Chapter 13 - Into the Lion’s Den
I stood outside the Wells Fargo Center at 4:30 p.m. Rain misted the air, reflecting the neon headlights of Portland traffic.
I wasn't a cop. I didn't have a badge, a gun, or a federal warrant. What I had was a carpenter’s canvas tool bag, a heavy pry bar, Mara’s wedding ring on a chain around my neck, and fifty years of blue-collar grit.
Ethan had given me the layout.
For the past three years, Ethan hadn't just been hiding; he had worked as an independent night contractor for the commercial cleaning company that serviced the Wells Fargo Center. He knew every service elevator, every blind spot in the security cameras, every maintenance override code. He had spent years planning how to recover the proof of his mother’s murder—until Julian spotted him in the lobby two weeks ago and set the hit-and-run in motion.
I slipped around the back of the building into the subterranean loading dock, wearing a high-visibility yellow vest and a blue maintenance cap I’d bought at a hardware store down the street.
A security guard sat behind a glass partition, reading a newspaper.
I pulled the keycard Ethan had kept hidden in his boot—the master maintenance override card. I swiped it against the freight elevator reader.
*Beep. Green light.*
The heavy metal doors slid open. I stepped inside and punched the button for Floor 30.
The elevator climbed smoothly, the hum of the cables vibrating through the soles of my boots. My heart hammered against my ribs. If Julian was up there with his private security, I was walking straight into a slaughterhouse. But if I did nothing, Julian walked free, Ethan remained in danger, and Mara’s murder remained an unsolved footnote in an old police file.
*Ding.*
The doors parted onto the 30th floor: Vance Capital Holdings.
The reception lobby was dark. Sleek marble floors, glass walls overlooking the Portland skyline, modern abstract art on the walls. The office was eerily quiet, except for the distant hum of an industrial paper shredder coming from the executive suite at the end of the hall.
Julian was already destroying the files.
May you like
I gripped the heavy iron pry bar inside my tool bag, stepped out onto the plush carpet, and moved silently toward the light spilling from under the mahogany double doors.
***
