The Boardroom Trap
Chapter 09 - The Boardroom Trap
Whitmore Manufacturing’s boardroom occupied the top floor of a glass tower overlooking the city.
Charles Baines sat at the head of the table beneath a portrait of Thomas Whitmore. He wore a navy suit, a silver tie, and the patient expression of a man who believed everyone else had arrived late to his plan.
Daniel entered carrying a leather case.
Baines stood and embraced him. “You look terrible.”
“I feel worse.”
“That will pass when this is over.”
The directors avoided Daniel’s eyes. Most had heard rumors about Eleanor’s condition. None knew police were listening through a transmitter sewn into Daniel’s jacket.
Baines asked for the blue ledger.
Daniel placed the case on the table but kept one hand on it. “First tell me what happens to my mother.”
“She receives care.”
“And Rebecca?”
“She returns to the Army.”
“And Vanessa?”
Baines smiled. “Marriage is complicated.”
Daniel realized the man had never intended to protect Vanessa. Everyone in the scheme was disposable.
Baines slid the sale agreement across the table. The buyer was an investment consortium registered abroad. Hidden in the ownership pages was Red Cedar Consulting.
Daniel pretended to read, then asked the question officers needed.
“Did my father know about the sale?”
“Thomas was sentimental. Sentiment is expensive.”
“Is that why Mercer drugged him?”
The room froze.
Baines’s eyes moved to Daniel’s lapel.
He understood.
Instead of answering, he reached for the leather case and pulled it toward him. The locks opened easily.
Inside was not the ledger.
It was Eleanor’s old sewing notebook.
On the first page she had written: CHARLES, YOU ALWAYS MISTOOK KINDNESS FOR WEAKNESS.
The boardroom doors opened.
Eleanor entered between Rebecca and Officer Ortega.
Baines stared at her as though the dead had returned twice in one week.
“You should be in a hospital,” he said.
“So should Thomas,” Eleanor replied. “But you made sure he never left one.”
Police officers moved toward Baines. He stepped back and pressed a hidden alarm beneath the table.
The lights went out.
In the darkness, glass shattered and someone screamed.
When emergency lighting flickered on, Baines was gone.
The window beside the service corridor stood open, but no body lay on the street below.
May you like
He had not jumped.
He had escaped through a maintenance platform planned long before the meeting.
