Chapter 12 - MARTIN'S LAST GAME
12
The federal warrant was approved before dawn.
Agents searched Martin’s home.
Empty.
His office.
Empty.
His usual private club.
Nothing.
He had disappeared.
Grant Ellis disappeared too.
But Martin made one mistake.
He believed people were possessions.
He believed loyalty could always be purchased.
Eventually, someone decided survival was more valuable than money.
Grant contacted Hector.
He wanted immunity.
At first, I refused to hear it.
Hector reminded me that fathers seeking justice sometimes had to listen to men they wanted imprisoned.
Grant met federal investigators in an underground garage.
He confessed to helping sabotage Elena’s vehicle.
He claimed Martin told him it was meant to cause a minor accident.
A warning.
“I didn’t know she would die.”
No one believed that mattered much.
Grant also admitted feeding Martin information from my security operation.
“Where is Martin?”
Grant hesitated.
“He has a second property.”
“Where?”
“Malibu.”
Hector checked.
No property in Martin’s name.
Grant gave them coordinates.
A house registered through an offshore corporation sat above the Pacific near Point Dume.
Agents prepared.
Then Grant told us why Martin had not fled the country.
“He still wants the evidence.”
“Why?”
“Because he thinks he can survive if he destroys Nathan’s files.”
“That ship sailed.”
Grant shook his head.
“You don’t understand Martin.”
“What don’t I understand?”
“He doesn’t care only about prison.”
“Then what?”
“Reputation.”
Martin had built his identity around being the invisible genius behind Vance Global.
He considered himself responsible for my success.
He believed I had received glory while he did the “real work.”
My father chose me as heir.
Investors celebrated me.
Magazines put my face on covers.
Martin stood beside me and smiled.
Meanwhile, resentment grew.
The theft began not from need, but entitlement.
“He thinks half the company should have been his,” Grant said.
Elena threatened more than his freedom.
She threatened his version of himself.
Chloe listened from another room.
When Grant’s interview ended, she said something unexpected.
“He’ll contact me.”
“Why?”
“Because he always thinks fear wins.”
We waited.
At noon, Chloe’s burner phone rang.
Martin.
She answered on speaker while investigators traced the call.
“Claire.”
“Martin.”
“You finally chose Alexander.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“I chose the girls.”
Martin laughed.
“How noble.”
“What do you want?”
“You know what.”
“The evidence isn’t with me.”
“Alexander has access.”
“I’m not asking him.”
“Yes, you are.”
Martin paused.
Then:
“Put him on.”
I took the phone.
“I’m here.”
“Alexander, old friend.”
“We were never friends.”
“That hurts.”
“What do you want?”
“All copies of Elena’s bank files and Nathan’s recordings.”
“In exchange for?”
“The red drive.”
“We already have enough to bury you.”
“Perhaps.”
He sounded relaxed.
“But there’s something on the red drive you don’t have.”
“What?”
“Elena’s video.”
My heart stopped.
“What video?”
“She recorded a message the week before she died.”
I looked at Chloe.
She shook her head.
She had never seen it.
Martin continued.
“I’ve watched it many times.”
Rage surged through me.
“You kept my wife’s final message for three years?”
“I keep insurance.”
“What does she say?”
“Come find out.”
The trace completed.
Malibu.
Exactly where Grant said.
Agents moved.
But Martin anticipated the trace.
By the time law enforcement reached the property, the house was empty.
One television remained on.
A video played automatically.
Martin appeared on screen.
“Alexander, if you’re seeing this, you continue to confuse money with intelligence.”
Then he smiled.
“I’m going somewhere you should have visited more often.”
The screen went black.
I immediately knew.
Elena’s grave.
Police raced to the cemetery.
Nothing.
Then Valeria called me.
“Daddy?”
Her voice was frightened.
“What happened?”
“There’s a man outside school.”
My blood froze.
The girls were not physically attending school.
We had moved them to a secure private residence.
“What school?”
Valeria corrected herself.
“Sorry. The tutor house.”
The safe property.
Only a handful of people knew the location.
“Where is Marisol?”
“Downstairs.”
“Hector!”
He was already moving.
Valeria whispered:
“The man looks like Uncle Martin.”
I nearly dropped the phone.
“Lock the room.”
“We did.”
“Do not open it for anyone except Hector.”
“Okay.”
Martin had not gone to the cemetery.
He had gone after my daughters.
Again.
But this time he walked into a house protected by six armed federal agents.
We expected a desperate criminal.
Instead, cameras showed Martin approaching the front entrance alone.
Hands visible.
No weapon.
He rang the bell.
An agent ordered him to kneel.
Martin complied.
He surrendered.
Too easily.
Hector’s voice changed.
“This is wrong.”
I agreed.
Martin smiled while agents handcuffed him.
Then my phone rang from an unknown number.
I answered.
Grant Ellis.
His voice was frantic.
“Mr. Vance, don’t trust what you’re seeing.”
“What?”
“Martin didn’t go there to take the girls.”
“Then why?”
“To make everyone leave your house.”
My estate.
I looked at Hector.
“Why would he care about my house?”
Grant answered.
“Because Elena hid something there.”
My pulse hammered.
“What?”
“The original company ledger.”
Everyone believed the digital files were Martin’s greatest threat.
But Elena had apparently printed an authenticated internal ledger showing the fraud before records were altered.
If Martin destroyed it, he could challenge some evidence as fabricated or incomplete.
“Where did she hide it?”
Grant said:
“Behind the wall of Sofia’s nursery.”
The nursery had been converted years ago.
It was now Chloe’s dressing room.
And the only person currently inside my estate was Marisol’s sister, who had arrived to collect personal belongings.
Or that was what security believed.
Hector pulled up the live feed.
A woman crossed the upstairs hallway.
Not Marisol’s sister.
Wig.
Glasses.
Different posture.
Chloe stared at the monitor.
Then whispered:
“Mom.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
The woman removed her wig inside the dressing room.
Gray-blonde hair fell around her shoulders.
I recognized her from Elena’s files.
Margaret Bennett.
Chloe and Nathan’s mother.
May you like
The woman whose hatred had begun this entire chain decades earlier.
She had entered my home to finish it.
