
She panicked.
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
Cameras turned toward her.
Elise continued.
“My husband died trying to expose those people.”
Monica grabbed Elise’s arm.
“You stupid girl. Jonathan died because he wouldn’t stop!”
Silence.
Every camera captured it.
Monica realized what she had said.
Too late.
Daniel stepped forward.
“So you admit you ordered the attack?”
Monica looked around.
Then ran.
She reached her vehicle.
But June suddenly shouted:
“She has my bag!”
Monica had taken June’s backpack.
Inside was Jonathan’s seventh letter.
Elise ran after her.
Monica’s SUV tore through the gate.
Daniel jumped into another vehicle.
Elise climbed beside him.
“Where would she go?”
June, in the back seat with Rebecca, answered instantly.
“The airport.”
“No,” Elise said.
“She thinks the seventh letter tells us where the ledger is.”
Rebecca understood.
“She’s going somewhere connected to Michael.”
Elise looked at the old photograph again.
Then she knew.
“The bridge.”
May you like
The place where her father had supposedly died.
The place where the entire lie began.
