Chapter 7 - The Trap Closes
Maya stood up slowly from her chair, rounding the corner of her desk until she was standing inches away from Victor Vance.
"I know exactly what I did, Victor," she whispered, her voice laced with venom. "I opened the channel you used to launder six million dollars from the Maritime Union pension fund three years ago. The money you thought was buried inside Arthur Pendelton’s frozen account."
Victor's face turned the color of damp chalk. He reached inside his grey suit jacket, his hand hovering near his armpit. "Who are you working for, Maya?"
"I'm working for the people you stole from," Maya said, her eyes flashing with dangerous triumph. "Arthur Pendelton didn't come to this gym by accident. His doctor didn't send him here to walk on Treadmill 4. We engineered every single second of that scene yesterday."
Victor pulled a small, black semi-automatic pistol from his jacket holster, keeping it pressed low against his hip, hidden beneath the edge of the desk.
"You're very clever, Maya," Victor murmured, his thumb clicking the safety lever down. "But you made one fatal mistake. You think you're dealing with a corporate auditor. I'm the man who made sure Sarah Pendelton's car lost its brakes on Route 9 five years ago."
Maya didn't flinch at the sight of the gun. Instead, a dark, cold smile broke across her lips.
"I know," she said quietly. "That's why I brought him."
Before Victor could react, the door to the manager's office swung open.
Standing in the doorway was Arthur Pendelton.
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He was not wearing his grey tracksuit or his white towel. He was dressed in a tailored charcoal wool suit, holding a silver-plated revolver pointed directly at the center of Victor Vance’s forehead.
"Hello, Victor," Arthur said, his voice steady, iron-hard, and completely free of any age-related tremor. "It's time to talk about my daughter."
