Chapter 4 - THE RED LEDGER
The tension in the penthouse was thick enough to choke on. David stared at Elliot, his mouth opening and closing like a landed fish. No one spoke to the COO of Whitaker Financial like that.
“You’re out of line, Elliot,” David finally managed to sputter. “The board won’t stand for this erratic behavior.”
“The board works for me,” Elliot replied, stepping between David and the girls. “Leave. Now.”
Once David scurried back into the elevator, Elliot took a deep breath to steady his racing heart. He turned back to Maddie, who was watching him with wide, calculating eyes.
“He’s a bad man,” Maddie stated matter-of-factly.
“He’s a greedy man,” Elliot corrected. “There’s a difference, though it’s getting harder to tell.”
Later that afternoon, Marcus arrived. The security chief was a towering wall of muscle in a tailored suit, his face a map of old scars. He took one look at the girls, gave a curt nod, and pulled Elliot into the soundproof study.
“I found her,” Marcus said grimly. “Sarah Carr. Single mother. Worked as a night cleaner at one of the shell company warehouses owned by Victor Silas.”
“Is she alive?” Elliot demanded, his knuckles turning white.
“Yes. But Silas has her locked up at the old steel mill on the river. Turns out, Sarah wasn’t just cleaning. She stumbled onto something. Silas’s physical ledgers. The black books that track every bribe to the judges, every extortion payment, every illegal wire transfer. She stole a flash drive containing the backups, hoping to use it as leverage to buy her way out of a debt her late husband left behind.”
“She tried to blackmail Victor Silas?” Elliot muttered. “That’s suicide.”
“She was desperate,” Marcus said. “Silas is tearing the city apart looking for the drive. He hasn't killed her yet because she hasn't told him where it is. But Elliot... Silas’s men have been asking around the neighborhood about two little girls.”
Elliot’s eyes darted through the glass to Maddie. The little girl was currently sitting on the floor, pulling off her wet, worn-out sneakers.
“Secure the building,” Elliot ordered. “No one comes up here without my explicit authorization. Double the guard on the ground floor.”
Elliot walked out of the study and approached Maddie. She had taken off her left shoe and was prying at the sole with her small fingers.
“Maddie? What are you doing?”
Maddie looked up, her face deadly serious. She finally managed to rip the worn rubber insole out of the sneaker. Underneath, taped to the bottom of the shoe, was a small, silver USB flash drive.
“My mom told me to hide this,” Maddie whispered. “She said if the scary men came, this was the only thing that could save us. But I don’t know how to use it.”
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Elliot knelt down, staring at the small device. It was the key to a criminal empire. A seven-year-old girl had walked into his lobby carrying enough evidence to put the most dangerous man in Pittsburgh away for life.
“You did a very good job, Maddie,” Elliot said softly, taking the drive. “You just saved your mother’s life.”
