Chapter 10 - The Traitor at the Table
By noon on Monday, the rain was beating heavily against the reinforced glass windows of 26 Federal Plaza.
The courier from the U.S. Marshals had delivered Harrison Sterling’s handwritten confession in a tamper-evident evidence pouch.
Marcus sliced the seal open and spread the photocopied pages across the steel table.
Thomas Vance sat beside me, his hands trembling violently as he recognized the handwriting on the attached financial audits.
"This is our internal ledger," Thomas whispered, pointing at the margin notations.
"These notes were made during private board meetings that only five people attended."
The letter from Harrison Sterling was brief, spiteful, and dripping with venom.
"Dear Special Agent Vance," the note read.
"You think you won by humiliating my family before the world."
"You think your pathetic sister is free."
"Ask your father who drafted the loan agreement that gave me the power to seize his ships."
"Ask him who recommended that he take twenty million dollars from me instead of applying for the federal maritime credit grant."
"You don't need to look at my docks to find the rat."
"He has been eating dinner at your father’s table for twenty-five years."
Thomas pushed back his chair, stumbling backward against the whiteboard.
"No... God, no..."
"Who drafted that agreement, Dad?" I demanded gently, stepping toward him.
Thomas looked up, his eyes filled with profound heartbreak.
"Richard Caldwell."
Richard Caldwell was Thomas’s college roommate, our family attorney, and the godfather who had held Lily at her baptism.
He had sat in the fourth row at the cathedral yesterday, shaking my father’s hand with tears in his eyes.
"Get a warrant for Caldwell's office and residence right now," Marcus ordered the tactical team over his radio.
"Wait," I interjected, holding up a hand.
"Caldwell doesn't know Harrison gave him up yet."
"If we hit his house with sirens, he'll wipe his offshore accounts and hop on a private charter to the Caymans within the hour."
"What do you suggest, Eleanor?" Marcus asked.
"Dad is scheduled to meet Caldwell at two o'clock at the Union League Club to review the receiver's paperwork."
"We let the meeting happen."
"Only this time, Dad won't be carrying a pen."
"He'll be carrying a federal wire."
Lily stepped forward from the doorway, her eyes fierce and resolute.
"I want to go with him," Lily said firmly.
"Lily, it's dangerous," Thomas protested.
"Caldwell smiled at me yesterday while knowing Julian was tearing my flesh to shreds," Lily said, her voice steady as steel.
"I deserve to look into his eyes when he realizes his thirty pieces of silver just bought him a life sentence."
I looked at my younger sister and saw, for the first time, an unbreakable woman standing where a frightened girl had been.
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"Get the audio kit ready," I told Marcus.
"Let's go catch our family's oldest friend."
