Chapter 26 - THE DOUBLE AGENT
The school hallway seemed to tilt beneath my feet. The red emergency strobe lights cut through the gloom in rhythmic, bleeding pulses.
"Step away from him, Sarah," Hayes barked, his service pistol clearing leather in a split second, pointing dead at Daniel’s chest. "Daniel, put your hands on top of your head! Slowly!"
Daniel didn't raise his hands. He didn't flinch at the sight of the gun barrel inches from his heart. He just looked at me, his deep gray eyes filled with an unbearable, suffocating sorrow.
"Sarah," Daniel whispered, his voice steady despite the chaos. "Listen to me. Don't look at the paper. Look at me."
"Is it true?" I screamed, tears blinding my vision as I backed away until my spine slammed into the row of cold lockers. "Are you working for them? Have you been reporting to the Sinclairs this whole time?!"
The PA system crackled again, Vanessa’s mocking laughter echoing through the empty building. *"Oh, it's so much sweeter than that, Sarah! Show her the contract, Daniel! Tell her how much my grandfather paid you to watch over Leo’s little bastard until the trust unlocked on her sixteenth birthday!"*
The words tore through me like jagged shrapnel.
Mia’s sixteenth birthday. The trust.
Leo had set up a trust fund before his death, one that could only be accessed when his legal heir turned sixteen. Everyone thought the trust was bankrupt—emptied out by the lawsuits. But the Sinclairs didn't think so. They believed Leo had hidden the stolen municipal millions inside that encrypted account.
"Daniel, talk to me!" I sobbed, clutching my head. "Tell me she’s lying!"
"She's telling half the truth," Daniel said, never taking his eyes off mine. He slowly reached toward his inner coat pocket.
"Don't move, Daniel!" Hayes warned, cocking the hammer of his Glock. "Hands where I can see them!"
"Shoot me if you have to, Marcus," Daniel replied calmly. "But let her see the document first."
Daniel slowly drew a folded, weathered sheet of paper from his leather jacket and dropped it on the floor. It fluttered down, landing in the pool of red emergency light between us.
I fell to my knees, snatching it up.
It wasn't a contract with the Sinclairs. It was an affidavit signed by Leo Miller, dated three days before his supposed suicide.
*“I, Leo Miller, hereby appoint Daniel Vance as the sole protective trustee of Mia Miller’s estate. Daniel is authorized to accept payment, infiltrate, and maintain deep-cover surveillance within the Sinclair Corporation under the guise of an asset recovery agent. Any funds accepted from Victoria or Evelyn Sinclair are to be logged and returned to the Oakridge Municipal Fund upon the execution of this protocol.”*
At the bottom of the page, beneath Leo’s signature, was a secondary signature.
*Daniel Vance. Former Special Agent, Department of the Treasury.*
"Treasury?" Hayes lowered his weapon an inch, his brow furrowing in disbelief. "You were federal?"
"I was running the financial crimes division that investigated the Sinclairs twelve years ago," Daniel said, turning his gaze toward the ceiling speaker where Vanessa was broadcasting. "Leo didn't steal that money, Marcus. Julian Sinclair did. But Julian lost it in bad offshore bets, and when Evelyn Sinclair realized the family was going to prison, she poisoned Julian and blamed Leo. Leo knew they were coming for him next. He came to me."
My chest heaved as the truth washed over me. "You... you weren't sent by them to spy on us?"
"I took their money so they would think I was their man on the inside," Daniel said, stepping toward me and dropping to his knees so we were eye to eye. "They paid me two million dollars over eight years to locate Leo’s hidden drive. I used their money to buy our house. I used their money to put a perimeter fence around your daughter. I used their money to keep you alive, Sarah."
"Then why the attack this morning?!" I cried. "Why the kerosene?!"
"Because three days ago, Evelyn Sinclair died in a hospital in Geneva," Daniel revealed, his voice darkening. "She was the only one who maintained order in that family. With her dead, Vanessa inherited the entire estate—and Vanessa is completely unhinged. She fired the family lawyers. She hired private mercenaries. And she found out that I turned the evidence over to the federal grand jury yesterday morning."
A chilling realization struck Hayes. He reached for his radio on his shoulder. "The safe house. Where did you send Mia?!"
Daniel’s blood drained from his face.
The intercom hissed. Vanessa’s voice returned, this time devoid of laughter, replaced by cold, venomous triumph:
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*"Did you really think your brother’s farm in Chatham was off the grid, Daniel? My men were waiting in the barn before your truck even turned down the driveway."*
***
