Chapter 12 - Cornered Animal
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Two days before Declan’s formal bail hearing, a strange package arrived at my corporate office.
Inside was an unencrypted flash drive wrapped in a note written in jagged, frantic handwriting:
“I have the original acquisition deeds from ten years ago, Maya. If you don’t drop the federal charges and restore my liquid accounts, I will leak these documents to the press. It proves your mother’s trust used offshore accounts to dodge municipal taxes. We both go down.”
I plugged the flash drive into my secure terminal. A series of old financial contracts popped up, stamped with my mother’s maiden signature from fifteen years ago.
"Is this real?" I asked Natalie Brooks, who was standing beside my chair.
Natalie scanned the documents, her sharp eyes narrowing. "It’s a partial forgery mixed with real historical filings. Declan must have kept a secret backup drive in a safety deposit box before he was arrested."
"He thinks he can blackmail me from a remand cell?" I asked, incredulous.
"He’s a cornered animal, Miss Maya," Natalie warned. "He knows that if he goes to trial under the RICO statute, he will face thirty years in maximum security. He’s throwing his last spear."
I leaned back in my leather chair, tapping my fingernails against the armrest.
"Where is his attorney holding these documents?" I asked.
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"His defense attorney is Arthur Sterling—no relation to your mother's alias—a corrupt fixer based out of South Boston," Natalie replied. "He’s scheduled to meet the press tomorrow morning at ten."
"Call my brother Ben," I ordered calmly. "And get Master Inspector Miller on the line. Declan wants to play dirty? Let's show him how deep the mud really goes."
