Chapter 4 - Blake's Secret
I found Blake before he could leave the city.
He was inside a private members' club three blocks from K Street, sitting at a corner table with a whiskey he wasn't drinking.
He saw me walk in.
His expression went from surprise to irritation.
"You followed me?"
"No."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I don't care what you believe."
He stood.
"Maya, this isn't your problem."
I laughed.
"It's become my problem."
He looked around.
"Keep your voice down."
"Why?"
"Because people are listening."
"Good."
He grabbed my wrist.
I pulled away.
"Don't touch me."
His face changed.
For the first time, I saw fear.
Not anger.
Fear.
"You don't know what you're dealing with."
"Then tell me."
"I can't."
"You forged records."
"No."
"Your badge was connected to the testing system."
"That wasn't me."
"Then who?"
Blake looked down.
"Do you remember Daniel Voss?"
I went still.
"Yes."
"You shouldn't."
"Why?"
"Because he was supposed to be dead."
My heartbeat quickened.
"What does that mean?"
Blake glanced toward the bar.
"Come with me."
We went into a private room.
He locked the door.
"Voss had a son."
"The boy in the picture."
Blake nodded.
"That boy was me."
I stared at him.
"You're saying you were raised by Daniel Voss?"
"No."
"Then why are you in his family photograph?"
"My mother was his sister."
I frowned.
"Lorraine?"
Blake nodded.
"She married Victor after Voss died."
The pieces shifted.
My father hadn't simply married a woman with a son.
He had married into the family of the man at the center of the old investigation.
"And you knew?"
"I knew who Voss was."
"Did you know about the fraud?"
"Some of it."
"How much?"
"Enough to know that people were willing to kill over it."
My voice dropped.
"Did you alter the testing reports?"
Blake looked at me.
"No."
"Did you access the system?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because someone was using my credentials."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
He gave a bitter smile.
"You sound like him."
"Who?"
"Your mother."
My anger faltered.
Blake leaned against the table.
"She asked questions nobody else wanted answered."
"Did she know about Voss?"
"Yes."
"Did she know you?"
"No."
"Then why were you in the photograph?"
"Because my mother took me to a company reception."
He pulled out his phone.
"There is something you need to see."
He opened an encrypted file.
Video.
A surveillance recording.
The timestamp was from three weeks earlier.
Inside Caldwell Defense Systems, a man entered the quality-control archive.
His face wasn't visible.
But his badge was.
I recognized the identifier.
It belonged to a senior government contracting officer.
"Who is that?"
Blake whispered the name.
"Thomas Redd."
I knew him.
He had signed off on the $680 million extension.
"Why would he manipulate your records?"
Blake shook his head.
"Maybe he didn't."
"Then why show me this?"
"Because the person following him did something strange."
The video continued.
Redd entered the archive.
Five minutes later, another figure arrived.
The person stopped beneath a camera.
For one frame, his face became visible.
I froze.
Victor Caldwell.
My father.
I rewound.
Again.
Victor entered the archive.
The timestamp was two weeks before the White House event.
My father had lied.
He had told me he didn't know what was happening inside the company.
"What was he doing there?" I whispered.
Blake took the phone back.
"I don't know."
I stood.
"I'm going to ask him."
"Don't."
"Why?"
"Because he knows you're investigating."
"So?"
"He has something he hasn't shown you."
"What?"
Blake hesitated.
"My grandmother's journal."
I stared at him.
"Your grandmother?"
"My mother's mother."
"What is in it?"
"I don't know."
"Then why are you afraid?"
"Because my mother burned the first half."
I looked at him.
"How do you know?"
"Because I found the ashes."
The door rattled.
Someone knocked.
Blake went silent.
A man's voice came through.
"Blake?"
He looked at me.
"That's Redd."
The handle moved.
Blake grabbed my arm.
"We have to go."
We slipped through a service corridor.
At the end was another door.
Blake opened it.
A security camera above us moved.
Then stopped.
Someone was watching.
My phone vibrated.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
YOU FOUND BLAKE.
GOOD.
NOW FIND THE LEDGER.
The message disappeared.
May you like
Then another arrived.
AND ASK YOUR FATHER WHY HE HID IT IN HIS HOME.
